Partner, Crowell & Moring
Mr. Lorenzen is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Washington, D.C. office and is a member of the Environment & Natural Resources and Government Affairs groups. He works with clients seeking to successfully navigate the federal environmental rulemaking process.
With a decade of Justice Department experience managing the legal defense of all EPA rules, Mr. Lorenzen has a unique ability to help clients shape environmental policy, provide vital input on proposed federal environmental regulations through written comment and direct interaction with regulators, and mount effective judicial challenges to EPA actions that adversely affect his clients' interests. He also helps clients ensure compliance with existing environmental regulations. In addition, he is a noted appellate lawyer who has briefed, argued, or supervised hundreds of petitions for review of EPA regulations and other final EPA actions.
While he was at the Department of Justice, Mr. Lorenzen oversaw many of the seminal environmental cases of the last decade. These include Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the Supreme Court affirmed EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, and Entergy v. Riverkeeper, in which the Court held that EPA has discretion under the Clean Water Act to consider or decline to consider costs in determining how to regulate cooling water intake structures. In the D.C. Circuit and the other federal courts of appeals, he oversaw the government's defense in Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, in which the court upheld EPA's first suite of greenhouse gas regulations (largely upheld by the Supreme Court in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA); EME Homer City Generation, L.P. v. EPA and North Carolina v. EPA, in which the court reviewed EPA's various attempts to address interstate transport of air pollutants; numerous cases challenging EPA regulations governing emissions of hazardous air pollutants; and National Cotton Council v. EPA, in which the Sixth Circuit reviewed EPA's Clean Water Act regulations governing the application of pesticides over waters of the United States.
Mr. Lorenzen is a frequent lecturer and commentator in print, on the internet, and on television regarding federal environmental law, climate change regulation, administrative law, federal policymaking, and effective appellate brief-writing and argument.
Partner (Austin), Jackson Walker
Mike Nasi is a partner with Jackson Walker LLP where he practices environmental and energy law. He has been practicing before state and federal environmental and energy agencies and appellate courts for 24 years.
Nasi’s compliance counseling, permitting, and enforcement defense work spans the following federal (and related state) programs: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act. He is often asked to play a strategic planning role on behalf of his clients in the midst of large, complex project developments.
Nasi is counsel for parties in ongoing EPA regulatory proceedings relating to carbon dioxide, interstate air quality, regional haze, and coal combustion residuals, including appeals pending before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Eighth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. He helps coordinate multi-state outreach efforts regarding these and other regulations impacting the electric power and mining sectors, appears at hearings and energy policy events across the country, and is published in several trade, law, and business journals on environmental law and energy policy topics.
Nasi is a past Chairman of the State Bar of Texas Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section and serves on the faculty for Rice University’s “Leadership & Decision Making in the Energy Industry” course and as a guest lecturer in the “Energy Law & Policy” course at the University of Texas Law School.
Nasi is consistently recognized on several “Who’s Who” and “Best Lawyer” lists and was recently awarded the “Energy and Environmental Trailblazer Award.” He is the Chairman of the Central Texas Salvation Army Advisory Board and is a Board Member for the West Austin Youth Association (WAYA).
Director, Climate & Clean Air Program, Natural Resources Defense Council
David Doniger has been at the forefront of the battle against air pollution and global climate change since he joined NRDC in 1978. He helped formulate the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement designed to stop the depletion of the earth's ozone layer, as well as several essential amendments to the Clean Air Act. In 1993, he left NRDC to serve on the White House Council on Environmental Quality, followed by key posts at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He rejoined NRDC in 2001 and has since been working to defend the Clean Air Act from assaults in Congress. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Partner, Crowell & Moring
Mr. Lorenzen is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Washington, D.C. office and is a member of the Environment & Natural Resources and Government Affairs groups. He works with clients seeking to successfully navigate the federal environmental rulemaking process.
With a decade of Justice Department experience managing the legal defense of all EPA rules, Mr. Lorenzen has a unique ability to help clients shape environmental policy, provide vital input on proposed federal environmental regulations through written comment and direct interaction with regulators, and mount effective judicial challenges to EPA actions that adversely affect his clients' interests. He also helps clients ensure compliance with existing environmental regulations. In addition, he is a noted appellate lawyer who has briefed, argued, or supervised hundreds of petitions for review of EPA regulations and other final EPA actions.
While he was at the Department of Justice, Mr. Lorenzen oversaw many of the seminal environmental cases of the last decade. These include Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the Supreme Court affirmed EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, and Entergy v. Riverkeeper, in which the Court held that EPA has discretion under the Clean Water Act to consider or decline to consider costs in determining how to regulate cooling water intake structures. In the D.C. Circuit and the other federal courts of appeals, he oversaw the government's defense in Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, in which the court upheld EPA's first suite of greenhouse gas regulations (largely upheld by the Supreme Court in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA); EME Homer City Generation, L.P. v. EPA and North Carolina v. EPA, in which the court reviewed EPA's various attempts to address interstate transport of air pollutants; numerous cases challenging EPA regulations governing emissions of hazardous air pollutants; and National Cotton Council v. EPA, in which the Sixth Circuit reviewed EPA's Clean Water Act regulations governing the application of pesticides over waters of the United States.
Mr. Lorenzen is a frequent lecturer and commentator in print, on the internet, and on television regarding federal environmental law, climate change regulation, administrative law, federal policymaking, and effective appellate brief-writing and argument.
The Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule
Thomas A. Lorenzen, Michael J. Nasi
The EPA released the final Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule in June 2019. The ACE...
The Clean Power Plan: Litigation and Regulatory Challenges, Old and New
David D. Doniger, Thomas A. Lorenzen
Environmental Law & Property Rights Teleforum
In January 16, 2018, the comment period will close on the Environmental Protection Agency’s notice of proposed...