Allison C. Smith

Experience

Allison Smith focuses her practice in environmental and energy law. Her experience includes CEQA and land use litigation, conducting environmental due diligence, and permitting geothermal, solar, wind, biomass and gas-fired energy facilities. Allison also counsels public and private entities on CEQA, Coastal Act, and federal and state air quality and greenhouse gas compliance.

Prior to practicing law, Allison was a volunteer in the Peace Corps in Côte d'lvoire and taught English in Tokushima, Japan with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program.

Representative Work

• Provide CEQA and permitting advice for the development of solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and gas-fired energy facilities throughout California.
• Conduct permitting and environmental due diligence for the sale, financing, and acquisition of energy facilities.
• Helped successfully defend the City of Sacramento and Redevelopment Agency against CEQA challenges to a large-scale mixed use redevelopment project.
• Defended a biomass plant against multiple CEQA law suits, settling both suits and obtaining a release of all claims against the project owner.
• Counsel electricity producers and importers on compliance with the California cap and trade program and mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reporting.
• Negotiated an amendment of a power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison to provide for reimbursement to the facility owner of California cap and trade compliance costs.
• Advised an investment bank on the risks and liabilities associated with a loan to purchase real property to create a forest offset project under the California cap and trade program, helped draft related terms of the loan and security agreement.
• Counseled a timber company on creating a project to generate carbon offsets from forest lands for sale in the California cap and trade market, including negotiation of a carbon development services agreement.
• Handled the sale of emission reduction credits, including drafting a purchase and sale agreement.
• Assist with permitting and provide advice on compliance with the Clean Air Act new source review and prevention of significant deterioration programs, as well as local air quality regulations, including San Diego Air Pollution Control District, San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, and South Coast Air Quality Management District rules.
• Defended a pollution control device manufacturer against lawsuits for civil penalties brought by the California Air Resources Board, South Coast Air Quality Management District, and Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District.

Professional Honors & Activities

• Editor, Climate Change Law and Policy Reporter
• California Bar Association, Environmental Law Section, Environmental Legislation Committee
• American Bar Association, Environment, Energy and Resources Section
• Sacramento County Bar Association, Environmental Law Section

Presentations

• "Strategies for Complying with Currant GHG Regulations in California," EUEC 2012 (Feb. 2012)
• "Getting Ready for Greenhouse Gas Requirements in California," Infocast Webinar (Oct. 2011)
• "Land Use Implications of Renewable Energy Projects," Northern California County Counsel Association (July 2010)
• "Renewable Energy Facility Siting," California Bar Association Environmental Law Section Spring Roundtables  (June 2009)
• "California's Green Building Standards," LSI Legal and Regulatory Issues in Green Development (Jan. 2009)

Publications

• Regular contributor to the Stoel Rives Renewable + Law Blog and the California Environmental Law Blog
• "California's Cap and Trade Program under AB32 – a Primer" (co-author), Stoel Rives LLP December 2012
• "Siting Plant (All Scales)" Chapter, The Law of Biorefineries and Advanced Biofuels, Stoel Rives LLP, 2012 Edition
• "Sacramento Railyards: How the City of Sacramento is Facilitating Development of the Largest Brownfield Infill Site in America" (coauthor), California Real Property Journal, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2011
• "Wind Projects Enter New Permitting Reality: Policies Addressing Wind Development on Federal Lands May Favor the Easiest – Rather Than the Best – Projects" (coauthor), North American Windpower, Vol. 8, No. 9, Oct. 2011
• "How to Negotiate Like a Lawyer", Comstock's Magazine, March 2011
• "California Adopts its Cap-and-Trade Program for Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Fresno Bar Journal, Feb. 2011
• Energy Law Alert, "California Adopts its Cap-and-Trade Program for Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Dec. 20, 2010
• "Ailing California Works to Solve Wind Slowdown," (co-author) North American Windpower, Oct. 2009
• "Water—Know Your Rights," (co-author) Wine Business Monthly, Dec. 2008
• Renewable Energy Law Alert, "Assembly Bill Looks to Accelerate Renewable Procurement in California," Dec. 19, 2008

Education

• Tulane University Law School, J.D., 2005
  Certificate in Environmental Law
  Member, Environmental Law Journal
  Order of the Barristers
  Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Competition, Quarter Finalist
  Chair, Tulane Law School Summit on Environmental Law
  Vice President, Environmental Law Society
• University of Virginia, B.A., Environmental Science and Anthropology, 1996

Admissions

• California
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District, California

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