Christopher J. Townsend has experience in all aspects of energy, public utility, and environmental law and regulation. On a local, state, national and international level, he represents developers as well as commercial and industrial energy users, governments, and competitive natural gas and electric providers in addressing risks and opportunities associated with the restructuring of the gas and electricity industries. He has been involved in a wide variety of regulatory proceedings before the Illinois Commerce Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, with an emphasis on matters related to restructuring the energy industries. He also has served as counsel to several consortia comprised of retail energy suppliers and large industrial, commercial and institutional electricity consumers; a public water district; and a small privately owned water company.

At the state level, Mr. Townsend has been actively involved with numerous debates before the Illinois General Assembly regarding the restructuring of the natural gas and electric industries, representing energy marketers, developers as well as industrial, institutional, commercial and residential consumers. He continues to represent project developers, marketers, governments, commercial and industrial energy users and commodity suppliers in the competitive market and in proceedings before the Illinois Commerce Commission as well as advising regarding further amendments to the Illinois Public Utilities Act. Most recently, he represented the developer of a multi-billion dollar clean coal to substitute natural gas facility in all facets of the Illinois legislative process to obtain and implement enabling legislation.

On a national level, he also regularly assists large industrial and commercial consumers in evaluating and negotiating natural gas, electric, on-site generation, chilled water supply contracts.

Mr. Townsend also works closely with institutional investors and developers of independent power plants, counseling them on strategic, regulatory and administrative law issues. He has prepared formal legal opinions and provided other analysis supporting financial and merger-related transactions. He regularly counsels clients in tactical analyses and structuring transactions to conform to legal and regulatory requirements.

Mr. Townsend also was actively involved in the representation of the Iraq Ministry of Electricity, leading the team to negotiate the terms of numerous projects relating to the purchase and installation of over $6 billion in equipment, and assisting the Ministry as it continued to improve Iraq’s electrical infrastructure. Mr. Townsend worked closely with the Ministry, the Government of Iraq, the United States government, equipment suppliers, engineers and contractors, as the Ministry had taken substantial steps to achieve the objectives set forth in the Iraq Ministry Of Electricity Plan 2006-2015 and to implement the details reflected in the International Compact for Iraq.

Representative Projects

• Representation of a developer of a multi-billion dollar substitute natural gas facility on Illinois legislative issues as well as in regulatory proceedings involving the Illinois Power Agency, the Capital Development Board and the Illinois Commerce Commission and in simultaneous contract negotiations with the four largest gas utilities in Illinois. 
• Representation of a coalition of alternative suppliers of natural gas in local distribution company rate case to revise the rate design to advance residential and small commercial customer choice issues. 
• Provision of advice to a national real estate investment trust with an ownership interest in more than 100 facilities regarding electric deregulation issues and strategies throughout the United States. 
• Representation of a coalition of large industrial and institutional customers, opposing a request to increase electric rates to owners of on-site generation by over $300 million annually.
• Representation of an independent power producer in all aspects of project development for the first full-scale, non-utility-owned power plant in Illinois following the restructuring of the electric markets.
• Representation of a coalition of retail electric suppliers in a proceeding before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to determine whether and under what conditions a regional transmission organization should expand. 
• Representation of an independent transmission company in proceedings before the Illinois Commerce Commission regarding the acquisition of transmission assets of an Illinois public utility.
• Representation of large industrial energy consumer in association with the development of a new transmission line to facilitate relocation of its operations in Illinois. 
• Representation of a large municipality in global settlement negotiations with the local electric utility related to reliability and rate design issues as well as multiple administrative and appellate court proceedings. 
• Representation of a coalition of alternative suppliers of natural gas in local distribution company rate case to revise the rate design to advance residential and small commercial customer choice issues. 
• Provision of advice to a national real estate investment trust with an ownership interest in more than 100 facilities regarding electric deregulation issues and strategies throughout the United States. 
• Representation of a coalition of large industrial and institutional customers, opposing a request to increase electric rates to owners of on-site generation by over $300 million annually. 
• Representation of a coalition of large industrial customers, opposing a request to restructure and redesign natural gas rates. 
• Negotiation of a national electric service agreement for a retailer with more than 300 locations nationwide. 
• Representation of new competitors in the electric industry in rulemaking proceedings establishing the ground rules for deregulating the Illinois electric utility industry and in the subsequent appeals of those proceedings. 
• Evaluation of utility contracts for a potential purchaser of a large manufacturing facility with annual utility bills in excess of $13 million annually. 
• Representation of a coalition of retail electric suppliers in the delivery services tariffs proceedings of the eight investor-owned utilities in Illinois.
• Representation of a statewide association of heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) contractors in regulatory matters and legislative matters before the Illinois General Assembly.
• Representation of the Iraq Ministry of Electricity in negotiations for the acquisition of gas turbines, including representation in Erbil as well as in the Green Zone and the Ministry’s offices in Baghdad. 
• Representation of the Iraq Ministry of Electricity in negotiation of owner’s engineer, and drafting engineering, procurement and construction contracts. 
• Representation of the Iraq Ministry of Electricity at UNDP PARTNERSHIP FOR POWER GENERATION, Opportunities for Power Generation in Iraq, Dead Sea, Jordan 2008.