For more than 30 years, members of our Environment and Energy Practice have played central roles in shaping U.S. environmental and energy policy, starting with careers in Congress and the executive branch and continuing this process through their work with Baker Donelson's Public Policy Group.
We advise clients and represent the interests of companies and organizations on environmental issues concerning resource management, pollution, climate change, endangered species, water quality and quantity and agriculture. We also represent clients on energy issues related to nuclear, fossil and renewable energy programs, power transmission, energy conservation and energy efficiency. We have particular experience in issues relating to nuclear non-proliferation and waste. We count among our clients major corporations and leading conservation organizations.
Our practice is composed of lawyers and policy advisors, and members of our practice have worked as senior corporate executives and government policymakers. We understand the needs of the business community, and we understand how to make sure that those needs are heard and understood on Capitol Hill. We are bipartisan in our approach, working on both sides of the aisle to craft viable solutions, while never compromising our clients' best interests.
Our team includes: John C. Tuck, who served as under secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for energy, science and the environment; Keith Kennedy, who served as majority staff director of the Senate Committee on Appropriations; JC Sandberg, who joined Baker Donelson after serving for six years as counsel to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works; and senior public policy advisor Scott Campbell, an internationally recognized energy policy consultant and counter-terrorism advisor.
Some key accomplishments include:
- Obtaining annual funding for a Corps of Engineers' port dredging project each year since the early 1990s. The Firm has succeeded in securing such project funding despite efforts by the Administration to reduce Corps of Engineers' funding in recent years.
- Assisting a client in crafting an overall project approach for the removal of a dam, including obtaining permits from appropriate Federal and state government agencies and engaging the Department of Defense to use the removal as a demolition training exercise.
- Assisting entities in securing Federal funding for environmental remediation projects in the state of California.
- Leading a nonprofit conservation group in a meeting with high level executive branch officials in modifying proposed Clean Water Act regulations then under consideration by the White House.
- Assisting a major wetlands and beachfront restoration entity in significantly expanding its scope of operations in the southeast following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
- Working with the Army Corps of Engineers and other regulatory agencies on environmental permitting process.
- Assisting one of the nation's largest waste management companies on all issues affecting waste management, solid waste, nuclear waste and hazardous waste covered by federal and state law, including working with Congress on authorization and appropriations legislation.
- Securing favorable statutory language establishing energy efficiency standards for private sector companies under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
- Obtaining $23 million in funding for a U.S. Department of Agriculture energy conservation grant program in the FY05 appropriations bill and succeeded in retaining that amount in the FY06 House and Senate bills despite recommended funding cuts in the program by the President's budget.
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