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Industry Committees

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Aviation Committee

The Aviation Committee addresses domestic and international legal issues affecting the entire infrastructure -- airlines, general aviation, airports, wholesale and retail distributors, manufacturers and other suppliers, insurers and the financial community. The Committee draws on the expertise of its members as well as that of other industries and practices represented in the Section. The Committee prepares semiannual and annual reports and sponsors workshops and panels. 

Chair:
John Beardsworth

Vice Chairs:
Vacant

Communications

The Committee addresses issues and developments concerning the telecommunications industry. The Committee prepares semiannual reports that discuss evolving public policy through legislative, court or administrative agency action. These changes continue to re-shape the industry as new rules are implemented regarding the nature and scope of regulation and the introduction of competition. Other evolving rules address issues such as limits in access to technology, licenses and foreign capital. The report also address legal issues related to proposed major strategic alliances or business combinations to achieve greater horizontal or vertical capabilities, either in traditional telecommunications segments or in converging areas such as cable television or information technology.

Chair:
Joe Cosgrove Jr.

Vice Chairs:
Christian F. Binnig
Daniel R. Conway
Andrew C. Emerson
Joe Tocco

Electricity Committee

The Committee addresses regulatory and other legal developments in the rapidly changing electric power industry. These include the initiatives of federal regulators and others to foster a competitive market for wholesale power, both state and federal actions that affect retail competition, the treatment of costs stranded by the transition to competition, and he mergers, joint ventures, and other business restructuring activity taking place in the industry. The Committee also monitors decisions that concern rates, hydroelectric licensing, and other current issues. 

Chair:
James G. Ritter

Vice Chairs:
J. A. Bouknight, Jr.
David J. DePippo
N. Beth Emery
Maria Gulluni
Judith Jagdmann
Kevin W. Jones
Rodger A. Kershner
Meredith M. Lackey
Peter V. Lacouture
Catherine P. McCarthy
Daniel Mullen
Steven T. Nourse
Linda L. Randell
Charles C. Read
Lawrence J. Reilly
Adrian J. Rodriguez
J. P. Shotwell
Stephen Spina
Mark P. Strain
Tyrus Thompson
George Watson, III
Casey W. Wren

Gas Committee

The Committee on Gas addresses natural gas issues on both the federal and the state levels. Annual reports are prepared summarizing current regulatory and judicial developments, seminars are sponsored, and special reports are published. Over the past decade, the natural gas industry has undergone major restructuring at the federal level with the pipelines, and for the past several years the states have began to deal with deregulation and unbundling of local distribution companies, which they regulate. The challenges associated with this evolution will continue into the foreseeable future, as the industry becomes far more market driven.

Chair:
Michael R. Pincus

Vice Chairs:
William P. Boswell
James F. Bowe, Jr.
Shannon Coleman
Mark C. Darrell
Walter J. Dunn
George Fatula
Kirstin E. Gibbs
Brian D. O'Neill
Monique Watson
Dena E. Wiggins 

Maritime Committee

 The Maritime Committee addresses issues concerning marine transportation and infrastructures. Annual reports by Committee members summarize the legislation and regulatory decisions involving the maritime industry and related industries. This Committee focuses on the increase in regulation resulting from changes in homeland security and how these regulatory changes may affect commerce. Furthermore, the Committee addresses overlapping issues that concern other sectors including the cable and telecommunications industries whose submarine infrastructures are vulnerable to terrorist actions. 

Chair:
Charles A. Patrizia

Vice Chair:
Noelle Coates

Nuclear Energy Committee

The focus of the Nuclear Energy Committee is to monitor current matters affecting its members in the area of atomic energy law, specifically, nuclear regulatory commission practice, judicial decision, and legislative matters. The Committee prepares semiannual reports that discuss these areas together with their impact on the operation of commercial light water reactors. As the nuclear power industry matures and as the electricity industry faces increasing structural changes, the Committee will continue to address issues and developments of interest to the members of the Section. 

Chair:
Darani M. Reddick

Vice Chairs:
M. Standford Blanton
Jerry Bonanno
Ellen C. Ginsberg
Kenneth C. Manne
Millicent W. Ronnlund

Oil Pipelines Committee

The Oil Pipelines Committee follows the emerging indexed, market-based and cost-of service approaches to oil pipeline ratemaking, which in many ways parallel those being applied to other rate-regulated industries. We also track current issues involving oil pipeline practices, a number of which are coming under increasing scrutiny. The Committee reports on relevant federal and state legislative, regulatory and judicial developments. 

Chair:
Daniel J. Poynor

Vice Chairs:
Steven Adducci
Shannon Coleman
Eugene R. Elrod
George Fatula

Railroads Committee

The Committee addresses issues and developments concerning the railroad industry. The Committee prepares semiannual reports of judicial and agency decisions and legislative proposals and actions which are important to railroads. The report also addresses changes in regulatory policies and procedures and legal issues related to proposed strategic alliances and business combinations. 

Chair:
Timothy Strafford

Vice Chairs:
John Miller, Jr.
Jill K. Mulligan
Linda S. Stein

Renewable Energy Committee

The Renewable Energy Committee brings together scholarship and thought leadership on topics involving the economics and legal underpinnings of the U.S. renewable energy industry with an emphasis on energy derived from solar power, wind power, hydrokinetic power, geothermal power, biomass, biofuels and other forms of non-fossil energy. Key areas of focus include renewable energy financing, state and federal subsidies and incentives, environmental and zoning issues unique to the renewable energy industry, including renewable portfolio standards, legislation, public policy and regulatory issues that affect the renewable energy industry. The Committee seeks to coordinate it efforts with those of the other Committees of the Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Section to advance common understandings of shared matters of concern and to advance the interests of the Section.

Chair:
Catherine P. McCarthy

Vice Chairs:
Rodger A. Kershner
Charles C. Read
J. Anthony Terrell
Richard Wetzel

Transportation Infrastructure and PPP

We are the Transportation Infrastructure and PPP committee.

Chair:
Vacant

Vice Chairs:
John B. Beardsworth

Water Committee

The Water Committee follows and reports semiannually to the Section membership significant administrative, judicial and legislative developments affecting the water supply industry. In addition to covering a broad array of rate-related issues, recent Committee reports have focused on such diverse topics as the reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act, growing trends within the industry toward consolidation and privatization, and treatment of gain on the disposition of utility property.  

Chair:
Brian T. FitzGerald

Vice Chairs:
Thomas P. Gadsden
Gregory G. Nickson