Mr. Dennis represents a variety of clients in the electric and natural gas industries on business, regulatory, litigation, enforcement and policy matters, including electricity and gas markets, renewable energy, electricity transmission, infrastructure development, electricity reliability standards, environmental regulations impacting energy production, smart grid, energy efficiency and distributed generation. He is an expert in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and state public utility commission regulation, and has significant experience navigating the complexities of Regional Transmission Organization and Independent System Operator markets and planning processes. Mr. Dennis is also an experienced appellate litigator, having presented oral argument in numerous complex energy regulatory cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

For more than 10 years, Mr. Dennis served in numerous positions at FERC. Most recently, he served as the director of the Division of Policy Development, where he led FERC staff’s efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of existing FERC policies and to identify new and emerging policy issues impacting FERC’s statutory responsibilities. In that role, Mr. Dennis directed agency research efforts on a number of emerging electricity and natural gas industry issues, including wholesale electricity market design and performance, transmission planning and cost allocation, integration of renewable energy, the impact of environmental regulations on the energy industry, distributed generation, new utility business models and natural gas-electric coordination. He also led the analysis of legislative proposals impacting FERC and was a liaison to other federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, industry trade groups and academic institutions, and he frequently represented FERC in national and international policy forums.

Previously, Mr. Dennis served as a legal advisor to FERC Commissioner John R. Norris, where he provided legal and policy advice to the commissioner on all aspects of FERC’s regulation of the electricity and natural gas industries. In that role, he reviewed thousands of draft FERC decisions on behalf of the commissioner and represented the commissioner’s interests, both within FERC and with industry and public interest groups.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Dennis was an attorney in FERC’s Office of the General Counsel. As an appellate lawyer in that office, he defended FERC’s orders and actions in federal appellate and district courts in all areas of the agency’s jurisdiction, including electric utility regulation, hydroelectric power development and natural gas market enforcement proceedings. During this time, he presented oral argument in numerous cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Prior to that, Mr. Dennis served as an attorney-advisor, where he advised the commissioners on electricity regulatory matters and drafted orders, rulemakings and statements of policy.

In addition to his public service, Mr. Dennis previously was the director of Federal Regulatory Affairs at a large, electricity-industry trade association, where he advanced industry positions at federal agencies and before Congress. Mr. Dennis has also been an attorney in private practice at a large law firm in the Southwest, representing electricity generators and large power users in federal and state regulatory proceedings.