Nils Nichols
Nils served until 2019 as Director of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Administrative Litigation with responsibility for oil, natural gas, and electric matters set for hearing by the Commission. Those cases often involved complex issues at the forefront of regulation.
Prior to that, Nils was Director of the Division of Pipeline Regulation in FERC’s Office of Energy Market Regulation with responsibility for oil and natural gas pipeline rate and tariff issues. He oversaw a periodic review of natural gas pipeline rates, participated in the development of new Commission regulations and policies, worked with a White House Task Force to address regional propane shortages, and testified before Congress on propane shortages.
Earlier in his FERC career, Nils served as legal advisor to Chairman Joseph Kelliher and prior to that as legal advisor to Chairman James Hoecker, In those roles, Nils advised the Chairmen on natural gas rate and tariff matters, natural gas pipeline certificate issues (including landowner and eminent domain issues), oil pipeline rate and tariff issues, and hydroelectric licensing. He participated extensively in the development of new Commission policies, including significant regulatory changes resulting from adoption of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
As a member of the Commission’s Office of General Counsel in his early years at FERC, Nils served as the lead attorney on many significant environmental matters and dealt extensively with landowner and eminent domain issues in the interstate natural gas pipeline context. He played a central role in developing the Commission’s Certificate Policy Statement that provides the framework for licensing interstate natural gas pipelines.
Nils began his legal career as a clerk with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and was a partner in Conner and Wetterhahn, PC in Washington, DC with a focus on power plant licensing and environmental matters.
As a West Virginia native and landowner, Nils also created and managed a large landowner group that leased natural gas rights in the Marcellus Shale to a private equity portfolio company. Successfully addressing landowner issues was an important part of that effort. Nils currently advises entities and landowners on various energy matters, including land use.
