Washington UTC
David Danner is the long-serving Chair of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
Former NARUC President Paul Kjellander, also former Idaho PUC President, is Senior Advisor at Public Utilities Fortnightly.
David Danner, the Chair of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, going on twelve years in that position, is perhaps the longest serving Chair in the United States. That is fortunate for his State, for not only is he an affable guy, but he has an impressive resume, starting out as a telecommunications lawyer in the other Washington, our nation's capital, and also as counsel to the Energy and Utilities Committee at the State Legislature.
While the list from his resume goes on much longer, when PUF Staff visited the Washington UTC at the end of February 2020, right before COVID hit, it was memorable also to find out Chair Danner plays keyboards in a band, aptly named the UTCs, made up of Commission members who perform at the summer BBQ. A lot was going on at the UTC, as the Clean Energy Transformation Act had just been passed in 2019, requiring all utilities to remove coal out of portfolios by the end of 2025, become one-hundred percent carbon neutral by 2030, and one-hundred percent carbon free by 2045.
There was much to talk about then and now as decarbonization in Washington State has moved along. PUF's Paul Kjellander, former Idaho State Chair, took on that issue and much more with the long-serving Chair Danner in this engaging conversation.
PUF's Paul Kjellander: You have the distinction of being one of the longest serving current chairs at a utility Commission. Is there any satisfaction in that title?