Biography: Environment

Alan has practised energy and environmental/regulatory law since 1989 and regularly deals with commercial, operational, environmental and regulatory issues, especially for the upstream oil and gas, energy, waste disposal and chemical industries. He is chair of the firm's environmental law practice group and a member of the firm's energy department. Alan also has significant legal experience in acting for the oil and gas industry in commercial transactions and regulatory matters, including common carrier and processor applications, forced poolings, downspacings and holdings, rateable take and contested facility, well and pipeline applications. Alan has also dealt extensively with commercial, environmental and regulatory issues concerning thermal and renewable power plants, electrical transmission and distribution lines, tourism and recreation projects, forestry, mining, commercial real estate, industrial facilities, sewage plants, hazardous waste landfills and treatment facilities, and water storage reservoirs.

Alan has appeared before the Alberta Courts, the Energy Resources Conservation Board, the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, the Natural Resources Conservation Board, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the Alberta Environmental Appeals Board, the Municipal Government Board and various other environmental, regulatory and municipal bodies. He assisted the government of British Columbia reform the regulation of oil and gas activities in the province, and advised the regulatory authorities in Colombia for developing rules for the exploration and development of coal bed methane resources.

Alan has led environmental and regulatory legal due diligence teams on a significant number of merger and acquisition, commercial, securities and financing projects, including recently acting for Petro-Canada in its C$55 billion merger with Suncor Energy and numerous other transactions involving large natural resource industry players. He has a comprehensive understanding of regulatory and tenure systems governing exploration and development of Canada's vast oil sands deposits.

Alan has recently developed practical experience in the embryonic field of carbon capture and storage, and worked on a number of carbon emission reduction and credit trading projects, including landfill gas capture, energy efficiency and agricultural offset projects.

Alan has been involved with regulatory and policy issues with respect to water rights in Alberta for over 20 years. He has successfully completed projects involving the trading of water rights, worked with ecological and hydrological experts on instream flow assessments and participated in major irrigation and hydropower projects. He has a deep understanding of water resources laws and Fisheries Act issues.

The LEXPERT Legal Directory has repeatedly recommended Alan as a leading lawyer in environmental law, and he is listed in The Best Lawyers in Canada as a leading environmental lawyer in Canada and in The International Who's Who of Environmental Lawyers as one of 453 international environmental law experts.

Alan is a former president of Trout Unlimited Canada, a founding director of the Western Sky Land Trust and the former chair of the Canadian Bar Association's environmental law section.