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Dan Watkiss is a trial and transactional attorney with over 30 years of domestic and international experience, primarily in economic regulation, antitrust, and natural resources. As a senior litigation attorney with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (1982-86) and partner in three private law firms (1986-2017), Mr. Watkiss has led the litigation of more than 50 civil and administrative trials and argued multiple appeals. He devised advocacy and litigation strategies for expanding access to and participation in power markets and has effectively implemented these strategies in many contested civil and administrative cases and agency rulemakings. In his many trials, Mr. Watkiss has become expert at translating complex technical and scientific concepts and processes into positions and arguments accessible to non-experts, including legislators, judges, regulators, and the popular press.
Mr. Watkiss has played a central role in much of the evolution and innovation that has occurred in U.S. energy markets since 1980. Beginning with the most recent, these include:
Mr. Watkiss is a member of the District of Columbia and New York bars and the Energy Bar Association. He is also a frequent contributor to energy and natural resources trade publications.
Mr. Watkiss has played a central role in much of the evolution and innovation that has occurred in U.S. energy markets since 1980. Beginning with the most recent, these include:
- Advocating for the rights of merchant transmission investors and developers to participate in the planning, design and construction of regional electric transmission network upgrade—competitive opportunities that became available through FERC initiatives in Orders No. 890 (2007) and 1000 (2011).
- Advocating for demand response as a supply alternative to generation on behalf of developers of load aggregation procedures and applications. Mr. Watkiss has published articles supporting the eligibility of demand response resources to participate on an equal footing with generation in regional (RTO and ISO) power markets.
- Advocating to the U.S. Congress in support of increased investment in the transmission grid and economic dispatch of all supply and demand resources, for which provisions were enacted in Title XII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
- Forming a coalition of independent power producers, municipal utilities, and rural electric cooperatives to petition the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a rulemaking mandating non-discriminatory open-access to the transmission grid, which FERC did in 1996 in its Orders No. 888 and No. 889 based largely the coalition’s petition and rulemaking comments,
- Forming coalition of qualifying small renewable (geothermal, run-of-river hydro, wind, and solar) power producers, municipal utilities, and rural electric cooperatives that successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress to enact provisions of Title VII of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 amending the Public Utility Holding Companies Act and the Federal Power Act to authorize independent power production and open-access to the electric grid. Following enactment, Mr. Watkiss co-authored a widely cited article explaining the importance of Title VII in the Yale Journal on Regulation.
- Advocating for coalition of economists and electric utilities in favor of the highly successful sulfur-dioxide trading program that Congress adopted in Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.
Mr. Watkiss is a member of the District of Columbia and New York bars and the Energy Bar Association. He is also a frequent contributor to energy and natural resources trade publications.
