Miguel Andres Suazo

Miguel is an energy and environmental Shareholder with nation-wide experience and deep southwest roots. A New Mexico native, he integrates his background in energy and environmental law with public policy and regulatory compliance to solve complex legal and business challenges for sophisticated energy, natural resources, environmental, and blockchain clients in New Mexico, Texas, and the Rocky Mountain region.

Miguel's experience has placed him at the nexus of business and energy, land-use, environmental and natural resources law. He represents a variety of clients involved in the development of conventional and renewable energy projects, providing regulatory counsel and big picture thinking that helps get projects across the finish line.

Drawing from a dual background in private practice with his own boutique law firm, with and an Am Law 100 law firm, and as in-house counsel to a publicly traded and vertically integrated utility, Miguel is knowledgeable of industry trends and approaches each project with the experience to deliver for his clients. He has routinely served as lead counsel before various administrative bodies in Texas and New Mexico, including the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, and the New Mexico Environmental Department (NMED). Miguel has led complicated regulatory filings from inception to completion, including retail electric provider licensing, ERCOT Market Participant registrations and compliance, fixed fuel factors, fuel reconciliations and refunds, distribution cost recovery factors, transmission cost recovery factors, generation cost recovery factors, smart meter deployment, and certificates of convenience and necessity for transmission projects, distribution projects, utility-scale wind and solar, and backup generation projects.

Alongside his regulatory work, Miguel also assists with real estate transactions, often weighing in on environmental and regulatory issues involved in the sale of real property. He is particularly knowledgeable about water law, and he frequently assists clients in the acquisition of water rights alongside broader real estate transactions.

Parallel to his energy and environmental practices, Miguel has developed his interest in bitcoin mining and blockchain technology into its own legal practice. He has counseled public officials and private companies in connection with cryptocurrency and energy use, including how mining operations can utilize renewable energy or flared natural gas produced by shale fracking to power bitcoin mining facilities, and he has assisted bitcoin operators in acquiring power, connecting to electric grids, and guided various blockchain companies with regulatory compliance issues. With a strong interest in bitcoin's potential to make existing energy grids more efficient and resilient, Miguel has also done extensive research and writing on the intersection of bitcoin and energy regulatory law and has even earned his certification in blockchain technology through Berkley. Miguel is also a member of the bitcoin mining subcommittee of the Texas Blockchain Council.