Jerry R. Bloom, Partner

Jerry Bloom is chair of the firm’s energy, project development, and finance practice group and focuses his practice on the development, finance, and operation of domestic and international independent energy projects, electric-industry restructuring and privatization, and mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Bloom assists clients in structuring, financing, and developing energy infrastructure projects, including renewable, combined heat and power, and fossil-fuel generation. He has extensive experience in the negotiation of off-take and power purchase agreements, engineering, procurement, and construction contracts, operation and maintenance agreements, fuel supply agreements, syndication, and agency agreements. Mr. Bloom also has extensive experience before various local, state, and federal regulatory bodies that oversee infrastructure projects and has resolved numerous contract disputes among project participants, including disputes between utilities and their independent power suppliers. He has assisted in the development and operation of energy projects in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Australia, the Philippines, and China.

Mr. Bloom also has assisted developers, marketers, consumers, and foreign governments in promoting and structuring the privatization and development of an independent electric power sector. Mr. Bloom founded and is counsel to the California Cogeneration Council, an ad-hoc body of companies that own and operate approximately 1,200 MW of cogeneration capacity in California. He was actively involved in the restructuring of California’s energy market and in addressing the California energy crisis, where he was not only called upon by federal and state officials to assist in addressing the myriad of issues impacting his clients, but also was counsel to the co-chair of the official creditor’s committee in Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He is currently working on the structure for future procurement of power from Qualifying Facilities by California’s Investor-Owned Utilities.

Mr. Bloom is continually involved in numerous transactions in the energy markets, including structuring agreements among power generators, wholesalers, and end users, as well as restructuring existing relationships between producers and market participants to allow clients to leverage from and adapt existing projects to these changing markets. He also has provided legal counsel in connection with the sale and purchase of generation facilities by independent power producers and investor-owned utilities. His representations in this area include Simpson Paper Co. in the sale of its cogeneration facilities; AES Pacific, Inc. in its acquisition of power plants totaling more than 4,000 MW from the Southern California Edison Co.; JP Morgan, which acted as agent for the sale of the Northeast Utilities Millstone Nuclear Units; and Mirant Corp. in its transfer of Contra Costa 8 to Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Mr. Bloom has also been counsel to Ausra in its sale of solar projects and the purchase of solar projects and companies by NRG Energy, Inc.

In addition, Mr. Bloom is active in the development of repowered and new fossil-fuel fired generation and combined heat and power projects used in meeting industrial and manufacturing energy requirements (so-called “energy islands”). Mr. Bloom is also active in the development of small- and utility-scale photovoltaic and thermal solar facilities, including large solar projects in remote dessert locations and rooftop solar.

Honors and Awards

Activities

Mr. Bloom accompanied California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on his trade mission to China to promote the integration of alternative energy into China’s resource plans for meeting its rapidly expanding demands for energy and has recently been appointed to the newly formed Advisory Board at George Washington University’s Solar Institute.

Mr. Bloom is a member of the American Bar Association.

Education

Speeches and Publications