U.S. Senate
Kevin Cramer (R) is a U.S. Senator for North Dakota.
The growing consensus that the electric industry's transformation to low and then to zero-carbon electricity must include a fleet of advanced nuclear plants as a clean baseload foundation was much discussed and celebrated as well at a gathering in New York of tech, financial, and industry leaders.
United States Senator from North Dakota Kevin Cramer: No one ever showed up at a hearing to tell me what a great regulator I was. It was the perfect training for this job as a United States Senator. I've never been afraid of the town hall ever since being a utility regulator.
I had a great mentor. Tony Clark was on the North Dakota Public Service Commission with me for ten years. My first week was like RTO Week or something. Because MISO was just getting started. And we were trying to figure it out.
Nobody in Minnesota elected me. Why would I have to be subject to a Regional Transmission Organization? That's absurd to a guy like me.
I remember I went in and said, Tony, I think I've made a terrible mistake. I am drowning in all of this RTO talk.
He said — and Tony's Episcopalian for those of you who don't know that his dad's an Episcopalian priest — "do you believe in baptism by immersion?" And I said, "I do." He said, "it'll be fine. It'll all work out."