One of Kentucky’s most important, experienced utility regulators has left office. Why?
Kentucky’s most experienced utility regulator is no longer in office, resigning on the belief that Gov. Andy Beshear would not reappoint him to another term.
Why did Kent Chandler, former chairman of the state’s Public Service Commission, have that impression after a lack of communication from Beshear’s team?
The governor’s office has not said.
“The Governor appreciates Mr. Chandler’s service. He resigned from the PSC, effective at the end of his term,” Crystal Staley, a spokesperson for the governor, wrote. “The governor will appoint a new member soon.”
Regardless of the reason, attorneys who appear before the commission as well as consumer and environmental advocates have expressed disappointment at Chandler’s June 30 departure.
The commission is among the most important bodies whose members are appointed by the governor, as it regulates Kentucky’s water and utility providers both massive and small. It’s also charged with protecting Kentucky utility customers and vetting power generation plans, utility sales and rate hikes among other things.
Every state has regulatory utility commission similar to Kentucky’s, though the commonwealth’s is relatively less political. In Mississippi, one commissioner launched an impressive underdog campaign for governor touting his utility background; in Illinois, the commission is the subject of political television advertisements.
Kentucky’s commission keeps a lower profile. However, it is often involved in hugely important decisions like the sale of Kentucky Power in the Eastern part of the state (that was approved by the PSC but eventually blocked by federal regulators) and the transfer of power territory for the massive Ford electric vehicle battery plant coming online near Elizabethtown.
Chandler told the Herald-Leader that he believes his more than four years at the PSC — at the start of the Beshear administration he was named executive director before joining the commission as chair — were positive.
In 2020, the number of employees at the regulatory body was in the mid-60s; now, it’s in the mid-80s.
“I think it’s directionally better situated today than it was when I got there four years ago,” Chandler said. “We’re in a much better position on personnel, on our experience level, and education level and training than we were when we got there. I think I played a tiny part in that.”
Chandler did not say why he believed he wouldn’t be reappointed. He did add that he was excited to find another opportunity in the sector, potentially working in the federal wholesale electricity market space.
Tom Fitzgerald, a longtime environmental advocate, said via email he was “very disappointed” that Beshear did not indicate he would reappoint Chandler.
Fitzgerald said that now — a time of great transition in how energy is generated and used — was not a good time to lose a commissioner as experienced as Chandler.
Energy has been Chandler’s bailiwick since graduating law school in 2015. He began working on those issues in 2016, when he specialized in utility issues in Behsear’s attorney general office, later serving as an advisor to the PSC and then its executive director.
“No one can credibly state that he was not among the most diligent, thoughtful, involved, and fair Commissioners that we have had at the PSC,” Fitzgerald wrote.
“(Ratepayers) are poorly served by the Governor’s decision not to reappoint him. Those of us who represent ratepayers with low- and fixed-incomes who are among the most vulnerable to high utility costs, are especially appreciative of his service and the sacrifice of his family in allowing him to put in long hours at short pay in service to the ratepayers of the Commonwealth.”
Chandler’s move leaves two commissioners on the three-person body: Mary Pat Regan, a former executive at AT&T, and Angie Hatton, a former Eastern Kentucky Democratic state representative. As previous vice chair, Hatton now serves as acting chair.
“While the remaining Commissioners are able and thoughtful people, neither have the breadth of experience that Kent had as a former assistant attorney general in the rate intervention office, and then as Chair of the Commission,” Fitzgerald wrote.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, is the top legislator in the state Senate, where PSC appointees are either confirmed or passed over. He’s played an outsize role in advocating for legislation related to energy over the last two legislative sessions, including two bills that increase roadblocks for utilities seeking to retire power plants that use fossil fuels.
Stivers declined to comment on Chandler’s departure.
Jim Gardner, an attorney with Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Moloney who also served on the PSC from 2008 to 2016, said Chandler ran the commission fairly and diligently. He said it was a surprise to him when he heard the news.
“Although I didn’t agree with all of his decisions, I don’t see how anyone could question his integrity, his work ethic and his willingness to go down into the weeds on a very complicated subject matter. His departure is a loss for Kentucky,” Gardner said.
Audrey Ernstberger, an associate attorney fellow at Kentucky Resources Council, one of the state’s most prominent environmental advocacy nonprofits, said that Chandler’s tenure was “marked by incredible thoughtfulness and objectivity.”
“It resulted in mixed decisions where folks on either side of issues would walk away having won one issue and then lost on another one,” Ernstberger said. “I think that can frustrate some parties, but that’s the mark of a good, thoughtful and objective regulator — someone who knows the rules and the industry so well that the main focus is, is adhering to the regulatory authority and implementing it in a very fair way.”
Michael Kurtz, an attorney who’s practiced before the commission for 38 years, told the Kentucky Lantern that Chandler was “by far the hardest working and smartest commissioner that has been on the bench in my memory.”
Beyond his service to the PSC, Chandler was president of two major regional regulatory bodies, serving alongside state regulators up and down the Eastern seaboard on the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners and the Organization of PJM States.
Do any of Chandler’s many admirers in the industry have an idea of why he resigned on the belief that he wouldn’t be reappointed? Not exactly.
Fitzgerald said he had “no clue,” but mentioned that some of Chandler’s positions had previously upset a gas utility, the state’s powerful electric co-operatives and, once, the governor’s budget office.
“My concern is that they’ll appoint someone without a clue at a time when we need a third commissioner who understands the process and the issues,” Fitzgerald said.
