Steven Farkas

With almost 40 years of legal experience, Steve Farkas has worked on numerous corporate transactions, real estate, energy and environmental matters and spent almost 20 years as Vice President and General Counsel of an Oil and Gas Refining and Marketing company.

His transaction and regulatory experience include land use entitlement and project development (including Brownfield Redevelopment), environmental law compliance (air, water, hazardous waste, Prop 65), defense of enforcement actions, asset and real property sales and acquisitions, and marketing and manufacturing agreements. He has worked on matters involving the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Trade Commission, California Attorney General’s office and most state and local environmental agencies including the SCAQMD and other local air districts.

Steve Farkas has extensive lobbying experience at the federal, state and local levels and has worked on numerous regulatory programs, including AB 32, the Greenhouse Gas initiative, and the federal Renewable Fuel Standard program, RFS2. As General Counsel of an Oil and Gas Independent Refiner with facilities throughout the Western United States, he was responsible for handling audit and compliance programs, enforcement actions, administrative proceedings, and asset sales and acquisitions, including the sale of the company. Steve also supervised all litigation and insurance claims.

Steve Farkas left his General Counsel position six years ago returning to private practice where he counseled numerous clients on real estate matters including the purchase or sale of contaminated property. He worked on a large redevelopment in the Seattle area, and also worked on hazardous waste compliance and permitting issues dealing with lead contamination. More recently, he represented a refinery purchaser seeking additional reimbursement from the prior owners for contamination and also worked on a superfund case related to the clean up of legacy contamination.

Publications and Presentations :

-Co-Author, “Update to Federal and California Environmental Agencies’ Steps to Advance Environmental Justice,” Environmental Leader, July 21, 2016

-Speaker, “Coal-Fired Generation - Finding a Path in the Current Regulatory Climate,” S&P Global (formerly SNL Financial) Knowledge Center, August 2014

-Author,“The Future of Exports",Oil & Gas Financial Journal, August 2014

-Author, “US Ban on Oil Exports — An Overview,” Environmental Leader, March 20, 2014

-Author,"CA Has a Problem with Abandoned Wells" GlobeSt.com, March 19, 2018

-Author, "Air quality district plans 'indirect source rules' for NOx", The Daily Journal May 3, 2019