William E. Baer, Jr. is senior counsel in Morgan Lewis's Energy Practice. Mr. Baer focuses his practice on litigation, regulatory matters, and investigations, including state and federal court litigation involving public utilities, architect engineers, construction contractors, and vendors; nuclear power plant licensing proceedings before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and state utility regulatory commission proceedings; and conduct of internal investigations or representation during investigations by outside parties.
Mr. Baer’s litigation background includes substantial work on behalf of a Texas utility in its lawsuit against a contractor concerning the South Texas nuclear project. He also litigated on behalf of two California utilities in litigation against a vendor of major nuclear plant components, and on behalf of a utility company in litigation involving the Peach Bottom nuclear plant.
Mr. Baer has conducted numerous internal investigations of potential violations of law or company policies, and has represented companies during federal, civil, and criminal investigations. He provides advice and assistance to nuclear power plant owners and operators on nearly all aspects of the laws and regulations applicable to those plants. His nuclear licensing experience includes license or license amendment proceedings for several nuclear power plant owners. He has developed or assisted in the development of management policies and programs to ensure compliance with NRC and other applicable requirements, and regularly serves as a counselor to senior utility management in solving regulatory problems. In particular, Mr. Baer has provided counsel to a number of utilities on their interaction with the NRC staff, with special emphasis on developing and implementing strategies to achieve, and effectively communicate, improvements in nuclear plant regulatory performance. He assisted in the development and implementation of strategies to prepare for state utility commission reviews of nuclear plant outage and modification costs, and to respond to state utility commission initiatives on economic performance incentives and other forms of alternative ratemaking.
Mr. Baer also has handled labor disputes involving nuclear plant employees who allege nuclear safety problems, and has represented NRC licensees and their employees during government investigations. He serves as counsel to the Nuclear Energy Institute Task Force on NRC Enforcement Policy Reform. Mr. Baer is also involved in counseling and representing nuclear plant owners in connection with nuclear plant license transfers associated with electric industry restructuring. He has provided advice to Texas Utilities and the South Texas Nuclear Operating Company on potential license transfers involving the Comanche Peak and South Texas nuclear units; has represented co-owners of the Millstone 3 and Seabrook nuclear stations in contested license transfer proceedings; and has been involved in license transfers for several nuclear power plants associated with the merger of PECO Energy Company and Unicom Corporation to form Exelon. NRC licensing proceedings or approvals in which Mr. Baer has played a substantial role include:
