Law, Policy & Markets Milbank

The United States  Federal Energy  Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulates US  energy markets. FERC’s latest annual report on key market trends noted falling average prices for natural gas and electricity despite increased demand for both. New renewable energy and storage facilities are coming online at a brisk pace, making the grid cleaner and more efficient. FERC is about to get three new commissioners, who will face challenges of interregional transmission constraints and grid-integration of emerging technologies.
In this new episode, “FERC-alicious: US Energy Market Trends & Regulatory Update,” host Allan Marks speaks with Milbank partner Jenna McGrath. They examine how recent FERC actions are impacting markets. They discuss trends in state and federal energy regulation, the expansion of energy storage to bolster grid stability and reliability, and strategies for alleviating transmission and interconnection bottlenecks for new renewable energy projects. They also assess the three new nominees for FERC Commissioner – Judy W. Chang, David Rosner and Lindsay See – and upcoming FERC actions and rulemaking.

About the Speakers


Jenna McGrath is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Milbank and a member of the firm’s Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance Group. She advises developers, lenders, private equity, utilities and large industrial electricity customers (e.g., data centers and mining operations) on laws and regulations governing development of electric generation and transmission projects, and revenues for wholesale and retail electricity and transmission services.


Podcast host Allan Marks is one of the world's leading project finance lawyers. He advises developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters around the world in the development and financing of complex energy and infrastructure projects, as well as related acquisitions, restructurings and capital markets transactions. Many of his transactions relate to ESG and sustainability, innovative clean technologies, and sophisticated contractual risk allocation. Allan serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley at the Law School and previously at the Haas School of Business.


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Originally broadcast: Tuesday, December 14, 2021.
 
 A charity encounters surprising roadblocks to building a new cemetery for low-cost Muslim burials in Stafford County, Virginia. In this episode, host Allan Marks follows the cemetery’s path to justice with the lawyers who handled the civil rights case, Tawfiq Rangwala and Melanie Westover Yanez, and their pro bono client, the All Muslim Association of America, at the intersection of religious freedom, land use, and local politics in America today. For additional information, click here.

About the Speakers
Tawfiq Rangwala is a partner in Milbank’s New York office and a member of the firm’s Litigation & Arbitration Group. His practice focuses on the defense of US and international regulatory and criminal enforcement matters, as well as internal investigations across multiple jurisdictions and industries. He also has extensive experience handling federal and state court litigation of complex commercial cases involving securities and corporate law, contract disputes and financial restructuring.
Melanie Westover Yanez is special counsel in the Washington, DC office and a member of the firm’s Litigation & Arbitration Group. She represents clients in federal and state courts in complex commercial litigation and financial restructuring litigation and has experience defending clients in individual and class action cases involving antitrust, securities, and commodities issues.

Podcast host Allan Marks is one of the world's leading project finance lawyers. He advises developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters around the world in the development and financing of complex infrastructure projects, as well as related acquisitions, restructurings and capital markets transactions. Mr. Marks also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley at both the Law School and the Haas School of Business.
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What impact will the 2024 presidential election have on antitrust policy, federal merger approvals, and foreign investment in the United States? Uncertainty about future federal policy makes investment decisions this year especially challenging. 
In this episode, host Allan Marks speaks with Milbank partners  Adam Di Vincenzo  and  John Beahn  about antitrust and CFIUS policy under the administrations of President Biden and former President Trump, discovering both sharp differences and some surprising similarities. They discuss how to anticipate regulators’ concerns and federal enforcement patterns in merger approvals amid political uncertainty in an election year. They analyze divergent trends in antitrust enforcement, highlighting tensions between economic goals that keep domestic markets competitive and national security goals that favor globally dominant US corporations with wide moats. And they explore how CFIUS, the FTC and DOJ are focusing on supply chains, domestic manufacturing, next-generation technology and AI, and the broader question of what it means to be competitive. 
About the Speakers
John Beahn is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Milbank LLP with a particular focus on matters related to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) and foreign direct investment (“FDI”). He has extensive experience representing clients in national security reviews before CFIUS, the “Team Telecom” executive branch agencies and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. 
Adam Di Vincenzo is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Milbank and a member of the Litigation & Arbitration Group. He has served as lead antitrust counsel for Fortune 500 public companies, and private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, in dozens of antitrust matters before enforcement authorities in the United States (including the DOJ and FTC) and internationally.
Podcast host Allan Marks is one of the world's leading project finance lawyers. He advises developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters around the world in the development and financing of complex energy and infrastructure projects, as well as related acquisitions, restructurings and capital markets transactions. Many of his transactions relate to ESG and sustainability, innovative clean technologies, and sophisticated contractual risk allocation. Allan serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley at the Law School and previously at the Haas School of Business.
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The push for cleaner energy has led to greater reliance on intermittent renewable energy resources, particularly solar and wind energy. To integrate these resources into a more efficient and reliable “smart grid” requires new investment in energy storage.  What are the best ways to provide resource adequacy and to bridge the gaps between when (and where) power is generated and when (and where) it is needed?  California is leading the way with massive new investments in innovative energy storage projects.  Developers and utilities are experimenting to optimize battery locations, improve project economics, reduce transmission constraints, and meet variable load requirements.  Regulators in California, Texas and elsewhere are taking divergent market design paths with an eye on reliability, efficiency, and affordability, especially as demand patterns and storage technologies evolve.

