Marie Buchinski is a member of the firm's Midstream & Pipeline Energy Industry Team, the firm's Regulatory, Environmental and Indigenous Practice Group and the firm's Power and Renewables Practice Group. She has practised exclusively in the area of Energy Law for more than 20 years, providing strategic advice across a wide spectrum of financial and physical energy regulation matters, including tolls and tariffs, project development and associated approval requirements, compliance and operational matters and Indigenous matters.
Marie has extensive experience advising major energy and public utility clients on all matters related to federal and provincial energy regulation, including the regulation of both federally and provincially regulated pipelines, LNG facilities, electricity generation, gas plants producing low carbon fuels and the economic regulation of pipelines regulated by the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) and public utilities regulated by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), including representation of the ATCO utilities in their provincial regulatory proceedings before the AUC on rates, facilities and electricity transmission related matters.
Marie regularly represents clients before the CER, AUC and Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), and has appeared on significant mandates before the Occupational Health and Safety Tribunal Canada and the Land and Property Rights Tribunal (Alberta). She has represented clients before regulatory tribunals on matters related to tolls and tariffs, facility approvals, jurisdictional issues, pipeline access and energy imports and exports. At the AUC, she has significant experience representing clients on matters respecting the operation of the Alberta Interconnected Electric System, including with respect to the rules of the Alberta Electric System Operator related to transmission line losses, transmission constraints management and the allocation of transmission capacity on the Alberta interties. In her 20 years of practice as an Energy Lawyer, Marie regularly advocates for clients before the Alberta Court of Appeal and the Federal Court of Appeal on appeals arising from the decisions of provincial and federal regulatory tribunals.
Marie has assisted in the preparation of numerous papers, publications and blogs relating to Energy and Regulatory issues across Canada, most recently with respect to the regulation of geothermal developments in Alberta, AER life-cycle management of energy developments under its jurisdiction, and the emerging hydrogen economy. She has presented at conferences including for the Canadian Energy Law Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, with associated publications in the Alberta Law Review and Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Journal. Marie has also instructed at the University of Calgary on energy related matters including matters related to facilities approvals, tolls and tariffs, energy imports and exports and environmental regulation.