Commissioner
Larry Friedeman is a Commissioner at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
PUF: What do you do as a commissioner on a typical day?
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Commissioner Friedeman: It's an amazingly self-directed role. You can get involved as much as you want, or research as much as you want. When you have capable assistants, you can delegate some of the research, and you can share and develop concepts and thoughts.
PUF: Is it like being a college professor?
Commissioner Friedeman: In some respect, depending on your experiential knowledge, it could be. It's just as much like being an appellate judge. There are a number of different roles, and a number of different functions. Like anything else, you get out of it what you invest into it.
PUF: Do you have a background in natural gas, maybe trading?
Commissioner Friedeman: No, not trading. I was in market development. I got into the industry just as retail access was launching in Ohio in the natural gas industry, and then spent time with a series of competitive energy suppliers, mostly in a regulatory compliance capacity through the years. I had the opportunity to visit with commission staff and commissioners in about twelve different states over twenty years.
PUF: Do you feel like you benefit from those experiences?