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Jack Coleman is the founding Managing Partner and General Counsel of ENA. Mr. Coleman worked for 27 years at senior levels in the federal government and with the Congress. He was the Republican General Counsel for the House Committee on Natural Resources from February 2007 until March 2009. As General Counsel, Mr. Coleman was deeply involved in policy regarding forestry, fisheries, coastal zone management and oceans policy, public lands law generally, the Endangered Species Act, surface coal mining regulation, hard rock mining, oil, natural gas and coal leasing and production, and renewable energy including hydropower, biomass, wind, solar, and ocean renewables.

Prior to that, beginning May 2003, Mr. Coleman was the Energy and Minerals Counsel for the House Committee on Resources. As such, he was the leading staff legal expert in the House of Representatives on energy, power, and minerals production from federal onshore and offshore lands, including renewable power, power transmission and energy pipeline issues. In addition to being the lead negotiator for the House Committee on Resources in the conference on the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT), Mr. Coleman was the primary drafter of many provisions included in EPACT, including NEPA categorical exclusions for onshore oil and gas, permit processing offices, other expedited permitting procedures, and incentives for and other provisions related to oil and gas production both onshore and offshore. Enacted as part of EPACT, Mr. Coleman was the principal drafter and negotiator for the House of the Oil Shale, Tar Sands, and Other Strategic Unconventional Fuels Act of 2005 which provided the legal authority for the leasing and production of liquid fuels from America’s abundant oil shale, tar sands, and coal resources.

Further, among other legislation, Mr. Coleman initiated, drafted, and coordinated the effort in the House to eliminate the OCS moratoria which resulted in passage by the House in June 2006, with the support of 40 Democrats, of the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act (DOER).

From October 1992 until May 2003, Mr. Coleman was Senior Attorney for Royalties and Offshore Minerals at the Department of the Interior, representing the Department in complex litigation, and counseling the Department in the implementation of its broad responsibilities for energy and minerals production. Prior to that, from January 1989 until October 1992, he was the Senior Attorney for Environmental Protection for the Department of the Interior with responsibilities as the chief legal advisor to the Department’s Office of Environmental Policy, with a primary focus on energy and minerals issues, both onshore and offshore. As such, Mr. Coleman was the lead legal advisor on the implementation of environmental laws by the Department, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Prior to his work at Interior, for more than three years Mr. Coleman was Special Assistant in the Office of the Administrator of NOAA, one of the four federal agencies, together with the Department of the Interior, the Coast Guard, and the US Army Corps of Engineers, having primary responsibility over the waters of the United States and its Exclusive Economic Zone. Further, Mr. Coleman was, for two years, the Executive Director of the Contract Services Association of America, the national trade association of government technical services contractors.

Mr. Coleman’s expertise in energy and environmental issues is frequently requested by Congress. Mr. Coleman has testified before four committees of the United States Congress, including most recently before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in May 2011 on proposed offshore oil and gas legislation and the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2010 on legal liability issues related to offshore oil and gas exploration and production activities.