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Fenmín E. Fontanés Gómez is an associate in the Corporate Department. Before joining O'Neill & Borges, Mr. Fontanés worked in private practice at another major law firm in Puerto Rico where he advised clients on environmental law, energy and land use aspects included in corporate transactions, local and federal permitting, regulatory compliance requirements and environmental litigation. Mr. Fontanés also worked as an attorney in the U.S. Virgin Islands for Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. and for Dudley, Topper & Feuerzeig, LLP.
Mr. Fontanés represents clients before local and federal agencies with jurisdiction over environmental, energy and land use matters including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board, the Puerto Rico Permits Management Office, Puerto Rico Planning Board, Solid Waste Authority, Puerto Rico Energy Affairs Administration, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority with permitting and regulatory compliance issues.
Mr. Fontanés assists clients during all development stages of a project starting from due diligence review, site selection, environmental impact review, site consultations to local and federal permitting compliance. Mr. Fontanés also advises renewable energy companies on all environmental, energy and land use aspects related to the establishment of the project, including revisions to power purchase and operating agreements with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, negotiating construction contracts and acting as a liaison with permitting agencies.
Prior to attending law school, Mr. Fontanés worked as an independent environmental consultant in projects throughout Puerto Rico and Latin America, including the Bolivia-Brazil Natural Gas Pipeline, a transshipment port in the south coast of Puerto Rico and a proposed waste to energy
Facility. In law school, Mr. Fontanés was a research assistant for Vermont Law School Professor Tseming Yang focusing on international environmental law, environmental justice and the impact of NAFT A in communities at the US-Mexico border. He also interned at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Energy Projects and was a member of the International Human Rights Clinic, where he spent a semester as a research assistant for the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.
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