Yes, state commissioners are the leaders of utility regulation. But it’s commission staff — 8,126 of them — that makes regulation comprehensive, exacting and balanced.
By our count, there are that many staff at the fifty-one state commissions, 8,126. I’m including every full state member of NARUC. Kinda.
Including the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia. Though excluding the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable, New York State Department of Transportation, Railroad Commission of Texas, Puerto Rico Public Energy Commission, Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board, Guam Public Utilities Commission and Virgin Islands Public Services Commission.
Some state commissions have a relatively large staff. California has 940, Virginia 600, Pennsylvania, 503, New York 469, Oklahoma, 435. These five states have thirty-six percent of all state commission staff nationally.
Some commissions have a relatively small staff. Rhode Island has 10, Utah, 15, Vermont, 24, South Dakota, 27, Wyoming, 34.
Why such differences between the large and small staffs? It’s partly due to the size of a state’s economy. It’s also partly due to the range of a commission’s responsibilities, such as whether it regulates extensive oil and gas and railroad industries.
The average staff size is 159. Sixteen states have staffs larger than the average. The staffs of the remaining thirty-five states are smaller.
No need to share. Now everyone in your organization can have their own PUF. As we phase out individual subscriptions to Public Utilities Fortnightly at organizations with over a hundred employees, we’ll make it easy and economical for those agencies, associations, professional firms, utilities and vendors to sign up for an organization-wide membership.
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly, and President, Lines Up, Inc.
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com