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Craig A. Hart

Counsel


Craig Hart is counsel to Alston & Bird’s Energy Infrastructure, Climate Change and Technology Practice. He has over 10 years’ experience in energy and infrastructure project finance, carbon finance, venture finance, and private and public offerings of debt and equity, representing project developers, technology companies, lenders, and investors. Mr. Hart has extensive experience with a broad range of renewable and conventional energy technologies, including under the Clean Development Mechanism. He has substantial experience in energy infrastructure projects in China and the Middle East.

Mr. Hart founded and serves as executive director of The Energy + Environment Foundation, a nonprofit that strengthens education in developing countries through its Energy + Environment OpenCourseWare (eeocw.org) initiative.

Previously, Mr. Hart served as the Climate Change Law Fellow at the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington, D.C., where among his responsibilities, he coordinated the drafting committee for the Male’ Declaration on the Human Dimensions of Global Climate Change on behalf of Small Island Developing States. Mr. Hart served as a law clerk to The Honorable Lisa Hill Fenning in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California and to The Honorable Richard W. Goldberg in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

Representative Experience

Clean Energy Project Finance and Carbon Markets

  • Counsel to a power generation company in connection with the financing and development of a 120 MW retrofit and an 800 MW greenfield Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants in China under a Chinese government program.
  • Counsel to the developer of 40 MW municipal waste-to-energy generation project in central China.
  • Advising a 24 MW combined heat and power biomass plant in Northern China.
  • Counsel to a leading London-based carbon and renewable energy investment company, and a publicly-listed emissions credits investor and trading company.
  • Advisor to a leading U.S. clean energy investment advisor and fund focusing on public securities.
  • Counsel to a leading CDM and voluntary markets credit aggregator in connection with development of new products.

Other Project Finance

  • Counsel to the arrangers and lenders in the $305 million project financing of the Saudi Chevron petrochemical project (benzene and cyclohexane) in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
  • Counsel to a Saudi Arabian bank as equity placement agent, lending agent and lender, in connection with the development, structuring, and financing of the $533 million mixed-use Kingdom Centre project in Saudi Arabia.
  • Counsel to an equestrian club in connection with the development and structuring of the $186 million mixed-use project consisting of a marina, hotel, and commercial center located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the first build-operate-transfer (BOT) project in Saudi Arabia.
  • Counsel to a South Korean chemical manufacturer in connection with the leveraged lease refinancing of a $696 million polyethylene teraphthalate film manufacturing and storage facility in Covington, Georgia.

Capital Markets

  • General counsel to depositary and tender agent in bonds tender offers, exchange offers and consent solicitations, aggregating over $250 billion. Transactions include Ford Motor Company’s 2005 $4.5 billion sale of Hertz and 2006 $16.4 billion reorganization, and the 2008 $38 billion recapitalization of General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) and $15 billion recapitalization of GMAC’s Residential Capital real estate finance company.
  • Counsel to a semiconductor manufacturer in its $273 million initial public offering.

Banking

  • Counsel to an international bank, administrative agent, in restructuring $400 million of debt of Mutual Risk Management, a publicly traded Bermudan insurance holding company that owns several U.S. insurance companies and an offshore captive insurance business. Debt converted to notes, preferred stock and warrants.
  • Counsel to an export credit agency in the United States on its sale of $100 million of secured debt of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, and negotiations with the debtor and creditors committee.
  • Counsel to a privately-owned fitness club chain, the borrower, in connection with its recapitalization and $375 million multi-currency loan facility.
  • Counsel to a leading global investment bank, the arranger and administrative agent, in connection with the $120 million loan facility to a private equity fund to finance the acquisition of seven medical technology companies.
  • Counsel to a leading North American financial institution, the administrative agent, and the bank syndicate in a debt for equity conversion, $100 million debtor-in-possession loan facility and $400 million post-reorganization loan facility to Phillips Services, a Canadian industrial company filing reorganization plans in the U.S. and Canada resulting in a reorganized U.S. company.
  • Counsel to arrangers and lenders in various syndicated lending facilities in project finance and acquisition finance transactions. Representations include Bank of America, Bankers Trust, CIBC, Deutsche Bank, Fleet Bank, Gulf International Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Rabobank, and Saudi American Bank (a Citicorp affiliate).


Publications
2008
Advancing Research in Carbon Capture and Sequestration: A Study of Legal Barriers in DOE Phase II Carbon Sequestration Partnerships Program. John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (2008).
Fall 2008
"East Asia Clean Development Mechanism: Cooperation in CDM and Technology among China, Japan and South Korea," Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, Fall 2008.
2008
"Energy and Climate Change Challenges of the 21st Century," Shantou University Law Series, China Economic Publishing, 2008.

Craig A. Hart

The Atlantic Building
950 F Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004-1404
Phone: 202-239-3912
Fax: 202-654-4973

Education

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    (Ph.D., 2007)
  • New York University
    (M.A., 1997)
  • University of California, Berkeley
    (J.D., 1994)
  • University of California, Berkeley
    (B.A., 1990)

Admitted to Practice

  • District of Columbia
  • New York

Languages

  • Mandarin Chinese