The Environmental & Natural Resources Practice Group at Troutman Sanders LLP offers one of the most comprehensive and experienced environmental law practices in the United States. With more than forty attorneys, the Group provides skilled representation to domestic and international clients in virtually all areas of local, tribal, state, federal, and international environmental and natural resources law.
Many of the Group's attorneys have served in senior corporate or government positions overseeing environmental and natural resource programs. As a result, the Group is well prepared to anticipate and understand private and public sector clients' interests and expectations.
The Group serves clients through counseling and litigation in numerous areas, including air and water quality; waste regulation; superfund; water resource development; climate change; hydropower licensing; mining; National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance; cultural and historical resources; asbestos abatement; brownfields; site assessments and compliance audits; toxic torts; storage tanks; protected species; energy generation and transmission siting; renewable and alternative energy; rail, marine and pipeline transportation; airport and marina development and operation; oil and gas development, transportation and regulation; public lands; water rights; coastal zone management; fishery management; bankruptcy; environmental justice; criminal investigations; and corporate environmental planning. See our periodic articles on environmental issues affecting the energy industry.
Efficient and Practical Representation
Troutman Sanders strives to solve problems for clients in the most efficient manner possible. The goal is to deliver excellent results in a timely, cost-effective way. Toward this end the Group's attorneys:
- Aim to resolve environmental disputes quickly without resorting to unnecessary litigation. The Group does not recommend litigation when successful results can be negotiated.
- Value the essential contributions of our clients' in-house counsel and scientific and technical personnel. Rather than trying to resolve environmental problems single-handedly, the Group respects the critical role clients play in achieving their legal goals.
- Calibrate the Group's involvement to avoid unnecessarily heightening the profile of an issue or impeding resolution.
- Maintain strong relationships at all levels of federal and state agencies. The Group's attorneys can go to the top when needed, but always try to resolve issues first with agency personnel who have the most direct and ongoing contact with clients.
- Litigate aggressively when disputes cannot be resolved informally. Troutman Sanders' attorneys are skilled and experienced litigators and can communicate complex environmental issues clearly to juries and to judges.
Diverse Clientele and Practice
The Environmental & Natural Resources Practice Group is privileged to serve many leading businesses, governmental units, non-profit organizations, communities and individuals. The Group's clients include energy companies, oil and gas pipelines and developers, chemical manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, textile manufacturers, railroads, environmental and conservation interests, trade associations, land developers, telecommunication companies, financial institutions, agricultural interests, pulp and paper and wood products companies, metal and mining interests, emissions credit traders, food producers, airlines and airports, ship owners, ports and marinas, water supply and hydropower developers, waste services, cities, counties, states and federal agencies - and many others. As a result of experience gained through years of legal practice, representing a diverse array of clients, the Group's attorneys are able to address virtually any environmental or natural resource matter.
Regulatory Counseling
Regulatory counseling is a central component of the Group's practice. The Group has a wealth of experience advising clients on permitting and compliance issues arising under state and federal air quality, water quality, and solid, hazardous and radioactive waste management programs.The Group also regularly assists clients in evaluating the numerous reporting obligations under federal environmental programs, including the Clean Water Act, Emergency Planning Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and the Clean Air Act (CAA), as well as state reporting programs. Examples of the Group's regulatory experience include:
- Assisting numerous industrial sector clients in submitting applications for and negotiating the terms of permits required under Title V of the CAA.
- Representing clients in state and federal regulatory investigations and enforcement actions involving application of the Act's Prevention of Signification Deterioration and Nonattainment New Source Review (NSR) requirements.
- Representing the new owner of an intrastate oil pipeline to secure federal authorization to restart the line after a spill which led to significant natural resource damage claims.
- Obtaining, on behalf of a manufacturing facility, one of the first Superfund National Priorities List partial site delistings in the nation.
- Managing the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit renewal process for five separate steam electric generating plants for a major mid-Atlantic utility.
- Negotiating a very favorable cost-allocation under CERCLA for a client at a site identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as one of the most contaminated sites in the United States.
- Assisting several companies in obtaining fast track settlement of administrative actions brought by EPA for alleged wetlands regulatory violations associated with siting casinos adjacent to the Mississippi River.
- Representing a major pulp and paper company before a state agency in achieving a "clean closure" under RCRA for wood treatment wastewater impoundments.
Natural Resources Development and Management
Many of the Group's attorneys held top level natural resources-related positions on Capitol Hill, at federal agencies, and in state and tribal government. The Group's contacts and substantive knowledge of the law have allowed the Firm to serve private and public sector clients on numerous complex natural resource matters involving protected species, NEPA compliance, water resource development, wetlands, and public lands. Our hydropower practice is supported by the former director of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Office of Hydropower Licensing, who now serves as the firm's hydropower licensing advisor. The Group's experience includes:
- Serving as environmental counsel on numerous major capital projects, including pipelines, hydroelectric facilities, fossil-fired electricity plants, airport projects, commercial development, highway construction projects and extensive work for cities seeking federal permits for water projects.
- Negotiating and winning Congressional enactment of an exchange of valuable forest and riparian lands between a large private land owner and a federal agency.
