Stephen J. Humes concentrates his practice in environmental,
energy, public utility and infrastructure law. He advises clients on energy
regulatory, renewable energy project development, and environmental issues,
including those associated with power plant, solar photovoltaics, cogeneration,
liquefied natural gas and pipeline facilities, telecommunications towers and
other utility facility siting matters. His energy-related environmental
experience includes advising on climate change issues. He also assists clients
with state and federal environmental compliance and enforcement proceedings and
counsels clients on energy and environmental issues in corporate M&A
transactions, including acquisitions and divestitures of power plants.
Mr. Humes has more than nineteen years of experience on environmental
matters, including transactional due diligence and contractual matters,
environmental compliance, enforcement, and advising public companies on
environmental disclosure obligations. His environmental experience includes
representing clients before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and various
state environmental regulatory authorities in the Northeast, including the CT
Department of Environmental Protection and NY State Department of Environmental
Conservation.
Mr. Humes's energy, utility and telecommunications experience includes
transactional matters and administrative agency representations of various
regulated companies and other stakeholders in regulatory proceedings before the
Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control, Connecticut Siting Council,
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, New York State Public Service Commission,
ISO New England, New England Power Pool and Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. He has also advised competitive energy companies throughout the New
England and the Mid-Atlantic regions. His energy clients have included electric
and natural gas utilities and their non-utility affiliates, LNG storage
operators, competitive natural gas marketers and electric suppliers, exempt
wholesale generators, cogeneration facility owners, wireless telecommunications
carriers, cable television franchisees, a private water utility, cell tower
developers and infrastructure manufacturers. He regularly advises property owner
and developer clients on alternative energy facility development, regulatory
approvals, interconnection and other siting issues, including solar, wind, bio
fuels, biomass and cogeneration, frequently negotiating power purchase
agreements and other financing and transactional documents in support of
renewable energy project finance and development.
His representative experience illustrates the sophistication of legal matters
handled effectively for clients:
- provided regulatory support for a 32 MW solar photovoltaic project, the
largest solar project of its kind in the Northeast
- representing project developer of multistate solar PV projects, including
negotiating PPAs, EPCs, easements and supply chain agreements
- chief regulatory counsel for electric utility rate cases for the owners of
three power plants before the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority
(formerly the DPUC)
- negotiated power purchase agreement and related documents for the
development of the largest hospital-based solar installation in New Jersey
- advised private equity-backed venture on solar regulatory strategies in New
Jersey and other Northeast states in support of new business launch and
conducted power purchase agreement negotiations for solar project developments
undertaken upon launch
- advise clients regionally on identifying and qualifying for federal, state
and local funds and incentives to support the development of renewable energy,
energy efficiency and distributed generation facilities
- counsel utility client in New Jersey on large scale solar project financing
and development strategies
- advised bio fuel ventures on project finance and development strategy and
plant siting
- counsel commercial real estate clients on negotiating agreements for solar
and other renewable energy facilities and transactions involving renewable
energy certificates
- represent merchant generation client in competitive RFP procurement process
conducted by the Connecticut DPUC, contract negotiations, community and
stakeholder outreach, and Connecticut Siting Council process in support of a new
130 MW peaking generation facility under development in Connecticut
- assisted owner of private water utility, sewage treatment plant and golf
course development concerning SPDES permit enforcement and corporate
transactions in New York’s Hudson River Valley
- in energy litigation, resolved successfully through mediation a dispute
between a large group of institutional natural gas customers and a competitive
energy supplier in New Jersey
- in Clean Air Act environmental enforcement proceedings, successfully
represented respondents before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in New
England and Mid-Atlantic regions in response to allegations relating to motor
vehicle idling and hazardous air pollutants
- represented major wireless telecommunications carriers in cell tower
development proceedings before Connecticut Siting Council and in litigation,
including arguing the first state supreme court case to be heard nationwide on a
key issue (See Zhang v. Omnipoint, 272 Conn. 627 (2005) – whether
historic electric utility easements permit wireless antenna installations) and
successfully litigated other important wireless facility siting issues (See
Corcoran v. Connecticut Siting Council, 284 Conn. 455 (2007))
- responded to several major oil spills in the New York and Boston areas
involving barge incidents on behalf of responsible parties and their insurers,
in environmental cases governed by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, Clean Water
Act, Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws
- assisted international energy company in identifying federal, state and
local permitting issues and requirements in connection with major projects to
develop marine LNG terminal facilities
- advised international investors in power plant facilities in multiple
transactions on due diligence in support of power plant acquisitions or
divestitures
- counseled property owners and energy facility operators on transactional and
compliance issues pursuant to the Connecticut Transfer Act and New Jersey
Industrial Site Recovery Act
Mr. Humes was appointed in 2009 by then Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell as the
only privately practicing attorney to serve on the Connecticut Electric Vehicles
Infrastructure Council, which produced a final report in September, 2010 that
made many regulatory and public policy recommendations to encourage the
deployment of next generation plug-in hybrid vehicles in the state.
He is a frequent speaker on climate change, renewable energy, distributed
generation and clean energy project development and finance issues and
contributes actively to the production of cutting-edge continuing legal
education programs presented nationally by the American Bar Association and by
other energy and business organizations throughout the New York metropolitan
area.