Director
Richard Berkley is Director of Consumer Advocate and Office of Consumer Services at the New York Public Service Commission.
The New York Public Service Commission and New York Department of Public Service oversee a mandate in New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, to cut greenhouse gas emissions forty percent by 2030 and no less than eighty-five percent by 2050 from 1990 levels. All that, while carrying on its regulatory business in the public interest. The five hundred-plus dedicated Staff of the New York Department of Public Service are up to all these tasks. They are the Staff arm of the seven-member New York Public Service Commission.
PUF: How did your background lead you to the Commission?
Richard Berkley: In my previous position before coming in-house to the Department of Public Service, I was executive director and general counsel of the Public Utility Law Project of New York. I was a member and committee chair for the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, NASUCA, until this past summer.
Prior to that, I spent eight years running New York's sole independent Utility Consumer Protection law firm. We were engaged in cases before the Commission. We worked with DPS. We were involved in every major rate case in the state for the last decade, all the major policy cases, and litigation. I had the pleasure of writing two amicus briefs on FERC energy issues for the Supreme Court of the United States.