Litigation
Group attorneys represent clients in federal and state trial and appellate courts, as well as in administrative hearings. The Group has a great deal of experience representing clients in contribution and cost-recovery actions, toxic tort suits involving claims of personal injury and property damage, agency enforcement actions, citizen suits, indoor air quality, and insurance coverage disputes. Examples of the Group's litigation experience include:
- Obtaining summary judgment on behalf of a leading small engine manufacturer in a CERCLA and state Superfund cost recovery action against former owner/ operators of an electroplating facility.
- Successfully defending the Corps of Engineers' decision to proceed with an Environmental Assessment EA and a Finding of No Significant Impute (FONSI) regarding a large, interstate municipal water supply project despite protracted litigation with a neighboring state.
- Successfully challenging state environmental regulations on federal preemption grounds before the Supreme Court of the United States.
- Successfully defending a major toxic tort case involving the alleged harmful human health effects of electric and magnetic fields.
- Winning partial summary judgment for the defendant in a CWA citizen suit involving alleged violations of thermal discharge limits.
- Representing one of the largest electric utilities in the United States in the context of a nationwide federal NSR enforcement initiative against the electric utility industry.
Commercial Transaction Support
The Group routinely advises clients on environmental and natural resource issues in commercial transactions. Group experience covers real estate transactions, lending, asset purchases, project development, brownfield redevelopment, and mergers and acquisitions.
Climate Change
Today, Troutman Sanders provides cutting-edge representation across the spectrum of climate change issues:
- Carbon Regulation and Legislation. We advise clients on legislative and regulatory developments at the federal and state levels; our attorneys have twice been called to testify before Congress on climate change issues.
- Litigation. We have been involved in most of the principal litigated cases involving carbon dioxide, including in the briefing of the landmark decision of Massachusetts v. EPA, both before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Carbon and Other GHG Credit Trading. Our attorneys have advised corporations, funds, multi-national organizations and governments, including several of the most advanced energy trading and marketing organizations in the world, on all aspects of greenhouse gas (GHG) trading, and how to harness and monetize the emissions related value of investment in clean development mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation (JI) projects. Further, we provide advice on the commercial, legal and policy implications of future actions to address climate change.
- Project Investment. We advise on all aspects of investment in and approval of CDM and JI projects and the development, construction, operation and tax structuring of renewable and alternative energy projects worldwide including solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower projects and transactions, as well as alternative “clean coal,” ethanol, biodiesel, and biomass-related energy projects and transactions.
Real estate and lending transactional experience includes:
- Advising a real estate development group regarding environmental due diligence in connection with the acquisition of hotels across the United States.
- Conducting environmental due diligence for a major telecommunications company in connection with acquisition of telephone signal transmission sites.
The Group also offers considerable experience in identifying and mitigating environmental risks and liabilities associated with asset purchases, stock purchases, project development, mergers and acquisitions, and spin-offs. The Group's corporate transactional experience includes:
- Conducting the environmental due diligence on pulp, paper and flax mills in the United States, Canada, and France and providing advice regarding Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) environmental disclosure obligations in connection with the spin-off of the specialty products division of a major paper company.
- Counseling a major energy producer on the environmental aspects of its acquisition of the energy recovery complex at a large pulp and paper mill.
International Counseling
Reflecting both the globalization of many environmental issues and the international scope of clients' business activities, the Group regularly represents companies in matters involving international environmental law and regulation, including the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Examples of the Group's international experience include:
- Negotiating a groundwater remediation plan in the United Kingdom as part of a merger and acquisition when, at the time of the negotiation, the U.K. had no remediation standards in place.
- Advising ship owners in Europe and Asia on U.S. and international safety and environmental requirements.
- Preparing extensive environmental representations, warranties, covenants, and indemnities and overseeing site assessment and remediation activities in connection with the acquisition of power generating facilities in the Caribbean.
- Identifying and evaluating environmental requirements applicable to the construction and operation of an electric generating facility in Indonesia.
- Conducting environmental due diligence and advising a Fortune 100 farm equipment manufacturing company in its acquisition of major manufacturing plants located in the United States, Brazil and Europe.
- Evaluating, on behalf of a Hong Kong-based company, the potential air quality and human health impacts from the use of fossil fuels in mainland China.
Government Relations
The Group assists clients in the assessment, development, revision and implementation of environmental and natural resource legislation and regulation. The Group prepares policy and position papers, drafts legislation, and formulates legislative strategies. A number of the Group's attorneys have first-hand governmental experience which has helped create close working relationships with state and tribal environmental officials, members of Congress and their staffs, and other key federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of the Interior, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Group attorneys work closely with the Firm's Government Relations Practice Group in presenting clients' positions on environmental and natural resource issues before federal, state, tribal, and local governmental bodies. The Group also assists clients in developing environmental policy, law, and regulations and helps them think strategically, both from a legal and political perspective, about environmental programs and actions.
This experience includes:
- Lobbying before federal and state executive and legislative branch agencies on air, water, waste, and energy development legislation and regulation.
- Advising senior elected and appointed officials in local, state, tribal, and federal government regarding environmental and natural resource policies and projects.
- Representing industrial trade associations in their review and comment on proposed federal and state regulations.
