Jeremy D. Weinstein, Esq.

• Jeremy Weinstein has broad and deep expertise in energy trading and project development, financial and commodity derivatives, renewable resources, climate change, corporate and commercial finance, secured lending, securities, workouts, bankruptcy and investment fund management.  He has negotiated and documented numerous physical and financial transactions covering millions of megawatt-hours in energy and fuels, more than 175 energy derivative and commodity trading enabling agreements, over 450 significant debt, equity and derivative transactions representing billions of dollars, and over a hundred corporate restructurings and workouts. Several of these transactions have been featured in international periodicals, including two written about on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal.  Before opening his own firm in 1991, he was the general counsel for a leading diversified utility's venture capital/leasing unit, and before that was with a major California law firm where he represented California's largest banks in asset-based transactions, including international corporate loans and leveraged buyouts.

• Jeremy Weinstein was awarded the 2007 Distinguished Service in Environmental Markets Award by the Environmental Markets Association for his work on  a standard form of master renewable energy certificates trading contract.  He is prominent in the most exciting, developing areas of environmental finance, advising major industrial companies on environmental markets and mitigation strategies relating to climate change and the Kyoto Protocol, California Renewable Portfolio Standard requirements, and negotiating and documenting significant transactions.

• Jeremy Weinstein has addressed national conferences on topics in energy trading, environmental markets, renewable energy certificates (also known as "green tags"), credit and bankruptcy issues and developments, and weather derivatives.  Several transactions on which he has worked have been the subject of media coverage.  He has briefed and argued important appellate decisions, including the winning side of the landmark bankruptcy preference case In re Loretto Winery, 107 B.R. 707, 89 C.D.O.S. 26 (9th Cir. BAP 1989), which was finally overruled by Act of Congress in 2005.  Using his proficiency in the mathematics underlying finance and derivative transactions, he has developed techniques of forensic financial statistical analysis that successfully detected unreported derivatives activity.

• He has written extensively on important emerging issues in energy trading, derivatives and environmental finance, as well as on the role of morality in law, including:

• "Quicksand in the Hedges," Futures & Derivatives Law Report, Nov. 2011;

• "The Nature of the Thing," Environmental Finance, June 2011 (co-authored with Christopher Berendt)

• "How the Dodd-Frank Act Will Bring Back Stagflation," Futures & Derivatives Law Report, Jan. 2011;

• "Contract Techniques for Renewable Resource Power Purchase Agreement Off-Takers," chapter in Kramer & Fusaro, Energy and Environmental Project Finance Law and Taxation: New Investment Techniques (Oxford University Press, 2010);

• "Contract Force Majeure under New York Law," chapter in Kramer & Fusaro, Energy and Environmental Project Finance Law and Taxation: New Investment Techniques (Oxford University Press, 2010);

• "The ABA/EMA/ACORE Master Renewable Energy Certificate Trading Agreement," Bloomberg Law Reports: Sustainable Energy, vol. 2 no. 9, p. 11 (Sept. 2009);

• "The Electric House," Futures & Derivatives Law Report, Jan. 2009 (with Noel Trask);

• "Practical Considerations When Trading Electricity on Standardized Industry Forms," chapter in Kramer and Fusaro, Energy and Environmental Trading: US Law and Taxation (2008);

• "Contract Force Majeure under New York Law," chapter in Kramer and Fusaro, Energy and Environmental Trading: US Law and Taxation (2008);

• "The New ABA/EMA/ACORE Master Renewable Energy Certificate Trading Agreement," chapter in Kramer and Fusaro, Energy and Environmental Trading: US Law and Taxation (2008);

• "Energy Trading with Hedge Funds," Kramer and Fusaro, Energy and Environmental Trading: US Law and Taxation (2008);

• "New Master Renewable Energy Certificate Trading Agreement," American Bar Association Energy Committees Newsletter, May 2007;

• "On the Path to Renewable Energy Certificates Derivatives," Futures & Derivatives Law Report, Apr. 2007;

• Introduction and Guidance Notes, ABA/EMA/ACORE Master Renewable Energy Certificate Purchase and Sale Agreement, Feb. 2007 (with other credited working group members);

• "Energy Trading Contracting with Hedge Funds," Proceedings of the 58th Annual Institute on Oil and Gas Law, p.191 (2007);

• "Applied Game Theory in the United Airlines Bankruptcy Case," Wilmott's Quantitative Finance Journal, Nov. 2006;

• "Contracting for a Unified Renewable Energy Certificates Market," Environmental Finance, Nov. 2006;

