The National Hydropower Association (NHA) has awarded Van Ness Feldman partner Mike Swiger with the Dr. Kenneth Henwood Award, the organization’s highest honor recognizing  lifetime  achievement and dedication to the hydropower industry.

“Mike Swiger has been a preeminent attorney and has tirelessly advocated on behalf of his clients and the hydropower industry as a whole for the more than 20 years that I’ve known him,” said Linda Church Ciocci, Executive Director of the NHA.  “Mike is a key player in the hydropower industry and its efforts to maintain and grow the resource through improved licensing processes.  In this work, Mike has brought a proactive approach and creative solutions throughout his storied career."

Swiger has substantial experience on the full range of issues associated with major energy and water projects and is currently involved in several major hydroelectric license proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). His litigation experience includes both appellate litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court and various U.S. courts of appeal, and agency trial-type proceedings. Mike also has been involved in numerous agency rulemakings and legislative policy matters relating to hydroelectric licensing.

Swiger has served as Committee Chair of the Renewable Energy & the Environment, and the Hydroelectric Regulation Committees of the Energy Bar Association.  He is active in various water and power trade associations and is a former Advisory Member of the Board of Directors of the National Hydropower Association. In 2005, he was named a Leading Energy Lawyer in the Washington, DC area by The Legal Times, and  has written and spoken extensively on regulatory and environmental issues affecting energy and water development.

The Dr. Kenneth Henwood Award is the hydropower industry’s most prestigious individual achievement award. NHA established the award in 1990 in memory of Kenneth Henwood, an NHA board member, engineer, and developer who died while working on a project in California. Henwood winners must show persistence in the face of institutional obstacles, exhibit fair dealing and plain speaking, and depict an appreciation of the relationships between project engineering, the environment, and economics.

“In honoring Mike Swiger with this well-deserved lifetime achievement award, the selection committee is recognizing a national leader of the hydropower industry. His determined promotion of hydropower as a valuable and growing resource has benefited all of us,” said Church Ciocci. “On behalf of NHA and the hydro industry, I’d like to congratulate Mike on this award and thank him for his remarkable contributions.”

To read the NHA’s press release, click here.