Mark focuses his practice on energy and public utilities litigation, the regulation of energy companies and public utilities by administrative agencies and state public utility commissions and unregulated energy industry transactions, with a special focus on renewable energy purchase and sale agreements.
Mark has extensive experience advising a wide range of clients in the electric and natural gas sectors, including investor-owned public utilities, electric cooperatives, municipal utilities, competitive retail natural gas and electric suppliers and publicly and privately held companies seeking counsel regarding electric and natural gas services.
His recent work includes representing electric and natural gas utilities in distribution rate case proceedings, major complaint cases, regulatory investigations, rulemaking proceedings, utility service abandonment cases, utility tariff/rider approval proceedings, competitive retail energy supplier certifications and utility merger approval proceedings. Mark also regularly advises clients with data center development projects involving both behind-the-meter and front-of-the-meter arrangements, natural gas and electric utility line extensions and data center service level agreements.
In addition, on behalf of both buyers/off-takers and sellers/developers, Mark has successfully negotiated agreements involving the purchase and sale of renewable energy and associated environmental attributes (e.g., renewable energy certificates, emissions free energy certificates, emissions reduction tonnes, carbon credits/offsets, etc.) generated in connection with renewable or carbon-free energy projects developed across the United States, including one of the largest city-established solar array projects in the United States.
Further, Mark has counseled competitive energy suppliers in the development of new carbon-free or emissions-free energy products to retail energy customers in various jurisdictions across the United States and regularly advises buyers and sellers in the voluntary and compliance renewable energy markets.
*Matter completed prior to joining Benesch.
Representative Experience
- Successfully negotiated electric utility contracts on behalf of data center developer to construct and install required utility equipment and infrastructure and to provide power to new data center facilities
- Represented electric utility in negotiating contracts with data center operators/developers for newly constructed data center facilities
- Successfully negotiated solar power purchase agreement on behalf of a major industrial customer, which will provide solar power and solar renewable energy certificates associated with solar carports and canopies installed on site
- Successfully negotiated renewable energy credits master purchase and sale agreement for the purchase of nearly 1 million renewable energy certificates
- Successfully negotiated a nine-year renewable energy certificate purchase and sale agreement with a solar developer located in Texas
- Successfully negotiated a seven-year agreement to purchase carbon credits from the largest reforestation program in the United States (as measured by carbon credits issued), which both supports (1) the expansion of forestry-based ecosystem restoration throughout the Southern United States, and (2) the client’s voluntary compliance with carbon emissions reduction objectives and ESG initiatives.
- Successfully negotiated agreement on behalf of a major wholesale energy supplier to sell emissions free power and over 3 million emissions free energy certificates over a ten-year period to a major retail energy provider
- Advised and conducted due diligence on behalf of retail energy provider regarding acquisition of on-site and community solar energy projects
- Represented publicly and privately held companies and other offtakers in the drafting and negotiation of renewable power purchase agreements and net metering arrangements.*
- Defended municipal utilities in court actions seeking to limit constitutional authority of municipal utilities over rates and use of funds.*
