Commissioner
Michael Richard is a Commissioner for the Maryland Public Service Commission.
The PUF team had a warm welcome at the PSC offices in Baltimore on the upper floors of the William Donald Schaefer building. Maryland punches well above its weight, with an expansive grid modernization portfolio, ambitious electric vehicle and charging programs, utility-scale batteries deployed as grid assets, and more, backed up by a diverse renewable generation portfolio and nuclear power at the Calvert Cliffs plant. All this is made possible by the Commission Staff of some one hundred and fifty, required by statute to be located in Baltimore, so legislative business entails a drive to Annapolis. Five Commissioners lead this accomplished Staff, and they all have a lot to say about what makes Maryland special and unique.
PUF's Lori Burkhart: You've been reappointed to a second five-year term at the Commission. How did your background lead you to this role?
Commissioner Richard: What directly got me here is Governor Larry Hogan. I had the opportunity to work on the second floor at the State Capitol. He asked me to be his deputy chief of staff. That was a tremendous honor.
It allowed me to get back into public policy. I liked the public side. That was the first step. I've always been interested in energy and environmental policy.