WASHINGTON – Maine Public Utilities Commissioner William M. Nugent became president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners on Tuesday when Pennsylvania commissioner Nora Mead Brownell resigned and was sworn in as the newest member of the Federal Regulatory Commission. Nugent was previously the first vice president of NARUC.

NARUC is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1889. Its members include the governmental agencies of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, which regulate utilities and carriers. The chief objective of NARUC is to serve the consumer by improving the quality and effectiveness of public regulation in America.

Nugent has been a member of the Maine PUC for 10 years and a member of NARUC’s executive committee since 1999. He chairs a NARUC regulatory strategies subcommittee and is the senior commissioner on NARUC’s committee on international relations. He is a director of the National Regulatory Research Institute at the Ohio State University and a former president of the New England Conference of Public Utility Commissioners.