NARUC Annual Meeting
Moderator Gladys Brown Dutrieuille is Chair of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Emile Thompson is a Commissioner at the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia. Mark Thompson is a Commissioner at the Oregon Public Utilities Commission. Jay Balasbas is a Commissioner at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
Regulated energy and utility industries are changing rapidly in response to new and improved technologies, but traditional regulatory practices can sometimes be seen as obstacles. Regulatory innovation is not always considered outside of protracted stakeholder input proceedings and traditional contested cases. This panel at NARUC's Annual Meeting and Education Conference examined regulatory innovation practices from several states and lessons learned. Enjoy these memorable moments.
Moderator and Chair, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Gladys Brown Dutrieuille: We are used to our traditional rate cases, but we know that changing technology and related issues that are coming to us are not part of the normal issues we address. With innovation, how can we do things differently, even within the statutory constructs we have to deal with?
As we're dealing with climate change, some of the storms and events impact the infrastructure. Utilities have to deal with the hardening of the systems.
We're looking at equity and environmental justice. In Pennsylvania, we're looking at diversity, and inclusion type regulations. We've had a policy in place of just reporting things our larger companies have been doing over the years. We decided to do a rulemaking that would put that policy in a role, because it would make it mandatory. That's innovative.