State Commissions
Andrew Johnston is Executive Secretary at the Maryland Public Service Commission.
The PUF team had a warm welcome at the PSC offices in Baltimore on the upper floors of the William Donald Schaefer building. Maryland punches well above its weight, with an expansive grid modernization portfolio, ambitious electric vehicle and charging programs, utility-scale batteries deployed as grid assets, and more, backed up by a diverse renewable generation portfolio and nuclear power at the Calvert Cliffs plant.
PUF's Lori Burkhart: How did your background lead you to the Commission?
Andrew Johnston: I grew up in Maryland, went away for college, and after a little time on Capitol Hill, went to law school at the University of Maryland. Then I worked for a firm and ended up as counsel to the Senate Finance Committee in the Maryland General Assembly, where I spent about three years.
A job opened up here to be the Legislative Affairs Director, and I did that for about seven years. That's the job Lisa Smith now has. That was a great job.
A job opened up in the legislature doing similar work I'd done before, but with the energy and public utility set, which I hadn't done before. I was interested in covering that issue set, as well as working for many of the same legislators, so I went back for about a year.