Tyler Welti, a former trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Environment & Natural Resources Division, recently joined Venable’s Environmental Practice in the San Francisco office.
Mr. Welti counsels clients on federal and state environmental, natural resource, and land use litigation, including enforcement actions, citizen suits, National Environmental Policy Act and California Environmental Quality Act challenges, and Administrative Procedure Act lawsuits and appeals. He has been active in handling project development issues involving a federal nexus, including transportation projects, renewable and conventional energy development, timber harvests, and other infrastructure and natural resource development projects. He began his career as a trial attorney for DOJ, where he served as lead counsel on a number of key environmental cases, including challenges to federal management of onshore and offshore oil and gas reserves, mining, protected species, water, and other resources. He received a special distinction award for his tireless efforts on behalf of the American public in the Deepwater Horizon litigation.
Welti told Law360 that he's been interested in the environment since his childhood in California's Central Coast, which he called "fertile ground for environmental, natural resources and land use disputes."
"It’s an area that combines tremendous natural beauty, substantial natural resources and agricultural developments, water scarcities, protected species, public lands, Native American tribes, and a community with a strong conservation ethic," he said. "I grew up surfing alongside oil wells, fishing coastal estuaries that have since been closed to protect steelhead, [and] hiking in national forests."
Mr. Welti counsels clients on federal and state environmental, natural resource, and land use litigation, including enforcement actions, citizen suits, National Environmental Policy Act and California Environmental Quality Act challenges, and Administrative Procedure Act lawsuits and appeals. He has been active in handling project development issues involving a federal nexus, including transportation projects, renewable and conventional energy development, timber harvests, and other infrastructure and natural resource development projects. He began his career as a trial attorney for DOJ, where he served as lead counsel on a number of key environmental cases, including challenges to federal management of onshore and offshore oil and gas reserves, mining, protected species, water, and other resources. He received a special distinction award for his tireless efforts on behalf of the American public in the Deepwater Horizon litigation.
Welti told Law360 that he's been interested in the environment since his childhood in California's Central Coast, which he called "fertile ground for environmental, natural resources and land use disputes."
"It’s an area that combines tremendous natural beauty, substantial natural resources and agricultural developments, water scarcities, protected species, public lands, Native American tribes, and a community with a strong conservation ethic," he said. "I grew up surfing alongside oil wells, fishing coastal estuaries that have since been closed to protect steelhead, [and] hiking in national forests."