Energy Transition
Fishman Haygood understands that the future of sustainable renewable energy requires attorneys who have the practical knowledge and strategic tools to advise clients on project development, financing, and regulatory issues at the federal, state, and local levels.
Former Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, Fishman Haygood special counsel, focuses his practice on renewable energy. As governor, Edwards worked to position Louisiana as a leader participating in and benefiting from the energy transition. Under his administration, the state garnered $50 billion in private sector capital investments for both low- and no-carbon industrial projects. With opportunities in Louisiana’s renewable energy sector expanding, Edwards looks to continue playing a leading role in this emerging market.
On the transactional side, the firm is engaged in several renewable energy and energy efficiency deals and projects. Fishman Haygood is currently representing landowners and mineral owners in several large carbon sequestration projects. In addition to carbon sequestration engagements, Managing Partner John Werner also advises clients on solar projects.
Partner Scott Chenevert also provides legal counsel to Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) leader Bernhard LLC, the largest privately-owned EaaS company in the nation. Recently, Chenevert led the Fishman Haygood team that advised LA Energy Partners (LAEP), a collaboration between Bernhard and Johnson Controls Inc., in its 25-year EaaS partnership with the University of New Orleans (UNO). The joint initiative seeks to renew UNO’s campus energy infrastructure, reduce campus Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions, and provide capital to support the university’s academic and research mission.
Additionally, partner Maureen Gershanik advises clients, including corporations and their boards of directors, on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives and practices in the areas of corporate law and governance, state corporation law, securities law, and mergers and acquisitions. Because many ESG-related issues are long-term in focus, Gershanik is adept at helping businesses understand how to manage their impact on people and the environment without sacrificing shareholder value.
The Fishman Haygood team also is engaged in local and national litigation to enforce the plugging of non-productive oil wells and the removal of abandoned equipment, which blight the environment and interfere with landowner property rights.
Representative Experience
- Represents the owner of the mineral rights to 63,000 acres of the land leased by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to Air Liquide and Capio in a 200,000-acre carbon sequestration agreement; project is moving through the permitting process.
- Represents the landowner in a series of agreements with a subsidiary of Talos Energy, a leading Houston-based energy company which actively participates in carbon capture and storage opportunities; project is moving through the permitting process.
- Represents Bernhard LLC in Energy-as-a-Service transactions; representation includes the creation of complex and novel transaction structures that allow Bernhard to secure unique financing opportunities and significant tax advantages, while also adding value to owners through substantial capital improvements to the energy assets and increasing energy efficiency through Bernhard’s proprietary systems and processes.
- Represents landowners in oil and gas plug and abandonment and equipment removal cases.
