David M. DeSalle is a partner in Venable’s energy practice group with a broad range of experience in federal and state regulation of the energy industry.

Mr. DeSalle focuses his practice on energy law, advising clients on a variety of transactional and regulatory issues and representing them before state and federal courts and regulatory agencies.

Mr. DeSalle's clients include electric utilities, natural gas suppliers, independent power producers, pipelines, shippers, landowners and end-users. He has worked extensively for the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc. (MISO), a regional transmission organization that provides open-access transmission service and monitors the high voltage transmission system throughout the central United States and Manitoba, Canada, and operates one of the world's largest real-time energy markets. Mr. DeSalle has assisted the MISO in the long and complex regulatory processes that have led to the establishment of its energy markets and implementation of additional services that support reliable transmission service.

Mr. DeSalle has experience with transmission planning and generation interconnection issues, especially with regard to the development of renewable energy resources in less robust areas of the electric grid. He also represents a number of business interests in the emerging regulatory and litigation matters involving unconventional shale gas development, especially in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. Mr. DeSalle is among the lawyers leading the way in the developing legal and policy battle over this largely untapped energy source.  

In recent years, his practice has encompassed nearly all aspects of state and federal regulation and restructuring of the electric utility industry, including: retail unbundling; state renewable energy mandates; open access transmission requirements promulgated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), including new planning and cost-allocation requirements; market design; market-based rates and codes of conduct; rules prohibiting market manipulation; investigations of alleged market manipulation; transmission ratemaking, including rules on incentive rates; approvals of transactions pursuant to Federal Power Act (FPA) Section 203; and regulation of reliability matters by FERC, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and Regional Entities pursuant to FPA Section 215. Mr. DeSalle also has experience advising natural gas companies on issues arising under the Natural Gas Act and Natural Gas Policy Act.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. DeSalle was counsel and government affairs coordinator for the Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council, a statewide trade association, where he was involved in the regulatory and legislative proceedings that led to electric and natural gas deregulation and retail competition in the Commonwealth.

Mr. DeSalle also performs pro bono service on behalf of the Energy Bar Association in his role as a consultant to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, where he conducts structured interviews evaluating candidates who wish to serve as federal administrative law judges.