John S. Decker, P.C.

Since arriving at Kirkland, John has been involved in the following matters:

• Represented Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners in a FERC proceeding under Section 203 of the Federal Power Act for authorization to sell its ownership stake in the Red Oak 831 MW gas-fired generation facility to funds managed by Strategic Value Partners. The Red Oak facility is located in PJM Interconnection.
• Represented Blue Owl on its $1.2 billion joint venture with CoreWeave, Inc. for the development of a data center campus with expected capacity up to 42 MW located in New Jersey. The data center is long-term leased to CoreWeave.
• Represented Talen Energy Corporation in a FERC Section 203 proceeding for authorization to acquire Caithness Energy’s Moxie Freedom Energy Center in Pennsylvania and Caithness Energy’s and BlackRock’s Guernsey Power Station in Ohio, both combined-cycle, gas-fired plants located within the PJM power market.
• Represented Blackstone Infrastructure Partners in a FERC Section 203 proceeding for authorization to acquire Texas-New Mexico Power Co. and its utilities in Texas and New Mexico, reflecting a total enterprise value of $11.5 billion.
• BlackRock and its portfolio company Jupiter Power in multiple financings to support the development of utility-scale battery energy storage projects.
• Represented Brookfield Infrastructure in a FERC Section 203 proceeding for authorization to acquire an anticipated 19.7% interest in Duke Energy Florida for $6 billion.
• Counseled Global Infrastructure Partners on its equity commitment to finance the development of a fourth liquefaction train and associated common facilities owned and operated by Rio Grande LNG, a joint venture with NextDecade Corporation and other institutional investors whose collective equity commitments, together with GIP, will total up to approximately $3 billion.
• Advised Harvest Midstream on a purchase and sale agreement with MPLX LP for the acquisition of a natural gas gathering and processing network in the Uinta and Green River basins across Wyoming, Utah and Colorado for $1 billion.
• Represented Blue Owl on its $1.84 billion joint venture with Chirisa Technology Parks and Machine Investment Group for the development of a 125-MW AI data center located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, leased to CoreWeave Inc.
• Advised Global Infrastructure Partners on a $600 million senior secured loan extended to NextDecade to fund capital contributions that will be used to fund the development of Train 4 at NextDecade’s Rio Grande natural gas liquefaction and export facility at the Port of Brownsville in Texas.
• Advised Apterra Infrastructure Capital, an Apollo-backed provider of financing solutions for energy and infrastructure projects, on a mezzanine construction portfolio financing for Cypress Creek Renewables, a U.S. developer of renewable energy projects.
• Advised Global Infrastructure Partners on a $600 million senior secured loan extended to NextDecade to fund capital contributions that will be used to fund the development of Train 5 at NextDecade’s Rio Grande natural gas liquefaction and export facility at the Port of Brownsville in Texas.
• Counseled Blue Owl Capital Inc. on its definitive agreement with Meta Platforms, Inc. to jointly fund the construction of a data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana.
• Advised Blue Owl on its $1.4 billion joint venture with Chirisa Technology Parks and American Real Estate Partners for the development of a 100-MW AI/high-performance computing data center in Northern Virginia triple net leased to CoreWeave Inc. The transaction marks Blue Owl’s fifth build-to-suit data center development with CoreWeave.
• Represented Talen Energy Corporation in a FERC Section 203 proceeding for authorization to add approximately 2.6 GW of natural gas generation capacity to Talen’s portfolio through the acquisition of the Waterford Energy Center and Darby Generating Station in Ohio, as well as the Lawrenceburg Power Plant in Indiana, from Energy Capital Partners.
• Counseled Global Infrastructure Partners on the sale of an indirect 7.6% equity stake in the fourth and fifth liquefaction trains and associated common facilities owned and operated by Rio Grande LNG, a joint venture with NextDecade Corporation, to XRG P.J.S.C., a wholly owned affiliate of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
• Advised Solaris Energy Infrastructure, a power generation and distribution solutions provider, in connection with a transaction to lease gas turbine generators representing approximately 500 MW of capacity.
• Represents a consortium led by BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners and the EQT Infrastructure VI fund, along with co-underwriters California Public Employees’ Retirement System and Qatar Investment Authority, in a FERC Section 203 proceeding for authorization to acquire AES Corporation for an enterprise value of approximately $33.4 billion, including the assumption of existing debt.
• Advised Brookfield Infrastructure in connection with the first closing under its agreement to acquire an aggregate 19.7% interest in Duke Energy Florida for $6 billion.
• Advised Endurance Investment Partners, a Dallas-based energy and infrastructure investment platform, on the $1 billion recapitalization of GulfTex Energy V into newly formed GulfTex Energy VI.
• Advised Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. on a five-year power purchase agreement with a subsidiary of an investment-grade technology infrastructure provider.
• Represented KH Sunflower LLC on the sale of approximately 1,163 acres of powered land located at Astra Enterprise Park in De Soto, Kansas, to Digital Realty Trust.
• Advised Digital Realty Trust on a definitive agreement to acquire Columbia Capital in an all-stock transaction.
• Represented VoltaGrid, a behind-the-meter power generation business, on a $1 billion strategic equity investment from funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Halliburton Company.
• Represents NextEra Energy in a FERC Section 203 proceeding for authorization to combine with Dominion Energy, Inc. in an all-stock transaction to create the world’s largest regulated electric utility business by market capitalization with an enterprise value of approximately $420 billion and a market cap of approximately $249 billion.
• Advised Blue Owl on the origination of a $975 million mortgage loan for a subsidiary of Affinius Capital, secured by a hyperscale data center campus in Gainesville, Virginia, net leased to Microsoft.
• Represents Northampton Capital Partners in a FERC Section 203 proceeding for authorization to acquire from Vistra a $200 million thermal power platform comprising three gas-fired assets in the New England and New York markets.

Prior to joining Kirkland, John was involved in the following matters:

• Represented a private equity fund in a proceeding under Section 203 of the Federal Power Act for approval of a multibillion dollar merger to form a new publicly traded independent power company
• Obtained approval pursuant under Section 203 of the Federal Power Act for the acquisition of a transmission and distribution utility, where the new ownership structure was designed to facilitate the creation of a real estate investment trust, the first time such an ownership structure was approved by FERC
• Represented BG Group, as co-owner of Lake Charles Exports, in successful application before DOE for long-term authorization to export 2 Bcf per day from the Lake Charles LNG terminal; Lake Charles Exports received the third authorization to export LNG to non-free trade agreement countries
• Represented a power marketer in the negotiation of a unit contingent tolling agreement for an existing generator, where the capacity, energy, and ancillary services were to be sold into the NYISO markets
• Represented an exploration and production company in the negotiations of a gas gathering agreement and gathering system operating agreement governing operations in the Midland Basin