Commissioner
PUF: How did your career lead you to this position?
Commissioner Saari: I've had the opportunity to experience the utility world from a number of different career opportunities.
My degree is in journalism. I knew I would not become the next Woodward or Bernstein. But I was of that generation. So I took a job in the corporate public relations department in Consumers Energy in the early '70s. Then I moved through a series of opportunities and started to focus on nuclear communications.
At the time, Consumers had two operating nuclear plants, Palisades and Big Rock, and was building the Midland Nuclear Plant. I was the onsite person at the nuclear facility in Midland, doing communications and community affairs.
Part of the reason I had the opportunity to work in the nuclear world is that I had left Consumers for a year and worked in Washington as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.