From the Editor
Steve Mitnick has authored five books on the economics, history, and people of the utilities industries. While in the consulting practice leadership of McKinsey & Co. and Marsh & McLennan, he advised utility leaders. He led a transmission development company and was a New York Governor’s chief energy advisor. Mitnick was an expert witness appearing before utility regulatory commissions of six states, D.C., FERC, and in Canada, and taught microeconomics, macroeconomics, and statistics at Georgetown University.
Two hundred and five. That’s how many Commissioner positions there are to regulate utilities in the fifty states and D.C.
As of when NARUC published its 2024 Membership Directory in February, there were a hundred and ninety-seven Commissioners filling those positions. The remaining eight spots were vacancies at that point in time.
Of those hundred and ninety-seven Commissioners, eight of them started their terms this year. In contrast, three of them started their terms, counting reappointments and reelections, way back in 1989, 1990, and 1997.
Forty-one of them started their terms last year. So, together with those who started this year, a quarter of all current Commissioners are in their first or second year.
The median year when the hundred and ninety-seven Commissioners started their terms is 2020. That is, half of the Commissioners started in 2020 or later and half of them started in 2020 or earlier.
This supports the adage that the “average” Commissioner has three and a half years of experience in this critical job. Though the distribution of years of experience is remarkable. For instance, forty-six Commissioners, nearly a quarter of the total, have served ever since 2016.
All the Commissions of the states and D.C. have three, five, or seven positions. Four of them – the two Carolinas, New York, and Tennessee – are at the high end of the spectrum with seven positions. Twenty-nine of the Commissions are at the low end of the spectrum, with three positions. The remaining eighteen of the Commissions are in the middle, with five positions.
The Chair of the Commission generally has a greater role in utility regulation relative to the other Commissioners. Among the fifty-one Commission Chairs, as of February, three started their terms as Commissioners this year and nine started their terms last year. In contrast, one started back in 2005 and one started further back in 2003.
The distribution of a Chair’s experience is broad as for all Commissioners. And similar to that for all Commissioners, the median year when the fifty-one Chairs started as Commissioners is 2020. That is, half of the Chairs started in 2020 or later and half of them started in 2020 or earlier. Again, this supports the adage about the “average” Commissioner, or Chair of a Commission, having three and a half years of experience.
Twenty-one of the fifty-one Chairs started their terms in 2019 or 2022. But only four started in 2020.
Indeed, while fifty-three of the hundred and ninety-seven Commissioners started their terms in 2019 or 2022, only fourteen started in 2020. In that first year of the pandemic, the numbers show that not many Chairs or Commissioners overall joined the ranks of utility regulators.
