Mr. Jensen serves as Chair of Sonnenschein's firmwide Committee on Environmental Sustainability. He is a nationally recognized expert in natural resources, energy and environmental law and policy, and leads the firm’s renewable energy and natural resources practices. He represents business, government and nonprofit clients before federal and state regulatory agencies and Congress, and frequently serves as strategic counsel to clients facing complex challenges at the intersection of law, policy and politics. He also represents clients in transactions, commercial disputes and regulatory enforcement actions.
Mr. Jensen’s clients have included federal and tribal governments, electric utilities, independent power producers including ocean energy developers, pipelines, universities, trade associations, oil and gas producers and service companies, fishing interests, conservation organizations, certification bodies, investment banks, hedge funds and other law firms. He has testified as an expert on natural resource matters, including the National Environmental Policy Act, forestry, water supply, and climate change, before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and is a frequent speaker before legal, engineering and other professional audiences.
Formerly majority counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and a senior official in the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, Mr. Jensen’s responsibilities in public service included reform of federal water policy and projects in California and other western states; resolution of Indian tribal treaty disputes; endangered species and habitat conservation; Grand Canyon, Everglades and Olympic National Park restoration; creation of national monuments: hydropower regulation; and Fifth Amendment takings policy.
A certified mediator, Mr. Jensen chaired the National Environmental Conflict Resolution Advisory Committee, a federal advisory committee chartered by the Morris K. Udall Foundation. He is a trustee of the William D. Ruckelshaus Institute for Environment and Natural Resources of the University of Wyoming, and an advisor to the Public Land & Resources Law Review of the University of Montana.
Additional career highlights:
- Served in the White House Council on Environmental Quality as Associate Director for Natural Resources, 1995-1997
- Executive Director, Grand Canyon Trust, 1992-1995
- Majority Counsel, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water and Power, 1989-1992
- Deputy Executive Secretary, U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Commission, 1987-1989
- Policy Advisor, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, 1981-1987
Prior to joining Sonnenschein in 2004, Mr. Jensen headed the environmental and natural resource practice in the Washington office of Troutman Sanders LLP.
Representative Experience
Though located in Washington, D.C., Mr. Jensen’s practice is national and international. His current representations include matters in California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, Mexico, Canada, and Switzerland.
Mr. Jensen’s recent engagements as private counsel include issues of California water development and water rights transactions; wave and wind power development; renewable energy taxation, hydropower regulation and licensing; public land special-use permitting and land exchanges; National Environmental Policy Act compliance; electric transmission and pipeline siting; Mineral Leasing Act compliance; contaminated site remediation; fisheries management; endangered species conservation; CITES permits and enforcement, and GHG emissions policy. He served as a member of the Interior Department’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Advisory Committee.