In addition to the siting and development of renewable and lower-emitting generation sources, our attorneys have assisted utility clients and transmission companies with the extensive planning required to repair, replace and expand infrastructure supporting the generation and delivery of energy from these sources. Also, one of the most significant barriers to the use of renewable energy is the lack of transmission line infrastructure to transmit the power from where it is produced to where it is used. These are highly complex matters involving stakeholders with competing interests, including land owners, utility customers and local, state and federal regulators. Our work in this regard includes the following representations:

• Pacific Gas & Electric National Energy Group (“NEG”), to obtain a right-of-way for a 500-KV line, approximately 10 miles in length, across land owned by the State of Arizona, the Bureau of Land Management and private property owners.
  
  
• Miller Brewing Company, in the acquisition, and later the disposition, of approximately a 150-mile corridor for a natural gas pipeline in Upstate New York, including all title and survey work.
  
  
• Environmental groups in Illinois, negotiating with railroads to acquire abandoned rights-of-way running through a variety of governmental districts (including counties, townships, cities and villages and park districts). We negotiated intergovernmental agreements with these entities for the purchase of their respective portions of the pathway, including a commitment to develop them in common with other entities and owners.

Ave Bie, former chair of the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, directs our practice in this specialty. Ave has broad government experience, coupled with an extensive knowledge of the interworkings of government regulation and licensing, particularly as they affect infrastructure and line siting.

For more information on how our Clean Energy, Climate Change and Sustainability Group can help you address issues related to Clean Energy Infrastructure, please contact Joseph Puchner at (414) 277-5533 /  or your local Quarles & Brady attorney.