Steve Mitnick is Editor-in-Chief of Public Utilities Fortnightly and and President of Lines Up, Inc.
Another great NARUC Summer Meeting. Were you there with all of us — in late July — in Scottsdale? NARUC President Jack Betkoski and NARUC staff packed the schedule with panel after panel, but as usual it proceeded seamlessly unlike inter-RTO flows. See the pages and photos in pdf format here.
On the first page you'll see — in the upper right — prez Betkoski honoring Commissioner Lorraine Akiba after winding up her term on the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Below that pic is a shot of the theme for NARUC political advocacy within the DC Beltway.
At the bottom of the first page, we have scenes from the featured panel of the first general session. It was called "How to Create and Implement an Innovative Ecosystem in the Water and Energy Nexus." That's prez Betloski on the right, Commissioner Nick Wagner on the left, he of the Iowa Utilities Board. Incidentally, with the prez from the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and Commissioner Wagner from the Iowa Board, do you know the only other two full member state utility commissions without commission in their name? Answer below.
Between Commissioners Betkoski and Wagner are, from left to right, Emerson Collective senior advisor Dr. Dan Arvizu, SUEZ president David Stanton and Israel New Tech director Oded Distel.
On the second page, we have scenes from the featured panel of the third general session. It was called "Regulatory Yoga: Are We Flexible Enough?" Chair Asim Haque of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio is at the podium introducing his panel of utility and regulatory leaders. You can see at the top of the page, from left to right, AEP CEO Nick Akins, Puget Sound Energy CEO Kim Harris, Cox Communications senior vice president John Wolfe, Aqua America CEO Chris Franklin and Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Chair Gladys Brown. Akins represented investor-owned electric utilities, Harris represented IOU natural gas utilities, Wolfe represented telecom (which is no longer price-regulated by the states), and Franklin represented IOU water utilities.
On the of the Massachusetts Department of Public Service - that's one of the commissions without commission in its name — sitting at a table with Commissioner Mary-Anna Holden of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. And that's the other commission — the New Jersey Board — without commission in its name.
But who are the others in these pics? Do you know? I can see friends at AEP, AGA and ... Some with great smiles, some deep in discussion, about the nexus of this or that. All in all, it was a super summit of the utility regulatory universe in Scottsdale.
