Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Boston Energy Partner James Messenger will be a featured speaker in a roundtable panel discussion titled "Clean Water Act Section 401 - Guardian of Water Quality or Political Hammer?" at the DC Energy Bar Association's Annual Meeting & Conference, May 7-8, in Washington D.C.
Joining Messenger on the panel is Milton Boyd, Assistant Chief Counsel for Litigation and Administrative Disputes, Headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and John Katz, Deputy Associate General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Monique Watson, Of Counsel, Steptoe & Johnson will moderate the panel discussion.
The session will focus on the legal controversy surrounding pipelines. Today’s pipeline projects face opposition from an active and multiplying number of stakeholders, including environmental groups, landowners, and state governments. That opposition has made the environmental permitting process more complex, contentious, and influential than ever, with effects spilling over onto other large infrastructure projects.
The panelists will examine the environmental permitting challenges facing pipeline developments. They will analyze the challenges posed by section 401 of the Clean Water Act, a still-evolving—and vigorously contested—provision that makes federal approvals dependent on the granting of state water certifications or waivers. They will also discuss best practices for navigating the regulatory process through the lens of recent case studies, including several major projects that have faced section 401 certification challenges.
The DC Energy Bar Association's 2018 Annual Meeting & Conference will provide two full days of discussions on the legal issues related to all aspects of energy law. Attendees will include attorneys, non-attorney professionals, and students active in all areas of energy law, including antitrust, international energy transactions, legislation and regulatory reform, electric utility regulation, alternative dispute resolution, finance and transactions, and environment and public lands at federal, state, and international levels. Each year, the EBA Annual Meeting welcomes 600 attendees.
For more information or to register for this event, please click here.