STATE
Th e state Senate this summer confi rmed Pamela A. Witmer as the newest member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, a regulatory agency in the midst of change.
Witmer, a resident of Dauphin County, previously led the energy and environment practice of Bravo Group, a Harrisburg-based governmental and public relations fi rm.
She also was on Gov. Tom Corbett's transition team and has held several positions in state government, including research analyst with the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Witmer came on board during agency reorganization, including moves intended to better align functions for more effi cient - yet thorough - oversight of rate increase requests and other matters within its jurisdiction.
Q: please tell me a little bit about your background and how you got to your position with the pUC.
a: I have been in government relations and in state government for a long time, since the late '80s. And when I fi rst came to the House of Representatives, I was on the (former) mines and energy management committee ... so I had some energy and environmental background starting there.
I worked in the legislature and then came out into private practice as a contract lobbyist ... concentrating, unintentionally at first, on clients who had environmental and energy issues. Then I came back in (state government) and was the legislative liaison at the Department of Environmental Resources - at the time - under Gov. (Tom) Ridge, and then we split the agency creating the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and what is now (the Department of Environmental Protection).
And that was an exciting time to be there: creating two new agencies, and having a hand in creating (at DEP) what became the national model for redeveloping brownfield sites - industrial sites that had some level of contamination - (and) being able to bring them back into active, productive use.
So I've been in government relations and/or state government, just concentrating progressively more and more on energy and environment work, and this spot became open. Gov. Corbett, I'm thankful for him thinking of me. He and I have worked together in various capacities over the years and he knew of my experience, and the nomination came.
Can you give me a little background on restructuring at the PUC?
I think any agency - even households - have to every once in awhile look around and say: What are we doing and how are we functioning? Is what we are doing right now meeting our core mission, and are we doing it efficiently and effectively for the clientele, so to speak, that we have?
And as you know in your world watching and monitoring the energy and electricity arena, (the landscape) has changed dramatically from the vertically integrated monopoly companies that owned the wires and the poles and generated the electricity, and had all the customers in one big kind of silo. And of course, there was deregulation, and in essence it had been 15 years since that (legislation) passed and about 27 years since we had gone through reorganization.
And having been on the outside prior and looking at the plan now, and watching it unfold, I really think that it makes a lot of sense with what we are doing, trying to align the functionalities to meet our mission.
What are some examples of the reorganizations and restructuring to meet those challenges?
The Technical Utility Services are more formulated as teams almost - of economists, of attorneys and more technical kinds of people - to look at cases that come before them rather than (previously) being more siloed.
Before, you know, we would have our separate bureaus. You'd have the law bureau, which we still have; but what we've done then is (taken) some of the attorneys out of law bureau and said: OK, you're now going to be more closely working with the technical people, and some of the economists and some of the auditors ... so that the different backgrounds and experiences of those people who would have had to touch the case at some point along the way (before) are (now) looking at it more up front and at every point along the process.
How is the process becoming more user-friendly?
I think the team approach (does that), making sure that each one of the parts (of the bureau) that would have had to touch a case, a rate case or a request that is coming before us - just the fact that all the different parts are getting to see it and talk about it earlier will bring to light any questions or concerns, or requests for any new information, that we may need sooner (in the process).
That's one of our goals, to be more efficient and to be able to respond more quickly and still act thoroughly. As you know, time is money in our world and in the business world, certainly. The hope is that we will create these efficiencies along the way and be able to work more quickly and more efficiently.
What have you learned since coming into this job and what is your takeaway in the first few months?
I've never been inside the PUC before, professionally. I had interacted (with the agency) on a policy level in different roles I had, but had never advocated on behalf of a client before the Public Utility Commission.
So for the staff in the different areas of the commission, I didn't have the appreciation I do today of their capabilities. They are very dedicated, very hard-working, very bright folks in the commission. All the way from the law bureau folks to the enforcement officers who go out and do truck inspections. And certainly what we have seen with the recent natural disasters, the inspection people ... have gone out in some very difficult circumstances to make sure the infrastructure is safe, and (they have been) verifying information we are getting in from the utilities. So I am very impressed ... with the caliber of people who are here at the commission.
And then I think the second thing ... has been the breadth of processes and procedures. Because we are a quasi-judicial entity, it's very rulebound and very procedural. We are very careful with information and not talking about cases that are contested.
What is the role of the PUC in the changing industries you regulate?
Certainly, our first role is to ensure safe, reliable service to our customers, whether they are residential customers, small commercial customers or large industrial customers. That is our first priority. And then very closely coupled with that is ensuring that we have healthy companies ... who can bring that energy to those customers.
And something that I think the commission hasn't done as much of since deregulation - since we no longer regulate generation of electricity or natural gas - is watching the impact of (federal Environmental Protection Agency) regulations or DEP regulations have on a generation company. Because some of the regulations that are being contemplated now on a federal level by EPA could very well result in the shutdown of some generation capacity in Pennsylvania. And that is a reliability concern.
What role could the PUC play in coping with that or mitigating the effects?
I think it is a two-pronged question. Certainly it is our responsibly to inform EPA or DEP or whatever agency that it might be of the impact if a facility shuts down, what that means from a generation/production perspective and then the impact to consumers.
The other thing we have to look at is the big picture (and say that) if that is in fact the direction EPA is going to go, what can we do, if anything, to help facilitate other forms of energy production, whether that is renewables or natural gas or nuclear? And I think nuclear and natural gas are going to have to - from a base load generation perspective - step into the gap.
[Author Affiliation]
By Brent Burkey
brentb@journalpub.com
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