Empowering a University:
Betts & Holt serves as special counsel to a state university that operates one of the largest urban campuses in the nation. Retained originally to advise the school in connection with efforts to restructure and renovate the energy requirements and infrastructure of the school, the firm has furnished guidance through a myriad of issues relating to on-site power generation and procurement and contract management. Cited as a model of public-private development, the enterprise is one of the largest public procurement projects ever completed on the East Coast.

Helping a Cooperative Cooperate:
When parties to a large and complex electricity and gas cooperative -- the largest consumer of energy in the District of Columbia -- required special counsel to investigate allegations involving long-standing management and oversight issues, Betts & Holt was called in, bringing focus and judgment to a process that had threatened the continued viability of the organization. After building stronger relationships between parties, Betts & Holt has been able to achieve significant savings for the cooperative by researching local tax codes as they apply to utility purchases and in requesting and evaluating proposals for both gas and electric supply.

Power Shopping, Retail:
Steel mini-mills consume vast quantities of electricity in arc furnaces employed to recycle scrap steel into finished product. The cost of electricity in an increasingly competitive market represents one of the principal drivers of a mill's profitability. Betts & Holt has provided vitally important counsel to participants in this sector of the U.S. steel industry, evaluating options, negotiating prices and other terms, and advising on retail procurement strategies. In the same arena, Betts & Holt serves as counsel to a large municipal water utility, negotiating and securing arrangements for retail electricity service.

Covering the Waterfront:
Trade associations are often expected to deliver their members limitless services with limited resources. Our representation of a national energy-industry trade association -- a client of firm attorneys for nearly twenty years -- involves navigation of an ever-changing seascape of legal challenges and spotting and exploiting opportunities for delivering value to its membership. Our services have comprised a veritable textbook of administrative law; adjudicatory hearings, appeals, rulemakings, policy analyses, and judicial appeals. Betts & Holt has adapted its services to meet this client's fluid needs, and the institutional continuity of this long-term relationship bears fruit for the client in many ways.

Power Shopping, Wholesale:
Our firm's attorneys were among the first in the nation to secure competitive wholesale power contracts for municipal utilities after Congress authorized competition in 1992. We were asked by a consortium of municipal utilities to prepare a Request for Proposals, evaluate the responses and negotiate the final contract. These customers are very satisfied with their long term electric contract, at below market rates, with a reliable and credit-worthy supplier. Betts & Holt prides itself on lowering wholesale electric power supply costs for the citizen customers of municipal utilities around the country.