Environmental & Natural Resources

Drummond Woodsum's environment and energy team is a dynamic group of attorneys with specialized expertise in environment and energy law and with backgrounds in litigation, real estate and land use law. Together, this team serves a diverse group of clients from many business sectors, including natural resource protection, manufacturing, renewable energy, real estate, banking, municipalities and educational institutions. Our team is distinguished by its focus on providing each client with cost-effective solutions and zealous advocacy. Drummond Woodsum’s attorneys handle a wide variety matters:

TRANSACTIONAL ADVICE

Drummond Woodsum attorneys advise their clients on some of the largest and most complex business transactions in Maine and northern New England. We help identify and facilitate permit transfers, conduct due diligence, and negotiate the pertinent terms of transactional documents. Our transactional advice often involves overlapping environmental and energy issues, so our environmental and energy practice groups frequently utilize a team approach.   For instance, Drummond Woodsum negotiated a first of its kind settlement of legacy environmental liabilities between the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Central Maine & Quebec Railway related to its acquisition of the assets of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway out of bankruptcy. Similarly, we represented Emera, Inc. in its due diligence and investment in a joint venture with First Wind in order to meet renewable portfolio standards.

COMPLIANCE

Drummond Woodsum provides ongoing counsel to its clients on compliance with local, state, and federal law. For instance, Drummond Woodsum has served as outside general counsel to several Maine and New Hampshire paper mills, including Old Town Fuel & Fiber and Gorham Paper & Tissue. This work is as diverse as it is complex, including constructing water intakes and natural gas pipelines, complying with air licenses, obtaining MEPDES and NPDES discharge permits, remediating PCBs, and closing landfills and RCRA and CERCLA areas issues. Drummond Woodsum also represents clients in defending civil and criminal enforcement matters and in rulemaking proceedings before the Maine Public Utilities Commission and the Maine Board of Environmental Protection.

LEGISLATION & LOBBYING

Drummond Woodsum’s advocacy for its clients goes well beyond the board room and the negotiating table. When existing laws cannot solve a problem, Drummond Woodsum attorneys help change the law. For instance, our team worked closely with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Maine Legislature, and other stakeholders to develop and enact legislation that funded the clean-up costs for George West Waste Oil sites across Maine without seeking imposing direct costs on its clients, individual property owners. Similarly, when Bowater Inc. faced a “deal breaker” in its transaction to acquire Great Northern Paper’s assets from Georgia Pacific, Drummond Woodsum drafted and lobbied for emergency legislation allowing the transfer of certain dam and waterway rights that allowed the deal to close in less than a week.

LITIGATION

Representation of the Penobscot Nation in obtaining protections of the sustenance fishing rights. Learn more about our Land Use and Conservation Practice.

Representation of a municipality in complex, multi-year, multi-party litigation over public beach access and recreation rights, including appearance before Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court.  Learn more about our Municipal Law Practice.