Anthony C. DeCusatis

Represents and counsels electric, natural gas, water, wastewater, and oil pipeline utilities in regulatory, transactional, and tax matters.

Bio

Anthony C. DeCusatis is Counsel in the firm's Energy & Utilities Practice Group. He represents and counsels electric, natural gas, water, wastewater, and oil pipeline utilities in regulatory, transactional, and tax matters. This includes representing utilities and energy suppliers in mergers, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and project development/finance matters. Over his 40+ year career, Mr. DeCusatis has worked on some of the largest electric and water utility acquisitions and mergers in the United States, representing acquiring and acquired companies in obtaining regulatory approvals in Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions. Additionally, he counsels lenders and underwriters in transactions involving utilities and energy-related businesses.

Mr. DeCusatis also advises clients in adversarial proceedings involving rate-increase litigation, prudence reviews, issuance of certificates, service/reliability complaints and investigations, siting of electric utility facilities, and audits of related-party transactions.

Mr. DeCusatis has regularly presented to industry and bar association conferences on topics of interest to the energy and utility industries. This includes regulatory issues pertaining to mergers and acquisitions of public utilities, the regulation of the water utility industry, electric industry restructuring and deregulation, the structure of competitive energy markets, and the securitization of utility costs, among other topics.

Mr. DeCusatis is the former Chair of the Public Utility Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. He is also a former section liaison to the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the former Chair of the Tax Developments Committee of the Energy Bar Association (EBA) (subsequently made part of the EBA’s Finance, Transactions and Investment Steering Committee).

From 2010 to 2020 and in 2022 and 2023, Mr. DeCusatis was recognized by The Best Lawyers in America© in the categories of Energy Law and Water Law. In 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2023, The Best Lawyers in America© named him a "Lawyer of the Year" in Energy Law. For information about these selections and an overview of common third-party publications, rankings, and list methodologies, click here.

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Practices

Energy & Utilities

Industries

Energy and Utilities

Education

L.L.M., Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law, 1992
J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1977
B.A., Pennsylvania State University, 1973

Bar Memberships

Pennsylvania

Affiliations

Member, Energy Bar Association, State Commission Practice and Regulation Committee
Former Chair, Pennsylvania Bar Association, Public Utility Law Section
Former Chair, Energy Bar Association, Tax Developments Committee

Representative Matters

Counsel for Petitioner in Povacz v. Pa. P.U.C., 280 A.3d 975 (Pa. 2022) (Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmance of electric utility’s Smart Meter program, which resolved issues underlying multiple customer complaints raising industry-wide challenges to electric utilities’ installation of smart meters.)
Counsel for Petitioners in McCloskey v. Pa. P.U.C., 255 A.3d 416 (Pa. 2021) (Pennsylvania Supreme Court review of the procedures employed by utilities to calculate federal and state income tax components of Pennsylvania’s Distribution System Improvement Charge.)
First-chair counsel for electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater utilities in major, litigated proceedings for increases in base rates and various rate adjustment surcharges including the first rate-increase proceeding invoking the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s (PAPUC) authority under amended Section 1311(c) of the Public Utility Code to recover wastewater costs from a combined water/wastewater customer base and new Section 1330 to implement an investor-owned utility’s proposed multi-year rate plan.
Represented electric utilities seeking regulatory approvals to exercise the power of eminent domain for transmission line rights-of-way and to site and locate overhead, high-voltage transmission lines.
After Pennsylvania enacted comprehensive electric restructuring legislation, represented electric utilities before the PAPUC in contested restructuring proceedings and subsequent judicial appeals.
Counseled and represented electric utilities seeking regulatory approval to securitize “stranded costs” created by the deregulation of electric generation and unbundling of electric rates.
Represented electric utilities in post-restructuring administrative and judicial proceedings to define and develop the structure of the deregulated generation market.

News & Insights

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