Public Service Commission left with no quorum after Senate denies appointment
The Public Service Commission (PSC) has before it one of its biggest cases in recent history: the $2.8 billion sale of Kentucky Power, a utility company that serves 20 counties in Eastern Kentucky.
But thanks to the Senate not confirming PSC Vice Chair Amy Cubbage to her role during this year’s session, the three-person commission only has one member and therefore does not have a quorum needed to conduct business.
In days, the commission is due to approve or deny the sale of the utility that serves 165,000 customers.
Cubbage, an attorney who formerly served as Gov. Andy Beshear’s general counsel among other roles in the administration, said that she’s worried about the “disruption” her non-appointment will cause to the case.
“While I am personally disappointed I was not confirmed, I am more disappointed and concerned about the disruption this will create as the Commission considers the $2.8 billion sale of Kentucky Power. As it stands, the Commission must act on the application in approximately two weeks, and it now lacks a quorum,” Cubbage wrote on Twitter . “Even if a new Commissioner is appointed, he or she will have to digest thousands of pages of filings and will lack the benefit of participating in the recent hearing.The citizens and ratepayers of Eastern Kentucky deserve better.”
GOP Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said concerns about the commission not having a quorum were shared in party discussions, but the votes for Cubbage still weren’t there.
“She did not have the votes. We decided instead of putting her up, we’d just leave the resolution in committee... The governor can appoint two people tomorrow, and my guess is he probably has some people he’s ready to appoint,” Thayer said.
Crystal Staley, a spokeswoman for Beshear’s office, said that the General Assembly has played politics in handling the appointments and caused “significant disruption and delay” to cases like the Kentucky Power sale. She added that the governor is now “once again” seeking a qualified person to appoint to the PSC.
“With more than 25 years of experience practicing law and a passion for ensuring adequate water and wastewater treatment, Amy was the right person to appoint to the commission. It is simply wrong that politics once again got in the way of another well-qualified person serving in this important role,” Staley said.
The senate resolution confirming Cubbage was posted in the orders of the day earlier in the session in February, the same day that the other two appointments were denied, but was passed over and eventually reassigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee where it remained inactive for more than a month.
At that time, former PSC commissioner Marianne Butler was denied confirmation in a 9-to-26 Senate vote with only one Republican voting in favor of her.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said in February that “numerous people” had reached out to him about the state of the PSC with Butler and Cubbage on the commission.
“I have been contacted by numerous people about the functions of the PSC and how they have operated since this nomination has been put before us and one other,” Stivers said of both Butler and Cubbage’s nomination. “Dysfunctional, not responding, plans about how to level the costs of skyrocketing electric bills – these are the things that we get input (about).”
Stivers said at the time that he wouldn’t tell who contacted him about Butler – a former Democratic member of the Louisville Metro Council and employee of Louisville Gas & Electric/Kentucky Utilities – or Cubbage.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 9:31 AM.
