Md. Gov. Moore is about to shake up the Public Service Commission. Here’s why it matters – WTOP News

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With a single, swift personnel transfer this week, Gov. Wes Moore (D) could have achieved extra to advance Maryland’s battle towards local weather change than volumes of laws or months of advocacy ever may.

That’s the optimistic view of many environmentalists after Moore introduced Wednesday that he was rescinding 48 recess appointments to state boards and commissions that his predecessor, former Gov. Larry Hogan (R), made final yr. Included on the record had been two of Hogan’s appointees to the Maryland Public Service Fee — which means Moore is now within the place to choose three of the panel’s 5 commissioners over the subsequent a number of weeks.

“The environmental group is ecstatic,” mentioned Josh Tulkin, director of the Maryland Sierra Membership. “That is the only greatest factor you are able to do to arrange local weather progress on this state for the subsequent 4 years.”

The Public Service Fee is an obscure and infrequently sleepy regulatory entity, steeped within the arcana of power coverage, utility legislation, gasoline and electrical energy technology and transmission, and shopper safety mandates. However it regulates an infinite a part of the financial system, as Marylanders spend billions of {dollars} a yr to activate the lights and warmth their houses, companies, industrial buildings and public establishments.

As state policymakers advance extra aggressive targets for confronting local weather change, the PSC can be partially accountable for decoding and implementing a number of of the brand new legal guidelines — and plenty of environmentalists imagine the fee has fallen in need of assembly the imperatives of the local weather disaster.

“The underside line,” Tulkin mentioned, “is that the Public Service Fee generally is a proactive pressure for good, driving equitable local weather coverage ahead, or it may be an enormous obstacle, and what it’s been thus far is an enormous obstacle, dragging its toes.”

Roger Berliner, a former Montgomery County councilmember and long-time power coverage lawyer, mentioned environmental advocates and coverage specialists throughout the nation are more and more state power and utility regulators as crucial decision-makers.

“Who do you look to on local weather?” he mentioned. “There are 50 individuals it’s best to give attention to. For these of us who care in regards to the planet, that is the only greatest factor we have to give attention to.”

Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo (D-Montgomery), a number one environmentalist within the Basic Meeting, mentioned the prospect of three vacancies on the PSC creates a reset within the relationship between the legislature and the fee. New management on the PSC may allow the state and utilities to maximise the quantity of federal {dollars} they search to fight local weather change, and will expedite utilities’ transition from fossil fuels to cleaner power sources.

“I believe it creates a chance to interact the PSC on local weather change-related points in vital and extra aggressive methods,” Fraser-Hidalgo mentioned.

The PSC is led by 5 commissioners, who’re appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate and serve staggered five-year phrases. The individual the governor selects to be chair largely units the agenda.

Formally, the commissioners oversee 19 gasoline and electrical corporations, taxi and livery drivers, bay pilots, privately-owned water and sewer corporations, and telecommunications corporations that offer phone land strains. The fee hears fee instances; considers business developments and functions to change the scope of service; promulgates new guidelines and laws; and assesses the standard of utility service.

It’s a sophisticated portfolio beneath any circumstance, and has change into extra advanced over time as Maryland policymakers envision an ever-swifter transition away from fossil fuels and towards cleaner power sources.

“We’re within the forefront, rivaling [the Maryland Department of the Environment] and [the Maryland Energy Administration], of being within the entrance seat relating to addressing local weather change, power and environmental points,” PSC Chair Jason Stanek advised the Home Financial Issues Committee at a listening to in Annapolis this week.

The PSC accomplishes its work with 156 full-time workers; against this, the federal government entities regulating utilities in Pennsylvania and Virginia have greater than 500 and 700 full-time workers, respectively. Stanek calls the PSC “a small however mighty company.”

All 5 commissioners are steeped in power coverage and have labored within the business, or for federal and state regulatory or coverage businesses, for many of their careers. Collectively, Stanek mentioned, they’ve 125 years’ of expertise within the business — and the PSC has solely been round for 113 years. As a result of Hogan served as governor for eight years, all 5 of the present commissioners are his appointees.

So who’re the members whose phrases Moore short-circuited?

