NARUC: Tightrope One

Deck: 

American Water

Fortnightly Magazine - September 2024
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PUF brings a look at a General Session at this summer's NARUC Summer Policy Summit that was divided into four panels: "The Tightrope: Utility CEOs' Balancing Act." In those four panels, utility CEOs faced Commissioners and a Consumer Advocate to discuss how they balance new resource investments and grid modernization, while ensuring reliability and reasonable rates. The CEOs grappled with tough questions, including how decisions are made concerning how and when to operationalize new initiatives, and whether communication and engagement levels are adequate.

American Water CEO Susan Hardwick joined North Carolina Commissioner Jeff Hughes and AARP Florida State President Ken Thomas for Tightrope One.

 

North Carolina Commissioner Jeff Hughes: It's a tightrope. I think it's a good metaphor. You're walking on a tightrope. Susan, depending on how you want to look at it, you have pesky regulators on one side of you, pesky consumers on the other, and then those shareholders. What're the one or two core topics challenging that tight roping?

American Water CEO Susan Hardwick: This is a perfect topic, a balancing act, the tightrope. From a water perspective, we focus so much on infrastructure and the state of infrastructure in this country. It's not good.

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