Assistant General Counsel

Who We Are:

The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) seeks to protect, preserve, and enhance Massachusetts' environmental resources and create a clean energy future for all residents. Through the stewardship of open spaces, the protection of environmental resources, and the advancement of clean energy, EEA works tirelessly to make Massachusetts a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family.

  Our commitment to environmental justice ensures that every resident, regardless of background or location, can live in a safe, clean environment and shares equally in the benefits of the clean energy transition.

Who We Are as an

Employer:

At EEA, we create meaningful, inclusive opportunities that empower our employees to make a real difference in shaping the environmental future of Massachusetts. We foster a workplace culture where diversity is valued, innovation is encouraged, and collaboration thrives. Our employees play a vital role in advancing sustainability, environmental justice, and clean energy solutions, ensuring a positive and lasting impact on Massachusetts and its residents.

DPU:

The Department of Public Utilities (DPU) is the state agency responsible for overseeing investor-owned electric power, natural gas, and water companies in Massachusetts. It regulates the safety of bus companies, moving companies, transportation network companies, and oversees the safety of natural gas pipelines and the MBTA.

Job Description:

As the Assistant General Counsel, you will be a key member of the Siting Division (a division within the Department of Public Utilities ("Department")), leading legal, policy, and procedural matters affecting the Siting Division, and assisting the Deputy General Counsel of the Siting Division in supervising the Siting Division's legal staff. The Siting Division is staff to the eleven-member Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board ("Siting Board"), which has the responsibility for siting major energy facilities in the Commonwealth.

These facilities include clean energy infrastructure facilities (such as renewable electric generating facilities, energy storage, and electric transmission lines and substations); and legacy energy facilities (such as intrastate natural gas pipelines; fossil-fuel electric generating facilities, and large LNG storage facilities). that meet the Board's jurisdictional thresholds. The 2024 Climate Act significantly revised and improved the siting and permitting process for energy facilities in Massachusetts, and the Assistant General Counsel will be central in the Act's implementation.

The Assistant General Counsel supervises attorneys within the Siting Division, provides legal, policy, and procedural support, advice, and guidance to Division staff, as well as the Siting Board members, commissioners and others at the Department, and other stakeholders. The Assistant General Counsel is responsible for the review of applications to site clean energy infrastructure facilities and legacy energy facilities. In addition, the Assistant General Counsel will review requests for Advisory Rulings, Determinations of Jurisdiction, Certificates of Environmental Impact and Public Interest;

intervene before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; review siting-related legislative and regulatory activities, and works directly on assigned cases or other matters, as needed.

A cover letter and resume must be submitted as part of the application.

Your essential job duties will include, but not be limited to:

* Interviewing, recommending for hire, assigning, training, managing, supervising, directing, and evaluating the work performed by Siting Division attorneys. Staff supervision and general review responsibilities shall ensure that all work products and activities of the Siting Division are handled in a legally sound, well-informed, thorough and thoughtful manner, consistent with all applicable Siting Board statutes, regulations, policies, precedent, and procedures.

* Reviewing written work products prepared within the Siting Division, such as discovery, memos, rulings, orders, Tentative and Final Decisions, presentations, and other documents or…