Practice Areas

Energy

Industries

Energy, Utilities and Renewables

Randall S. Rich

Partner

Randall Rich is the Leader of our Energy Practice Group and the
partner-in-charge of the Washington, DC office. Throughout his over 30 years of experience, beginning in the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and continuing for more than 23 years at Bracewell & Giuliani, Randy always strives to form close personal bonds with clients as well as trusting relationships with both regulators and his colleagues in the energy bar. He gains an intimate understanding of the business and legal needs of clients by working for extended periods in their offices, hand-in-hand with in-house counsel. Randy guides clients through the rapidly changing regulation of the natural gas industry at the federal and state level, providing sophisticated counseling and representation in contested proceedings, multi-party settlements, applications, rulemakings and enforcement investigations.

Randy represents all segments of the energy and utility industries before the FERC, the U.S. Department of Energy, and state public utility commissions. He provides comprehensive legal counsel on natural gas regulation and policy, pipeline and utility ratemaking, tariffs, certificates and abandonment; natural gas transportation, gathering, marketing and trading; enforcement of and compliance with the Natural Gas Act, Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 and FERC regulations; natural gas business transactions; and oil pipeline regulation.

Since joining Pierce Atwood LLP as a partner in the Energy Practice Group in 2009, Randy continues to work with the firm's natural gas clients before FERC and in related matters, including marketer/trader, producer and end-user clients and New England-based pipelines, LDCs and end-users with a significant and growing interest in natural gas. His long-time representation of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association gives Randy keen insight into the development, production, and marketing of Marcellus shale natural gas, a game-changing supply of clean, strategically located domestic fuel that will power the eastern United States, for the next century.

Recent Experience

FERC Enforcement Staff elected to take no action on a self-report of back-to-back short-term interstate pipeline capacity releases we prepared for a gas marketeing client. This is the second self-report we have prepared in the past two years that has resulted in no penalty or other action. (2013)
Represented Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia, Inc. in the settlement eliminating Equitrans LP's pipeline safetytracker mechanism. (2013)
In the recent settlement of National Fuel's FERC Section 4 rate case in Docket No. RP12-88, successfully negotiated on behalf of Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, a natural gas gathering rate tied to the market price for natural gas, resulting in considerable savings for PIOGA's small producer members compared to the filed cost-of-service gathering rate (2012)
Delaware City Refining Company LLC in the successful negotiation of a multi-party interstate natural gas pipeline rate proceeding under Section 4 of the Natural Gas Act (2011-12)
Successfully represented Granite State Gas Trasnmission, Inc. in the preparation, pre-filing negotiation, and submission to FERC of an unopposed limited Section 4 rate filing to recover annual capital costs of certain pipeline replacement projects, accepted by FERC on July 27, 2012 (2012)
Enbridge Marketing (U.S.) L.P., Tidal Energy Marketing (U.S.) LLC, XTO Energy Inc., Valero Services, Inc., and other energy producers and marketers as shippers in settlement of FERC pipeline rate investigations of several interstate natural gas pipelines under Section 5 of the Natural Gas Act (2010-11)
Granite State Natural Gas Transmission in successful pre-filing settlement of FERC pipeline rate proceeding under Section 4 of the Natural Gas Act avoiding costly litigation for the client and state regulators (2011)
Woodland Pulp LLC in negotiation of interconnection agreement with Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline that will enable the Maine-based paper mill to convert from fuel oil to natural gas (2011)
Major Natural Gas Marketer in self-report of possible violations of FERC policies to FERC Enforcement Staff - no penalty imposed (2011)

Honors & Distinctions

Randy is recognized by Chambers USA as nationwide leading individual in Energy: Oil & Gas (Regulatory and Litigation) and is rated AV® Preeminent™ 5.0 out of 5 by Martindale-Hubbell.

Professional Activities

Energy Bar Association, 1986-present; Board of Directors, 2004-2007; Member, Compliance & Enforcement, Natural Gas Regulation, 2013

American Bar Association, 1986- present

Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia, Inc., 1986-present

Publications

Speech to The Bridge Group (April 2013)

At the semi-annual meeting of The Bridge Group, Randy participated in a panel discussion of the vast benefits of shale natural gas. Randy's presentation focused on the Marcellus and Utica Shales and debunked the HBO docu-drama Gasland's parlor trick of lighting tap water on fire, showing that the natives of Dimock, Pennsylvania have been igniting naturally-occurring methane in their water for decades before hydraulic fracturing was used (two miles below the water table) in the area.

Speech to Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia, Inc. Summer Meeting (August 2012)

At the 2012 Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia, Inc. (IOGA) Summer Meeting, Randy spoke on recent developments at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) of interest to IOGA's Appalachian natural gas producer and marketer members. Randy serves as FERC and Washington, DC counsel to IOGA. Energy Law & Transactions, Natural Gas Gathering Chapter (LexisNexus 2011) (Principal Author)

2010 Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, Energy Chapter (ABA 2011) (Contributor)

2009 Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, Energy Chapter (ABA 2010) (Contributor)