Jamie Van Nostrand

Senior Fellow

James M. (Jamie) Van Nostrand is the policy director at the Future of Heat Initiative, a national non-profit providing research and technical assistance to regulators, policymakers, and intervenors to support effective gas utility regulation. Van Nostrand served as Chair of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities from May 2023 to October 2025. Prior to his appointment to the DPU, Van Nostrand was a Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at the West Virginia University College of Law.

He is the author of The Coal Trap: How West Virginia Was Left Behind in the Clean Energy Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Before moving to WVU in July 2011, Van Nostrand spent three years as Executive Director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center in White Plains, NY. Prior to his transition to law school teaching, Van Nostrand had a successful career in private law practice in the Pacific Northwest representing energy clients in regulatory proceedings in eight western states, as well as before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Van Nostrand was recognized by the Energy Bar Association as its 2007 State Regulatory Practitioner of the Year.

Van Nostrand received his LL.M. in Environmental Law from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law, his master’s degree in economics from SUNY at Albany, and an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Northern Iowa.