Regulation Is a Team Sport

This year, the first day of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Winter Policy Summit happens to fall on Super Bowl Sunday. It’s a fitting coincidence. While the comparison has its limits, the best teams in football, and in regulation, share a common truth — success depends far less on individual performance than on coordination, trust, and execution.

After more than two decades working across regulation, consumer advocacy, consulting, and utility leadership, I’ve come to believe that effective utility regulation has always been a team sport. The most durable outcomes emerge not from a single decision maker, but from the collective efforts of commissioners, commission staff, utilities, advocates, and industry partners working toward shared goals.

That collaboration has never been more important than it is today. Regulators are being asked to address rapid load growth, grid reliability and resilience, affordability, and emerging technologies, often simultaneously. These challenges cut across traditional silos and time horizons. No single institution has all the answers, and no organization operates in isolation. Progress depends on how well we coordinate analysis, share experiences, and translate insight into action.