Commissioners for Four Decades, Even More

Deck: 

Commissioners H. Lester Hooker, Bruce Hagen, Walter McDonald, Nat King, Guy Butler 

Today in Fortnightly

Was visiting NARUC last week. We were talking about Commissioner Ruth Kretschmer of Illinois, who retired after nearly twenty years in 2003. You may recall the column I recently wrote about her, the longest serving female regulator of utilities. 

Which begs the question. Who was the longest serving commissioner, period, male or female?

Turns out there are five commissioners who served a whopping thirty-five years or more. Think about that. Thirty-five years of cost of service studies, rate of return testimonies, interrogatories, cross examinations, fuel adjustment filings, etc. Or more. Consider the fortitude of these five men.

The all-time champion: H. Lester Hooker. Commissioner Hooker of Virginia was elected in 1924 and endured until 1972, 47 years later.

Some of you will remember the runner-up, Commissioner Bruce Hagen of North Dakota. He was elected in 1961 and made it to 2000, 39 years later. 

His successor on the North Dakota Public Service Commission was Tony Clark. That's right, the current member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

I actually interviewed Commissioner Hagen in 1987. The interview was published that year in the journal Electric Potential. Among the topics discussed, the concerns that were addressed by organized markets and twenty-four years later by FERC Order 1000:

"If you have mandatory access to all the transmission systems of the utility industry, what happens to the people who built the system? Are they protected? They have an investment there. 

If you have bidding, and electricity that has to reach the market, should that supersede what is on the system already? There has to be a fair system."

The bronze medal for length of service is shared by Walter McDonald of Georgia, Nat Knight of Louisiana, and Guy Butler of South Carolina. Each of these commissioners served thirty-five years. Not bad.

 

As the magazine for commentary, opinion and debate on utility regulation and policy since 1929, Public Utilities Fortnightly fosters vigorous arguments on the hottest issues of our day, and occasionally reflects on the arguments and issues of our past.

Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com