Profile
Myles Culhane is an experienced energy and environmental lawyer in the rapidly evolving energy transition landscape. His legal experience and engineering background enables him to translate complex technical systems into practical legal and regulatory advice and strategies to help clients structure projects to manage long‑term liability, secure financing, and withstand regulatory and stakeholder scrutiny.
His recent work includes expanding the use of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) to support the production of low carbon fuels, advising clients on strategies to maintain their eligibility for federal 45Q tax credits, and on generating and trading credits under state and regional programs.
Through his climate practice he helps clients understand the potential implications and consequences of international climate change accords, treaties, and regulations, including reporting, carbon pricing and cross border adjustment mechanisms (CBAM), and counseling on compliance with California’s climate disclosure laws and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
In his land use practice, Myles advises energy and infrastructure developers on landscape-scale conservation strategies that support permitting and reduce risks. He develops partnerships with industry, federal and state agencies, and other stakeholders, crafting durable agreements for species and habitat management. His approach aligns corporate programs with community values, seeking to ensure operations support clean water, clean air, recreational opportunities, and economic development.
Myles began his legal career in San Francisco, counseling clients on legal and regulatory matters involving air and water quality, waste management, remedial activities under federal and state law, and serving as environmental counsel on complex, multiparty transactions. Throughout his career he has helped clients manage and craft compliance strategies and creative settlements of complex enforcement actions brought by federal and state agencies including the US EPA, California Air Resources Board and California Air Quality Management Districts, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, New Mexico Environment Department and Colorado ECMC.
During his in-house tenure at Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), one of the world’s largest upstream oil and gas companies, Myles served as the corporation’s senior environmental counsel. In this role, he collaborated across teams of subject matter experts to build Oxy’s HSE program, helping his clients understand and navigate the maze of HSE compliance obligations and federal and state enforcement actions, including working with broad industry, community, and environmental coalitions to advocate for statutory and regulatory changes incentivizing investments and broader deployment of engineered and nature based decarbonization projects.
Concentrations
- Transitional Energy and Decarbonization Project Development, including engineered and nature based decarbonization strategies and projects such as direct air capture (DAC)
- Acquisition of pore space, surface use agreements and rights-of-way covering the CCS value chain
- Understanding long-tail liabilities and financial requirements associated with sequestration projects
- Greenhouse gas and emission reduction strategies
- Seeking and maximizing value of federal 45Q tax credits and state low carbon and clean fuel credits
- Seeking and maximizing carbon dioxide removal credit revenues
- Domestic and international oil and gas mergers and acquisitions and related legal agreements
- California and EU Climate Disclosure Implications
업무 분야]
주요 경력
Myles helps his clients identify CCUS market opportunities, authored and advocates for policies to incentivize project development, and contributes to business strategy development, providing legal support for a wide variety of decarbonization projects, including:
- Represented a global energy company before CARB in multiyear negotiations for two large climate solutions designed to reduce imbedded carbon emissions in transportation fuels.°
- Helping a client navigate federal and state UIC Class VI permitting and authorizations for the permanent geologic storage of carbon dioxide sources from the world’s largest direct air capture (DAC) project. This multi-faceted project includes capture, transportation, sequestration, pressure management, and related infrastructure, as well as standing up programs, processes, and procedures to monitor, measure, verify, certify, and report on carbon dioxide storage and generation of carbon dioxide removal credits.°
- Permitting and authorization of a site dedicated to the durable, safe, and secure geological storage of carbon dioxide captured from a power plant thereby providing low carbon firm dispatchable energy to consumers, homes, and businesses.°
- Legal lead securing U.S. Department of Energy awards and funding for multiple decarbonization projects. His representation ran the gamut from the preparation, submittal and selection for award, subsequent contract negotiations and development of guidance and procedures on the management of each selected project in accordance with federal laws, including the False Claims Act.°
- Preparation, submittal, and agency review of the first Permanence Certification application (and related and approved provisional fuel pathways) submitted pursuant to the CCS Protocol under California’s low carbon fuel standard.°
- Lead legal counsel advising landmen on securing mineral and pore space rights and related surface use agreements in Texas, California, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arkansas.°
- Preparing In-depth analyses of the potential long-term liabilities and prospective mitigation measures associated with the subsurface injection and storage of carbon dioxide and the conversion of depleted and gas fields to sequestration.°
- Providing legal perspectives as a member of a multi-stakeholder international working group that includes the Geneva Association and Clean Energy Ministerial, of financial assurance needs and selection of appropriate financial instruments for CCUS projects.°
°The above representations were handled by Mr. Culhane prior to his joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
- Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy), 2011-2026
- Deputy General Counsel – Climate, 2022-2026
- Associate General Counsel, 2022-2023
- Assistant General Counsel, 2016-2022
- Managing Counsel, 2011-2016
- Corporate Manager of Environmental, Health & Safety, National Oilwell Varco (Ameron International Corporation), 1995-2006
- Division Environmental Manager, Process Engineer, Baxter, 1990-1995
- Wastewater Treatment Engineer, Shell Oil Company, 1989-1990
학력 및 자격사항
- J.D., Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
- California