State Regulatory Matters

Several of Alston & Bird's  lawyers have devoted most of their careers to representing electric utilities in matters regulated primarily or exclusively by state public utility commissions. Much of our state regulatory work, like our federal regulatory work, involves the application of economic principles. We tend to be involved in state matters with the greatest financial and policy implications for our clients. For example, we currently represent an investor-owned utility that is seeking to obtain, pursuant to state law, an advance determination of the prudence of building new power plants estimated to cost several billion dollars. We represent another utility in state regulatory litigation over the recovery of costs deferred in accordance with a long-term rate plan; the differential between the company’s litigation position and the commission staff’s is several hundred million dollars.

Our state regulatory work began in the early 1980s with our representation of a utility in an investigation into the prudence of the utility’s construction of a nuclear power plant. That engagement, which concluded several years later in a state-approved settlement among the several owners of the plant, state PUC staff and various intervenors, led to state utility representations involving prudence as well as other regulatory issues. In the late 1980s we began representing a major northeastern utility in virtually all its retail rate matters, including approximately half a dozen general rate cases. The years we spent as general state counsel gave us an invaluable understanding of retail electric issues and the dynamics of state regulatory politics and policy. We have applied that understanding in the context of proposed utility mergers for which we have analyzed the regulatory schemes of over two dozen states.