James D. Albright

Experience

Mr. Albright offers soup-to-nuts energy regulatory consulting and legal services, supporting electric and natural gas utilities, utility partners and other affiliated businesses that benefit from expertise and practical experience in the nuances of rate regulation and all facets of public utility regulation.
Mr. Albright has detailed knowledge of complex accounting principles and ratemaking policy concepts, as well as the fundamental legal underpinnings and historical context of these principles and policies. He is well-versed in recent ratemaking trends and governmental and public policy developments.

Mr. Albright has had extensive involvement in the development and defense of revenue requirement studies, class cost of service studies, depreciation studies, lead-lag studies, cost assignment and allocation manuals, and rate design.

Mr. Albright played a major role in developing the legal structure for the initial establishment of distributed solar generation, community solar gardens and other renewable energy initiatives, including renewable natural gas (or biogas).

Mr. Albright has significant commercial transactional experience, having drafted and consulted on numerous agreements for natural gas gathering, processing, transportation and sales all along the upstream and downstream pipeline path

Professional Background:

Mr. Albright has spent his entire 40-year professional career in the energy industry, having worked during the 10 years before earning his law degree as a natural gas sales accountant and gas settlements auditor for a large natural gas producing and processing company, and as a gas buyer, gas contract administrator and law clerk for a diversified natural gas company having various business segments including natural gas production, gas gathering, interstate and intrastate pipeline services, and retail local distribution.

During his 30 years of practice as an energy lawyer, Mr. Albright has had major responsibilities in an assortment of regulatory, contractual and commercial litigation matters and initiatives for the regulated and non-regulated business segments of major energy companies, including retail electric utility, natural gas utility, district steam service, chilled water service, interstate and intrastate gas pipelines, and natural gas marketing.

Mr. Albright began his legal career in 1989 at an energy law boutique in Washington, D.C., representing interstate gas pipeline companies regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as other energy companies subject to state regulation, including gas and electric utilities, gas producing companies and intrastate gas pipelines.

Before permanently relocating to Colorado in 1995, Mr. Albright worked as a Senior Attorney at a major Northeast interstate pipeline company, handling all regulatory and commercial legal matters immediately following the pipeline’s construction and commencement of commercial operations.

For the next 12 years, Mr. Albright worked as an Associate General Counsel for Public Service Company of Colorado (later to become an operating subsidiary of Xcel Energy), the largest gas and electric utility in Colorado, where he was the primary attorney covering regulatory and commercial matters for the natural gas and steam service businesses in Colorado, practicing before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the FERC, state and federal courts.

For the past 13 years, Mr. Albright has represented his clients as an outside attorney within the energy law practices of two major law firms in Denver, Colorado, until 2018, when he opened his own independent law and consulting practice to more efficiently serve the specialized and sophisticated needs of his energy clients.