The primary is Odogwu Obi Linton, who was first picked in 2017 and who Hogan tabbed for a second five-year time period final summer time. Linton is a former regulatory legal professional for Baltimore Gasoline & Electrical whose profession within the utility business dates again to the 1980’s, when he was a meter reader for an electrical firm in New Jersey.

Moore additionally rescinded the appointment of Patrice Bubar, appointed final yr to finish the time period of a previous commissioner who was scheduled to serve on the PSC via June 30, 2024. Bubar beforehand had been the deputy director of the Montgomery County Division of Environmental Safety, and has additionally labored for the Nuclear Regulatory Fee, the Division of Power and the Environmental Safety Company.

By rescinding their appointments, which he did with out clarification, Moore can decide somebody to serve the rest of Bubar’s time period and somebody for the rest of Linton’s time period, which runs via 2027. The 2 commissioners had been weak as a result of their nominations had not been confirmed by the state Senate.

It’s solely potential, although on no account sure, that Moore will advance two nominees for the PSC by Feb. 17, the day the governor is because of ahead his “Inexperienced Bag” appointments for myriad state jobs, boards and commissions to the Senate.

However on the similar time, Stanek’s first five-year time period as chair is because of finish on June 30, and it’s conceivable that Moore would look to interchange him as effectively — although the timetable for doing so is just not altogether clear. Earlier than taking on the PSC, Stanek was the senior counsel for the U.S. Home Power and Commerce Committee on Capitol Hill, labored for the Federal Power Regulatory Fee and the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, and labored for a gas firm in Buffalo, N.Y.

Tori Leonard, a spokesperson for the PSC, mentioned Thursday that the three commissioners will proceed to serve till their replacements are confirmed by the Senate and sworn into workplace. The 2 holdover commissioners are Michael Richard, a former deputy chief of workers to Hogan who as soon as headed the Maryland Power Administration and labored for the Division of Power, and Anthony O’Donnell, a former Republican chief within the Home of Delegates who was a security employee on the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Lusby, the place he lives. Richard’s time period ends in 2025 and O’Donnell’s time period concludes a yr later. Each males have served on the fee since 2016.

Already rumors are operating rampant in Annapolis about who is likely to be appointed to the PSC to interchange Bubar, Linton and Stanek. The names vary from business attorneys and present and former regulators to shopper watchdogs, environmental activists and present and former elected officers — together with senior lawmakers within the Basic Meeting. Any nominee from the latter class may produce a set of falling dominoes within the legislature — and it’s potential that extra lawmakers can be picked for different positions within the fledgling Moore administration within the weeks forward.

Advancing the local weather aims

Coincidentally, the information of the probably shakeup on the PSC comes the identical week that Stanek and his colleagues are showing earlier than legislative committees for informational hearings. On Tuesday, within the Home Financial Issues Committee, which helps set utility coverage and is the committee that could be monitored extra carefully by business lobbyists than another, Stanek mentioned he wish to see the fee do extra to encourage battery storage and modernization of the electrical grid, together with extra power distribution planning.

Stanek additionally expressed skepticism over legislative proposals to increase competitors within the power markets. Whereas utilities are the default suppliers of electrical energy and gasoline for many ratepayers, customers are permitted to buy different power distributors. Some giant nationwide power corporations, together with NRG, wish to additional decontrol the utility market in Maryland and promote extra competitors, however some shopper advocates have warned that ratepayers could possibly be vulnerable to shady offers that sound good at first however require larger funds on the again finish.

“I now suppose it’s extra of a detriment to the state than a profit,” Stanek mentioned of larger deregulation.

However most environmentalists argue the PSC hasn’t achieved sufficient to finish utilities’ reliance on fossil fuels, which they imagine has slowed the state’s transition to renewable power and will impede the state’s targets of reaching 100% carbon-neutral electrical energy by 2035. Moore has vowed to make local weather change a prime precedence for his new administration.

“For too lengthy, the general public curiosity in Maryland and the pursuits of utilities have been one,” Berliner mentioned. “We’d like to ensure the utilities are doing every thing to advance the state’s local weather aims.”