Amy L. Edwards is a partner in Holland & Knight's Public Policy & Regulation Group, where she serves as co-chair for the firm's national Environment Team, as well as its Military Installation Redevelopment Team. Ms. Edwards has been practicing environmental and energy law for more than 25 years. She routinely counsels developers, lenders and corporations about effective strategies for structuring real estate and corporate transactions to minimize environmental and financial risk. Ms. Edwards represents local governments, developers, and financial institutions on base closure and privatization of military housing issues. She also represents companies in litigation and enforcement proceedings. Ms. Edwards was an observer/advisor to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws while it developed a model Uniform Environmental Covenants Act.
Ms. Edwards has represented real estate developers, corporations and financial institutions on environmental issues associated with real estate, including environmental site assessments, environmental insurance, energy benchmarking, carbon offsets, guaranteed fixed price remediation options, environmental indemnification agreements, cleanup requirements (including the use of engineering and institutional controls), renewable energy power purchase agreements (PPAs), vapor intrusion and cost recovery issues. She has provided extensive risk management advice on protective risk-based cleanups at brownfields sites being reused for commercial or residential purposes. Typical engagements have included the following:
- advising the developer of a seven (7) acre brownfields site in Washington, D.C., on all environmental issues (state regulatory cleanup approvals; environmental insurance policies; indemnification agreements; lender concerns) in order to transform this contaminated site into a 1.6 million, square foot mixed-use development incorporating green building principles
- developing an institutional controls strategy for a former synthetic rubber manufacturing site in southern California where the land is now owned by multiple property owners
- negotiating a first of its kind Environmental Services Cooperative Agreement (ESCA) between the Department of Defense and a private party to clean up unexpected PCB contamination on a historic site undergoing redevelopment
- negotiating a power purchase agreement (PPA) in connection with the installation of a 60 kW rooftop solar facility and the sale of "white tags" from a combined heat and power (CHP) facility on behalf of a college in New England
- advising numerous clients on the potential siting of renewable energy projects on brownfields and mine scarred lands in connection with EPA's RePowering America initiative
- negotiating remediation strategies on behalf of property owners and tenants for the cleanup of contamination from dry cleaners, including addressing vapor intrusion concerns
- advising local governments and private developers on early transfer and/or land use restriction issues at several former BRAC sites, including McClellan Air Force Base (AFB), David Taylor Research Center and Norton AFB
Ms. Edwards was the lead counsel for a real estate developer in litigation against the Department of the Army concerning damages resulting from burial of chemical and high explosive munitions on privately-owned land in Washington, D.C., which resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement in favor of her client. She has participated on numerous Steering Committees for various Superfund sites; conducted negotiations over the appropriate cleanup of a former chromium manufacturing facility in Baltimore under the RCRA Corrective Action program; represented property owners in enforcement actions involving asbestos, underground storage tanks, PCBs and lead-based paint in residential and commercial real estate; and served as special environmental counsel to a trade association.
Ms. Edwards is a frequent author and lecturer on brownfields, sustainability and related environmental topics.