Education
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George Washington University, L.L.B., 1967
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University of Maryland, B.A., with highest honors, 1964
Bar Admissions
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District of Columbia
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Colorado
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Gordon Arbuckle has been with Patton Boggs for over 40 years. During that time, he has been involved in most aspects of the firm’s practice, but has focused most intensively on the business and environmental aspects of Energy and related infrastructure.
Mr. Arbuckle is well known for his pioneering role in some of the United States’ more complex and historic energy projects, including the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the first Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline project, and the world’s first Deep Seabed Mining project. His recent work has emphasized representation of sovereigns and sovereign-owned energy companies.
In the environmental area, he has achieved favorable, innovative resolution of high-profile environmental claims and enforcement actions. Among his most notable resolutions achieved are favorable settlement of a civil, criminal, and administrative prosecution for a major pipeline incident involving fatalities; negotiation of a consent decree in a national multi-media enforcement action against a Fortune 50 manufacturer; and favorable settlements of several landmark New Source Review cases.
Mr. Arbuckle serves as environmental panel counsel for a major environmental and casualty insurer, and is national counsel for that company for Natural Resource Damage issues. He has negotiated structured settlements and remediation and mitigation cases in Natural Resource Damage and cleanup contexts, and has been involved with oil and gas pipeline issues throughout the years of his practice, becoming an authority in that complex regulatory system.
His experience also includes working with various presidential administrations, the U.S. Congress, and various governmental agencies in establishing specific legal regimes necessary for the aforementioned complex and historic energy projects. In this context, he was active in the U.S. Congressional deliberations which led to the enactment of laws such as the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline Act, the Deepwater Port Act, the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Act, and the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act and the related international treaty negotiations.
In addition, Mr. Arbuckle has been involved in numerous other non-project-oriented legislative endeavors. He has frequently been called upon to provide specific advice on port siting and operational advice in the reemerging LNG import industry, including a comprehensive survey of selected North American LNG import projects on behalf of a large sovereign exporter and conducting due diligence while working with local counsel for a proposed regasification project to serve the New England market.
Notably, Mr. Arbuckle has been active in connection with specific issues arising under the laws referenced above, as well as other energy and environmental legislation, including NEPA, the Clean Water Act, AHERA, RCRA, CERCLA, and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. He is well versed in international antitrust, sovereign immunity, international jurisdictional conflicts, and the other issues pertinent to representation of sovereign-owned energy operations. Mr. Arbuckle participated in the negotiated rulemaking panel that developed the EPA Asbestos in School regulations and was lead counsel to the industry participants in the negotiated rulemaking to establish Clean Air Act standards for the wood furniture industry. He also participated in EPA’s Aiming for Excellence consultative process and served on EPA’s Compliance Assistance Advisory Council.
Representative Matters:
- Advised sovereigns and their energy companies concerning relations with the U.S. Government and its cognizant agencies.
- Served as lead counsel in connection with the establishment of legal regimes for siting, licensing, construction, and operation of some of the largest energy transportation projects in U.S. history, including lead representation of the consortium which secured passage of authorizing legislation, obtained a license for, and constructed and operated the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline System; lead representation of the successful competing applicant for authorization to build and operate the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System; and lead representation from the beginning to the present, of the consortium which obtained the license for, designed, constructed, and operates the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port – this country’s only offshore deepwater oil reception facility.
- Advised in connection with storage, risk management, safety and decommissioning efforts at high profile nuclear facilities.
- Advised major utilities on nuclear risk management, storage, and waste disposal issues.
- Currently involved in a broad ranging industry effort to institute revisions to government programs to reinvigorate the US nuclear industry.
- Lead counsel in major international arbitrations, such as the one that resolved competing claims of U.S., French, German, and Japanese consortia regarding rights to mine portions of the seabed in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean. Managed legal and advocacy efforts in connection with numerous other international projects, including an integrated steel mill in Korea, ports in Pakistan, shipbuilding in Japan and elsewhere, worldwide fishing operations, airlines, airports, pipelines, and oil exploration and production efforts in Latin America.
- Counsel to gas and oil pipeline companies in the development and implementation of operations and integrity management plans and programs. Lead defense counsel in numerous cases involving regulatory responses to incidents involving pipeline failures.
- Developed the worldwide environmental management and social responsibility programs of several large multi-national corporations. Directed the policy aspects of a broad range of resource extraction, energy transportation, and energy matters.
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