In this episode, "Energy Storage at Utility Scale: California Goes All-in," host Allan Marks and four leading energy executives discuss the trajectory of California’s energy storage market.  The discussion includes Emad Alaydi (a professional engineer and Senior Director at Calpine), Karin Burns (Chief Executive Officer of San Diego Community Power), Howard Chang (President and Chief Operating Officer of Ava Community Energy), and Cathleen Colbert (Senior Director, Western Markets Policy Regulatory Affairs for Vistra Corp.) and was recorded before a live audience in Los Angeles at Voltility’s US Energy Storage Market Outlook 2024, hosted by Milbank LLP.

Emad Alaydi is a Senior Director at Calpine Corp, America’s largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources.

Karin Burns is Chief Executive Officer at San Diego Community Power, the second largest Community Choice Aggregate (CCA) program in the state of California.

Howard Chang is Chief Operating Officer of Ava Community Energy, a not-for-profit public agency serves the cities of Albany, Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Oakland, Piedmont, Pleasanton, San Leandro, Tracy, and Union City.

Cathleen Colbert is a Director at Vistra Corp., a Fortune 500 competitive retail electricity provider serving nearly five million customers.
Podcast host Allan Marks is one of the world's leading project finance lawyers. He advises developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters around the world in the development and financing of complex energy and infrastructure projects, as well as related acquisitions, restructurings and capital markets transactions. Many of his transactions relate to ESG and sustainability, innovative clean technologies, and sophisticated contractual risk allocation. Allan serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley at the Law School and previously at the Haas School of Business.
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What blind spots are we missing in the global conversation about energy and geopolitics?  In this episode, The Geopolitics of Energy: “Shifting Sands,” Allan Marks hosts a fireside chat with Dr. Carolyn Kissane, a professor at NYU’s SPS Center for Global Affairs. 

Public policies in Europe, the US and China are stimulating massive capital investment in renewable energy, EVs, batteries and the energy transition, and India is a rapidly rising economy. Mr. Marks and Dr. Kissane look at these interrelated issues and the outsized effects of wars and climate change on global resource security, energy use, water supplies and demographics. They also assess the challenges of climate risks, increased electricity demand, uneven economic growth, national security risks, and the controversial roles of natural gas and hydrogen in decarbonization. The dynamics of the world’s manufacturing powers are shifting. 
 
About the Speakers
Dr. Carolyn Kissane is Associate Dean of the graduate programs in Global Affairs and Global Security, Conflict and Cybercrime at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and is a Clinical Professor where she teaches graduate-level courses examining the geopolitics of energy, comparative energy politics, energy, environment and resource security, and climate change and security. She is the Founding Director of the SPS Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab, Coordinator of the Energy and Environment concentration at the Center, and a faculty adviser to the Energy Policy International Club. She serves on the boards of the New York Energy Forum, New York Energy Week, and the Clean Start Advisory Board.

Podcast host Allan Marks is one of the world's leading project finance lawyers. He advises developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters around the world in the development and financing of complex energy and infrastructure projects, as well as related acquisitions, restructurings and capital markets transactions. Many of his transactions relate to ESG and sustainability, innovative clean technologies, and sophisticated contractual risk allocation. Allan serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley at the Law School and previously at the Haas School of Business.


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How is espionage evolving between China, Russia and the United States?  What should a board director ask corporate management about AI, state-sponsored cyberattacks, and political risk in making strategic decisions?  Host Allan Marks sits down with former FBI Special Agent Holden Triplett for a candid, wide-ranging and practical conversation about how companies and policymakers can better manage national security risks in a world of shifting geopolitics and disruptive technologies. While at the FBI, Holden was posted to Moscow and Beijing and acted as the Director for Counterintelligence at the National Security Council.  From boardroom to intelligence briefing, his experience makes for a lively and insightful discussion.  
About the Speakers

Holden Triplett is a founder of Trenchcoat Advisors, a firm that helps businesses protect themselves from nation-state threats. From 2017 to 2018, Holden was the Director for Counterintelligence at the National Security Council. He led the FBI office in Beijing from 2014 to 2017 and was deputy head of the FBI office in Moscow from 2012 to 2014. Holden was also the FBI Faculty Chair at the National Intelligence University, where he taught courses in Counterintelligence, National Security Law, and Intelligence, and Chinese Intelligence and Information Warfare. He is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Podcast host Allan Marks is one of the world's leading project finance lawyers. He advises developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters around the world in the development and financing of complex energy and infrastructure projects, as well as related acquisitions, restructurings and capital markets transactions. Many of his transactions relate to ESG and sustainability, innovative clean technologies, and sophisticated contractual risk allocation. Allan serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley at the Law School and previously at the Haas School of Business.


For more information and insights, follow us on social media and podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart, Google and Audible.

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