Press Release  AG Healey Appoints New Leadership Within Her Office’s Energy and Environment Bureau

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey today announced major staff appointments within her office’s Energy and Environment Bureau (EEB).

“Our office’s priorities are driven by the extensive expertise of our attorneys and staff, and the work of our Energy and Environment Bureau has become nationally known in the fight to combat climate change and protect ratepayers,” AG Healey said. “I am excited to announce these new appointments and know that we will continue to proudly serve the people of Massachusetts and make great strides toward our clean energy future under the bold leadership of Rebecca, Christophe, Betsy, and Nathan.”

Rebecca Tepper will serve as Chief of the Energy and Environment Bureau. She was previously the Deputy Chief of EEB and Chief of AG Healey’s Energy and Telecommunications Division where she advised on energy policy and served as the state’s ratepayer advocate before regulators and courts. Prior to joining the AG’s Office in 2015, Tepper was General Counsel to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU), serving as the chief legal advisor and overseeing all DPU adjudicatory and rulemaking proceedings. Tepper also served as Director of the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board and represented the state on the Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council. Before working for the Commonwealth, Tepper was a partner at Rubin and Rudman in Boston, representing developers throughout the Northeast in siting, permitting, financing and contracting of renewable, distributed generation and conventional energy facilities. She also advocated on behalf of various stakeholders in state and federal proceedings involving rates, energy efficiency, demand response and ISO New England markets and rules. A graduate of Boston University School of Law and the University of Wisconsin, Tepper resides in Lexington.

Christophe Courchesne will serve as Deputy Chief of the Energy and Environment Bureau. Prior to this appointment, Courchesne was Chief of AG Healey’s Environmental Protection Division where he supervised attorneys and support staff on wide-ranging environmental litigation, including enforcement of federal and state environmental laws, multistate partnerships on federal regulatory and policy actions, civil investigations, and environmental and energy policy analysis and advocacy. Before joining the AG’s Office in 2015, Courchesne was a senior attorney at Conservation Law Foundation and previously was a senior associate at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston. Courchesne also served as a law clerk for Justice Robert J. Cordy of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He is an alum of the Boston Bar Association’s Public Interest Leadership Program, has served as the chair of the Grafton Planning Board, and was a charity runner for Casa Myrna in the 2013 and 2014 Boston Marathons. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Courchesne resides in East Kingston, New Hampshire.

Betsy Harper, who has been with the AG’s Office for more than 30 years, will become Chief of the Environmental Protection Division (EPD). Harper has served as EPD’s deputy chief since 2012, and before that was an assistant attorney general in EPD. Her responsibilities within the office have included supervision of EPD’s civil enforcement work as well as litigating and negotiating complex civil cases relating to hazardous materials, radioactive waste, wetlands, clean air and water, and solid waste. Harper is also known for her stellar mentorship of division staff and her leadership of the Office’s redevelopment work related to contaminated Brownfield sites in Massachusetts. Harper, a Littleton resident, is a graduate of Syracuse University College of Law and the University of Pennsylvania.

Nathan Forster will serve as Chief of AG Healey’s Energy and Telecommunications Division (ETD). He was previously Deputy Chief of ETD for more than five years where he managed staff, oversaw filings made with the DPU, and led a number of administrative and investigative matters within the division. As an assistant attorney general within ETD beginning in 2012, Forster litigated and managed dozens of proceedings before the DPU, worked extensively on rate cases brought by gas and electric distribution companies, and investigated unfair and deceptive practices of competitive electricity suppliers. Before joining the AG’s Office, Forster was an associate at Brown Rudnick LLP, in Boston where he litigated significant contract, employment, land use, bankruptcy, antitrust, and real estate matters before Massachusetts federal courts, state courts, and state agencies. A graduate of Boston College Law School and the University of Michigan, Forster lives in Arlington.

Today’s appointments follow the announcement of former EEB Chief Melissa Hoffer being sworn in by the Biden-Harris Administration as principal deputy general counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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