Overview
Steve Brose provides oil and natural gas pipeline companies with leading representation and counsel on their most complex administrative, judicial, compliance, and transactional matters, including those involving rates, regulated practices, business opportunities, and safety. With more than 40 years of experience, he is highly valued for his ability to find alternative, innovative solutions to clients' problems. Steve has served as lead counsel in a number of the most high-profile oil pipeline matters to come before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Some of Steve's most prominent cases have involved the rates and practices of the largest crude oil, refined products, and natural gas liquids pipelines in North America. He has also long represented natural gas producers and processors in a variety of administrative and judicial matters involving royalty issues, abandonments, pipeline certificates, connections, and gas quality standards. Steve's experience includes representation of government and private entities in major pipeline projects in the former Soviet Union and South America.
Steve frequently speaks to bar associations and industry groups on matters involving various aspects of pipeline regulation, and he has served as an expert witness on oil pipeline regulation in private civil litigation. Among other service to the bar, Steve is a past Chair of the American Bar Association's Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Section. He also donates his time and talents in the form of an active pro bono practice, including recently having obtained from the Supreme Court of Delaware a decision vacating the conviction of an individual who was convicted of two murders and was sentenced to death.
- District of Columbia
- Hon. William H. Timbers, Jr., US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 1972-1973
- J.D., Columbia Law School, 1972, Columbia Law Review, Articles Editor
- M.A., The George Washington University, 2013, History
- B.A., Pennsylvania State University, 1969, (named Distinguished Alumnus, 2014)
Representative Matters
- Represented pipeline companies including Colonial, Enbridge, Sunoco, Enterprise, ConocoPhillips and many others in challenges to their FERC-regulated rates and practices.
- Represented the oil pipeline trade association in major rulemaking matters, including those involving FERC’s indexed rate methodology.
- Defended the owners of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) and its feeder lines in a range of regulatory proceedings before the FERC and the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. Steve’s relationship with TAPS dates back to the pipeline's original rate proceeding. That case culminated in a seminal 25-year rate settlement with the State of Alaska in which Steve played a primary role. Since then, he has defended the TAPS owners in challenges to the cost of reconfiguring the pump stations along the TAPS route, repairing corrosion on the pipeline, settling the Exxon Valdez oil spill case, and investigating and repairing thousands of electrical code violations on TAPS facilities, as well as the methodology to govern TAPS rates in the later years of the pipeline’s life.
- Crafted and successfully defended numerous transactions involving the long-term use of pipeline assets.
- Played a fundamental role in the proposed conversion of a major facility in the Southwest to interstate gas pipeline service. This project entailed, among other things, preparation of a detailed certificate application to the FERC, preparation of the initial tariff and rate structure for the pipeline, and coordination of the environmental and regulatory permitting process.
- Served on expert task forces for the World Bank and the State Department's Agency for International Development (AID) involving energy projects in the Former Soviet Union. The goal of the World Bank project was to increase access to Russia’s immense oil pipeline network; the AID task force advised and assisted the government of the Republic of Georgia regarding a proposed oil pipeline project from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.
- Served as the lead advisor to the Ecuador Ministry of Energy and Mines in its successful negotiations with Western developers of the new Ecuador oil pipeline project.
Speaking Engagements
- Regular speaker at the Association of Oil Pipe Lines' Annual Business Conferences, including delivering the Keynote Address on the 25th Anniversary of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 at the 2017 conference.
News & Publications
Press Releases
Steptoe Receives 28 Practice Rankings, 34 Individual Awards in Legal 500 US 2023
June 14, 2023
Press Releases
Steptoe Receives 25 Practice, 72 Individual Mentions in Chambers USA 2023
June 1, 2023
Press Releases
Steptoe Receives 16 Practice, 40 Individual Mentions in Chambers Global 2023
February 21, 2023
Press Releases
Steptoe Receives 27 Practice Rankings, 26 Individual Awards in Legal 500 US 2022
June 16, 2022
Press Releases
Steptoe Receives 27 Practice, 72 Individual Mentions in Chambers USA 2022
June 3, 2022
Press Releases
Steptoe Receives 15 Practice, 43 Individual Mentions in Chambers Global 2022
February 22, 2022
Noteworthy
- Legal 500 US, Hall of Fame, Industry Focus: Energy Regulatory, Oil and Gas (2022-2023)
- Legal 500 US, Leading Lawyer, Industry Focus: Energy Regulatory, Oil and Gas (2018-2021)
- Legal 500 US, Energy: Regulatory (2012-2017, 2019)
- Legal 500 US, Energy: Litigation (2009-2015, 2017, 2019)
- Chambers USA, Band 1, Energy: Oil & Gas, Regulatory & Litigation, Nationwide (2009-2024)
- Chambers Global, Band 1, Energy: Oil & Gas, Regulatory & Litigation, US (2014-2025)
- Chambers Global, Energy: Oil & Gas, Regulatory & Litigation, US (2008-2013)
- The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers, Energy (2013-2014)
- Best Lawyers in America, Lawyer of the Year, Energy Law, DC (2016, 2018)
- Best Lawyers in America, Lawyer of the Year, Oil & Gas Law, DC (2015)
- Best Lawyers in America, Energy and Natural Resources Law (2006-2022)
- Best Lawyers in America, Oil and Gas Law (2015-2022)
- Super Lawyers, Washington, DC, Energy and Resources (2007-2021)
- Super Lawyers, Washington, DC, "Top 100," Energy and Resources (2017)
- Distinguished Alumni Award, Pennsylvania State University (2014)
Professional Affiliations
- House of Delegates, American Bar Association (2016-2018)
- Past Chair, American Bar Association, Infrastructure and Regulated Industries (formerly Section on Public Utility, Communications and Transportation Law)
- Past Chair, Oil Pipelines Committee, American Bar Association, Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Section
- Past Chair, Oil Pipelines Committee, Federal Energy Bar Association
- Past Executive Committee Member, Federal Energy Bar Association
- Past Member, Board of Trustees, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation