2018, When We Started
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.
On June 15, 2018, some seven years ago, Public Utilities Fortnightly published its first Special Issue on the “State and Future of Power.” We’ve published a Special Issue with that theme each June since then.
In that first Special Issue, my editorial was entitled “State of Power by State.” The message there was summed up in this sentence:
“When we assess the present state of power, and when we project the future, we know the states are really different.”
Just as in mid-2018, during the first Trump Administration, here in mid-2025, during the second Trump Administration, the energy transition is largely being driven at the state level and is as diverse state-by-state as the states are.
Here’s another excerpt from that editorial seven years ago that elaborates on this point of view:
“When one projects power’s progress, one must take into account the political, cultural, economic, regulatory and resource differences between the states. Iowa is windy, full of wind power farms. Pennsylvania is gassy, full of natural gas producers. One leans towards traditional regulation, the other towards nontraditional competition. Perhaps forecasters need to give us an Iowa projection and a Pennsylvania one.
Texas is ever hungry to accelerate economic growth. The Lone Star State believes this requires minimizing electric rates through competition. The Empire State, New York, wants low rates too, but has a lot of other goals too. So, forecasters, give us a Texas projection and a New York one.”
In that 2018 Special Issue was an article summarizing the results of our first annual Pulse of Power Survey. The Survey that year asked the Public Utilities Fortnightly readership to “share one word that best describes how you see the state of the industry today.”
The results were quite interesting. And as relevant here in mid-2025 as they were in mid-2018. Here’s how the article in the June 15, 2018 Special Issue reported on the results of this question of the Survey:
“It was a lot of fun to see the diversity of answers to this one. One of you said discombobulated. Another said hijacked. Another said rocky. And another said trainwreck.
But the greatest number of you voted for transitional, transition or transitioning. And nearly as many voted for evolving or evolution. Which isn’t all that different from transitional et al.
We also got a bunch of transforming and transformation. Again, it’s all about change.
Which reminds me. Many of you voted for change or changing. And many voted for flux or in flux. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, turn and face the strange, sang David Bowie.
There was a group of you who went a different way with this question. A large number voted for uncertain or uncertainty. And a large number of you voted for confused, confusion or confusing. If you were in this group, you might think things are changing but mostly you think things are foggy.”
