Nicole Buell
Senior Director, U.S. Climate Implementation
Work
Areas of expertise:
Carbon management, industrial decarbonization, electric transmission, infrastructure policy
Description
Nicole Buell is the Senior Director for US Climate Implementation at Environmental Defense Fund. In this role, Nicole leads EDF’s work supporting the implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act. She works with teams across the organization utilizing their expertise on hydrogen science to orphan well closures, from methane regulations to innovative agricultural financing – and everything in between – in order to drive success of this unprecedented investment in climate and energy policy.
Background
Nicole joined EDF in 2022 as the Director of Federal Climate Innovation, where she oversaw the development of tools and strategies to advance an effective energy transition, with an emphasis on the intersection of innovation and federal policy. Nicole joined EDF after a decade in federal government, working for both the Legislative and Executive branches. She most recently worked for the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, focusing on energy grid resilience and security, international energy and trade, and energy financing programs within the Department of Energy.
Prior to the Senate, she worked for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as an economist in the energy market division, where her work focused on transmission planning and capacity market design in the eastern RTOs/ISOs.
Nicole has also worked for the White House Office of Management and Budget and the USDA Forest Service. She holds a master’s degree from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and a BS from the University of Richmond.