Commissioner
John Howard is a Commissioner 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's Lori Burkhart: How did your background lead you to the Commission?
Commissioner John Howard: I am celebrating my forty-first anniversary in state service. I started in the New York State Assembly in a variety of capacities in the Speaker's office, then moved to then Governor Mario Cuomo's regional office where I worked in two cities, Hudson Valley and Rochester. Then I was a political director for the State Democratic Party for a year.
After that, I went to work for the New York Power Authority. I handled communications for the Shoreham decommissioning fuel transfer to PECO and Hydro-Québec purchases. It all comes around. After that, I was the executive director of the New York Consumer Protection Board.