• "Practical Considerations Regarding Electricity and its Regulation When Using the ISDA/EEI Power Annex," Futures & Derivatives Law Report, Jul./Aug. 2006;

• "Standardizing Renewable Energy Certificates Contracting," Environmental Finance, May 2005 (with Dan Chartier);

• "Escape from the Island of the One-Way Termination:  Expectations and Enron v. TXU," Futures & Derivatives Law Report, Nov. 2004 (with Bruce MacIntyre & Fritz Henze); 

• "A Western Renewables Marketplace," Environmental Finance, Apr. 2004;

• "Master Netting Agreement Developments in the Energy Industry," Futures & Derivatives Law Report, May 2003 (cited in Euromoney's Documentation for Derivatives, and in the Journal of Futures Markets);

• "Examining Enron's SO₂ Emission Trades," Environmental Finance, Mar. 2003;

• "Using the Emissions Marketing Association Master Agreement," The Emissions Trader, Mar. 2003;

• "What's Missing from Andrew Fastow's Indictment?" Energy & Power Risk Management, Jan. 2003 (published as "Fastow Under Investigation");

• "Rethinking the Silicon Valley Cargo Cult," Wilmott's Quantitative Finance Journal, Jan. 2002;

• "Carbon-Denominated Weather Swaps," Environmental Finance, Nov. 2001;

• "Weather Derivatives for Environmental Risk Management," Energy & Power Risk Management, Sep. 2001;

• "Inside California's Power Crisis," Energy & Power Risk Management, Mar. 2001;

• "Emissions Trading: The Market as Mystic," Energy & Power Risk Management, Nov. 2000;

• "Innovative Financing and Forest Conservation," Environmental Finance, Jun. 2000;

• "Valuing Private Equity Warrants on Initial Issuance," Valuation Strategies, Sep./Oct. 1999 and Derivatives Report, Oct. 1999 (cited by Shannon Pratt in his core textbook, "Valuing a Business:  The Analysis and Appraisal of Closely Held Companies," 4th ed.);

• "No Milk and Honey in Land of Worker Bees," Wall Street Journal, Feb. 1, 1990;

• "Adultery, Law, and the State: A History," 38 Hastings Law Journal 195 (Nov. 1986) (cited by Judge Posner; in Senate Hearings on a marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution (2005); the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (2002); and by several prestigious law reviews); and

• "Morals and the Criminal Law," PV-P, The Cambridge Student Philosophy Journal, Apr. 1983.

• Practice area:  Energy and Environmental Commodity and Derivatives Trading

• Member, Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Contracts Drafting Committee

• example engagement: Chehalis 520MW gas-fired 2x1 power plant (representing buyer PacifiCorp on interim tolling agreement)

• example engagement: Lakeside 535MW gas-fired 2x1 power plant (representing buyer PacifiCorp on plant purchase)

• example engagement: PG&E ClimateSmart Program forestry Carbon credits (representing buyer PG&E)

• example engagement: PG&E ClimateSmart Program dairy methane Carbon credits acquisition (representing Buyer PG&E)

• example engagement: PG&E ClimateSmart Program (representing buyer PG&E on Carbon credit acquisition)

• example engagement: PG&E Climate Smart Program forestry Carbon credits acquisition (representing buyer PG&E)

• example engagement: Black Warrior Landfill Methane Carbon Reduction Tonnes (representing Carbon credit buyer CE2 Capital)

• Chair, Western Energy Markets Working Group, MRTU Settlement Amendment

• Chair, drafting committee, WSPP MRTU Amendment

• Member, Environmental Markets Association, Market Oversight Committee

• Member, ISDA/Emissions Trading Annex Drafting Committee

• Member, ISDA/EEI Power Annex Drafting Committee

• Member, EEI Master Netting Agreement Drafting Committee

• Member, EEI Collateral Annex Drafting Committee

• Member, EMA Master Emissions Trading Agreement Drafting Committee

• Member, WSPP Contracts Subcommittee

• Member, Western Systems Power Pool Mediation Panel

• media coverage:  Natural gas price formation FERC docket

• comments of Environmental Markets Association on the CFTC NOPR on Dodd-Frank Act definition of "swap" (principal author)

• comments of California Utilities on the "swap" definition NOPR (environmental commodities section)

• comments of International Energy Credit Association on the "swap" definition NOPR (principal author)

• comments of the International Energy Credit Association on swaps documentation NOPR under Dodd-Frank (principal author)

• comments of the International Energy Credit Association to CFTC end-user exemption NOPR under Dodd-Frank (principal author)

• Practice area:  Renewable Energy and Climate Change

• example engagement: Top of the World 200MW wind farm (representing power purchase agreement buyer PacifiCorp) 

• example engagement: Campbell Hill 99 MW wind farm (representing power purchase agreement buyer PacifiCorp)

• example engagement: Wolverine Creek 64.5MW wind farm (representing power purchase agreement off-taker PacifiCorp)

• example engagement: Southern New Hampshire University Carbon-neutral hedge (representing hedge + RECs seller PPM Energy, Inc.)

