Edward W. (Ed) O'Neill

Ed O’Neill advises competitive utility service providers, large consumers of utility services, public agencies, utilities and consumer groups on a wide range of electric, natural gas, telecommunications and water matters. He places special emphasis on practice before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Prior to joining the firm, Ed served at the CPUC as administrative law judge, commissioner's advisor and assistant general counsel.

Practice Highlights

• Intervened on behalf of a wind power developer in response to a proposed regulatory decision to reject the developer’s power purchase agreement. This effort asserted standards for the approval of out-of-state wind projects.
• Secured an expedited draft resolution approving a power purchase agreement for the developer of an out-of-state renewable project, allowing the project to commence on schedule.
• Secured an order on behalf of a natural gas service provider, requiring their storage provider to offer storage terms to “core customers” of the client on parity with those given to direct customers of the storage provider.
• Secured an exemption for a client from nonbypassable CTC charges for deliveries of power from publicly owned suppliers, saving the client approximately $1.5 million per year.
• Secured an expedited, permanent exemption for a client from nonbypassable energy recovery bond (ERB) charges, saving the client $2 million annually.
• Counseled clients on CEQA compliance throughout numerous fiber optic network cable construction projects.