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Tyler A. O'Connor

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Tyler O’Connor is an energy litigator and public policy leader in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office, where he represents clients in the courts, in arbitration forums, and before federal agencies.

Prior to joining Crowell, Tyler served as the Energy Counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he played a leading role in drafting the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). He was the lead House lawyer responsible for the Federal Power Act and Natural Gas Act and worked extensively on transmission, energy cybersecurity, and energy supply chain issues. His work brought him into frequent contact with senior administration officials, including at the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), as well as congressional leadership. As the staffer responsible for emerging technologies, including hydrogen and offshore wind, as well as the Loan Programs Office, Tyler has been at the center of energy policy discussions.

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This has not been a joyful winter for energy industry executives. They have repeatedly awoken to alerts that substations in the Northwest and Southeast have been physically attacked and that a major engineering firm was the subject of a ransomware cyberattack that may have compromised utility data.

Federal regulators are taking notice. On December 7…

Aiming to identify, enhance, and test supply chain vulnerabilities in the energy sector and cybersecurity response capabilities between public and private sectors, the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources approved legislation that directs the Department of Energy (DoE) to create several new programs towards the development of “advanced cybersecurity applications and technologies” for the sector.[1]  The Energy Cybersecurity Act of 2019 (the Act) directs DoE to establish programs that identify supply chain vulnerabilities and expand Federal cooperation and coordination for responses to cyber threats.

If passed, the Act will require the DoE to:Continue Reading Energy Cybersecurity Act of 2019