• example engagement: Renewable energy for the NY Freedom Tower (representing hedge seller + RECs PPM Energy, Inc.)

• example engagement: Utilitree Carbon Company (representing Rio Bravo Carbon sequestration Project investor PacifiCorp

• example engagement: Noel Kempff Climate Action Project (representing Carbon AIJ investor investor PacifiCorp)

• Chair, RECs Annex subcommittee of Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Contract Drafting Committee

• Co-chair, ABA/EMA/ACORE Renewable Energy Certificates Trading Agreement Drafting Committee

• Member, Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System Stakeholder Advisory Committee

• Member, Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System Policy Subcommittee

• Member, The Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas

• Member, The Climate Registry Power Sector Technical Expert Panel

• media coverage:  Commenting on Cap and Trade Legislation

• media coverage:  Commenting on Cap and Trade legislation

• media coverage:  Commenting on Cap and Trade legislation

• media coverage:  Commenting on Renewable Energy Certificate and Carbon markets

• media coverage:  Commenting on Renewable Energy Certificate markets

• media coverage:  ABA/EMA/ACORE Renewable Energy Certificates Trading Agreement

• media coverage:  ABA/EMA/ACORE Renewable Energy Certificates Trading Agreement

• media coverage:  ABA/EMA/ACORE Renewable Energy Certificates Trading Agreement

• media coverage:  ABA/EMA/ACORE Renewable Energy Certificates Trading Agreement

• media coverage:  BBC interview on international climate change policy, from Bolivia (realmedia file, at minute 3:40 of 4:24)

• comments of Environmental Markets Association on the CFTC NOPR on Dodd-Frank Act definition of "swap" (principal author)

• Founding Reporter, The Climate Registry

• comments on the California Energy Commission Biomethane Workshop

• comments on the Climate Action Reserve Proposed Landfill Gas Protocol 4.0

• comments on California Air Resources Board Cap-and-Trade proposed regulations.

• comments on the Climate Action Reserve forestry protocol Project Implementation Agreement

• comments on the Western Climate Initiative Market Oversight White Paper

• comments on the CFTC Notice of Intended Rulemaking on Chicago Climate Exchange Carbon Financial Instruments

• Practice area:  Dodd-Frank Act:  Jeremy Weinstein was the primary author, with esteemed colleagues and contributors, of the following comment letters concerning rulemakings by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act and other legislation:       

• National Rural Electric Cooperative Association   comments on the Volcker Rule (co-author with Patricia Dodanville)

• International Energy Credit Association 7/27/11 comments on CFTC Swaps Definition NOPR

• California Utilities 7/22/11 joint comments on CFTC Swaps Definition NOPR (environmental attributes sections)

• Environmental Markets Association 7/21/11 comments on CFTC Swaps Definition NOPR

• International Energy Credit Association 4/11/11 comments on CFTC Trading Relationship Documentation NOPR

• International Energy Credit Association 2/22/11 comments on CFTC End-User Exemption NOPR

• Environmental Markets Association 12/17/10 comments on Dodd-Frank Section 750 Study.

• Environmental Markets Association 9/20/10 comments on the CFTC/SEC Dodd-Frank definitional ANOPR

• my 9/4/09 comments on the CFTC Notice of Intended Rulemaking on Chicago Climate Exchange Carbon Financial Instruments (CFTC Order

• media coverage:  Commenting on Dodd-Frank Act regulation

• media coverage:  Commenting on Dodd-Frank Act regulation

• Jeremy Weinstein is a founder of the Contra Costa County Jewish Day School and serves on its Board of Trustees. He was also a founder of the Corporate Counsel and Business Attorneys Section of the Contra Costa Bar Association in 1990.

• He earned his J.D. in 1987 at the University of California, where he was Executive Editor of The Hastings Law Journal, his Bachelor's degree in 1982 at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was Phi Beta Kappa and graduated, in three years, summa cum laude; and both a B.A. and M.A., with honors, reading law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, England, in 1984, where he was Secretary of the Trinity Hall Law Society.

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