Derek Kalbfleisch is an associate in the firm’s Environmental, Land Use, and Natural Resources practice group. He advises clients in the energy, water, maritime, forestry, and carbon sectors on a broad range of regulatory, permitting, enforcement, and transactional matters. His practice focuses on air and water law at both the state and federal levels.
He regularly assists clients with Clean Air Act permitting and compliance, including Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD), New Source Review (NSR), and Title V permitting, as well as emissions control and monitoring requirements. He has experience advising industrial and energy clients on permitting strategies for major stationary sources, including projects involving carbon capture and sequestration.
On the water side, Derek advises clients on permitting and compliance under the Clean Water Act and related state programs, and represents clients in enforcement actions and citizen suits involving alleged violations of discharge or water quality permits. He also represents clients in water rights matters, including basin-wide arbitrations such as those in Washington’s Water Resource Inventory Area 1.
His land use experience includes obtaining permits for floodplain development, conditional and special use approvals, and right-of-way authorizations. He conducts environmental due diligence for real estate and carbon credit transactions and helps clients navigate compliance obligations under renewable fuel standards, maritime emissions regulations, and both compliance and voluntary carbon markets—including the Washington Climate Commitment Act and California Cap-and-Trade Program. He also serves as editor of the firm’s Carbon Quarterly publication, which tracks key developments in carbon regulation and markets.
Derek collaborates regularly with lawyers across the firm’s Washington, DC, Chicago, Harrisburg, and Newark offices, and with colleagues throughout the western United States, to deliver coordinated counsel on complex, multijurisdictional environmental matters.
