The Conference of California Public Utility Counsel
 Edward W. O Edward O'Neill is partner with the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in San Francisco, California. He specializes in public utility law with emphasis on administrative practice before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Mr. O'Neill provides advice and counsel to industry associations, large consumers of utility services, competitive utility service providers, public agencies, investment funds and consumer groups on a wide range of licensing, environmental, compliance and enforcement, merger and acquisition, rate, and public policy matters concerning electric, natural gas, telecommunications and water issues. In recent engagements, he has secured compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act and obtained approvals from the CPUC for the construction of numerous telecommunications network projects; assisted a wind power developer in obtaining expedited approval and confirmation of RPS compliance for an out of state wind project; secured a decision from the CPUC providing a municipal natural gas utility with natural gas storage services comparable to those provided by an investor owned utility to its own core customers; secured exemptions from certain non-bypassable electric service charges for BART and for retail customers with on site renewable generating facilities; and assisted a consumer group in persuading the CPUC to modify the terms and conditions for Pacific Gas & Electric Company's emergence from bankruptcy thereby reducing the cost to ratepayers by nearly $1 billion. Prior to joining Davis Wright Tremaine, Mr. O'Neill served over twenty years with the CPUC as Assistant General Counsel, Administrative Law Judge, Commissioner's Advisor and staff attorney. Mr. O'Neill represented the CPUC on a wide variety of matters concerning California energy and telecommunications markets, including California electric industry restructuring; natural gas industry restructuring; an international trade dispute concerning over $1 billion in annual natural gas imports from Canada to California; the review of cost overruns on Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant; and proceedings concerning the licensing and environmental review of a number of major utility construction projects. Mr. O'Neill is currently the President of the Conference of California Public Utility Counsel and is listed in Woodward White's Best Lawyers in America, Chambers America's Leading Lawyers, and Law & Politics Northern California Super Lawyers. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Boston College Law School. |