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“Carrie Collier-Brown is an excellent regulatory attorney and has deep knowledge of the electric industry in Texas, particularly as it applies to retail electric providers.”

Chambers USA 2024

Overview

With her deep ‎understanding of the Texas wholesale and retail electric markets and the regulatory ‎environment at the Texas PUC and ERCOT, Carrie provides clients with practical solutions ‎in agency proceedings, corporate transactions, and civil litigation. ‎

Carrie represents clients in a broad range of matters, including competitive retail and wholesale market policy, renewable energy project development and acquisitions, regulatory certifications, rate ‎applications, compliance and enforcement, and electric transmission Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) ‎proceedings. 

Carrie has developed a particularly strong niche practice in advising electric generators and end users on complex behind-the-meter and private use network projects (PUN) in ERCOT. She has extensive experience guiding clients through the regulatory process for interconnecting these projects to the grid, including large loads co-located with power generation facilities.

Prior to earning her law degree, Carrie worked at the Texas Legislature covering proposed legislation to create a competitive retail electric market. She went on to accept a role with the Texas PUC, where she led numerous rulemaking projects to implement retail electric choice before returning to legislative work in a government relations role. Fascinated by the complexity of energy regulatory law, she pursued a law degree, and then joined an energy-focused firm in DC.

She later returned to her home state of Texas, and more than 15 years later, Carrie continues to love the intersections of energy law, markets, and policy at the heart of her law practice. She is known as a highly knowledgeable advocate for participants in the competitive electric market in Texas and for her many years of experience in sophisticated commercial and regulatory transactions. Most of all, clients appreciate her creative thinking: Carrie’s solutions are never off-the-shelf answers, and she has a true talent for particularly complex projects.

“Carrie Collier-Brown is an excellent regulatory attorney and has deep knowledge of the electric industry in Texas, particularly as it applies to retail electric providers.”

Chambers USA 2024

Industry

Services

Recognition

  • Chambers USA, Energy: State Regulatory & Litigation (Electricity), 2021-2024
  • Best News Article, State Bar of Texas, 2021-2022

Education

  • J.D., Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law
  • B.A., University of Texas at Austin

Admissions

  • Texas
  • District of Columbia

Professional Memberships and Certifications

  • State Bar of Texas, Public Utility Law Section; Council Member, 2017-2019; Treasurer, 2020; Chair-Elect, 2021; Chair, 2022; Past-Chair, 2023
  • UT Advanced Administrative Law Seminar Planning Committee, 2021-2022
  • Gulf Coast Power Association (GCPA); EmPOWERing Women Committee Member, 2017-2020; EmPOWERing Women Leadership Conference Planning Committee, 2015-2019; Conference Planning Committee, Chair 2020
  • Texas Utility Lawyers, 2014-2019
Experience
  • Represents association of competitive retail electric providers in rulemakings, policy proceedings, and contested cases.
  • Represents transmission-only utility in transmission line routing case before the Texas PUC.
  • Advises wholesale market participants with registration and compliance matters regarding ERCOT, Texas Reliability Entity (TRE), and the Texas PUC.
  • Advises clients on regulatory issues in a broad range of energy contracts and due diligence for generation project development and acquisition transactions.
  • Represented portfolio company in formation of joint venture to own and operate on-site power generation utilizing captured flared natural gas in Yoakum County, Texas.
  • Represented client as local counsel on acquisition of generator; counseled on post-closing regulatory filings at the Texas PUC and FERC, as well as post-closing agreements.
  • Represented private equity company in acquisition of terminaling and storage assets in several states for approximately $160 million. The assets added approximately 7 million barrels of NGL storage.
  • Represented borrower in announced sale of fractionation facility near Corpus Christi, Texas. Purchase included 57-mile pipeline enabling facility to receive natural gas liquids from various pipelines that allow the delivery of fractionated products to several Corpus Christi-area markets.
Outside the Office

Carrie loves to travel: she’s the kind of friend who you can call for an impromptu two-week trip to Italy (yes, that did happen), and she loves showing the world to her kids. She has a teen and elementary-aged twins who have already made multiple trips to Europe. The family has even journeyed as far as Kenya together.

Community Leadership

Carrie is passionate about voter outreach, and in 2018 she founded Texas Blue Action, an organization which aims to increase voter turnout. She also cares deeply about supporting and fundraising for her children’s schools and serves as a campus parent representative for Eanes 4 Equity, a non-profit organization celebrating diversity and building connections within the school district community.

Carrie previously served on the Austin Electric Utility Commission in 2018-2019, as appointed by Austin City Council Member Paige Ellis.