Bowles Rice attorneys provide a broad range of legal services concerning public utility service. Our clients include:

  • Public Service Districts and Municipalities
  • Investor owned water, sewer and natural gas utilities
  • Natural gas transporters and producers
  • Industrial electric and gas consumers
  • Windmills and exempt wholesale electric generators
  • Telecommunications carriers and cable TV providers
  • Developers seeking utility services
  • Motor carriers and landfills

Bowles Rice assists public utilities, industrial consumers, and those in public utility-related fields to obtain their desired objectives. For public utilities, Bowles Rice provides the full range of services to assist in all phases of operating these most important enterprises – obtaining funding for projects, approving rate increases, addressing employee matters, resolving real property and construction issues, and closing on bonds.

Our lawyers have the depth of experience to offer creative options to difficult problems and to push back effectively when regulatory opposition emerges. Bowles Rice works to obtain flexible and affordable solutions for industrial customers of public utilities and for developers seeking public utility services.

Our Team includes a former staff counsel to the West Virginia Public Service Commission and a former environmental counsel to the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. Our attorneys have significant experience in representing gas-related cases before the Public Service Commission. One of our attorneys helped write the rules under which utilities are required to transport gas to end users, and the rules under which pipelines are regulated by the PSC. 

Bowles Rice provides clients with a full range of legal services, including:

Articles & Alerts

  • Successfully obtained legislation establishing a special electric rate option for industrial customers, and West Virginia Public Service Commission approval of two special rates for industrial clients under that legislation
  • Successfully obtained scores of certificates of convenience and necessity for water, sewer, motor carrier and natural gas clients
  • Successfully represented many telecommunications carriers in obtaining approval of changes in corporate control and secured financings
  • Advise natural gas producers and transporters regarding how business needs to be conducted in order to avoid being deemed a public utility
  • Successfully obtained West Virginia Public Service Commission approval of the first impact fee for a public service district
  • Closed on scores of financings to enable public utility projects to be constructed
  • Prepared several employee handbooks for public service districts
  • Obtained Public Service Commission siting authority for windmills and other exempt wholesale generators
  • Appear regularly on behalf of water and sewer utilities for funding requests to the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council
  • Obtain Public Service Commission approval of rate increases for dozens of clients
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