If OMS Is Concerned About The Regulatory Revolving Door, What Should The Citizens Of Missouri Think?

A couple months ago, Missouri Public Service Commissioner and former chairman Daniel Hall left the PSC (and his other job as President of the Organization of MISO States) for a job at the American Wind Energy Association.

The Organization of MISO States "will examine the revolving door policies of its member states after its president departed his position earlier this month to take a job with a wind energy trade association," according to RTO Insider.

The move comes in response to Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta’s call to create a code of conduct among OMS representatives — all of whom are state utility commissioners — governing how they transition into jobs in the industry they regulate.
“We’re asking for the OMS to consider adopting a code of ethics or a code of conduct policy,” Skrmetta told fellow regulators during a Board of Directors meeting Nov. 19 as part of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ annual meeting in San Antonio.
OMS leaders said the organization will begin the effort by examining state rules on post-employment restrictions before it decides to move forward with developing any policy.

Skrmetta said he was raising the issue after former OMS President and Missouri Public Service Commissioner Daniel Hall left both posts to become the central region director for the American Wind Energy Association earlier this month. Skrmetta said he took issue with the fact that there was no downtime before the transition and that the move wasn’t announced ahead of time.
“The turnaround is instantaneous,” he said. “It’s pretty obvious we have to take some steps.”

If the OMS is deeply concerned about the appearance of bias and impropriety, what are the citizens of Missouri supposed to think?

Former Commissioner Hall was a huge champion of the unnecessary and unneeded Grain Belt Express project.  In fact, the PSC's approval of the GBE project claimed,

There can be no debate that our energy future will require more diversity in energy resources, particularly renewable resources. We are witnessing a worldwide, long-term and comprehensive movement towards renewable energy in general and wind energy specifically. Wind energy provides great promise as a source for affordable, reliable, safe, and environmentally-friendly energy. The Grain Belt Project will facilitate this movement in Missouri, will thereby benefit Missouri citizens, and is, therefore, in the public interest.

And the next thing you know, he finds himself Central Region Director, Electricity and Transmission Policy for the American Wind Energy Association.  Some folks may think it smacks of bias or some sort of impropriety, while others may think it's just a bit of natural kismet, because Hall has always loved the big wind industry.  But how can the public be sure?

They can't.  Not for sure.  Did Hall's love of big wind influence his support for GBE?  Or did Hall's love of GBE influence his support for big wind?  Did AWEA lean on Hall to favor GBE with the idea of future employment in mind?  Did Hall support GBE as a way to curry favor with AWEA to lead to future employment?  Of course, there is no evidence any of these scenarios occurred.  But OMS is concerned.  Maybe the citizens of Missouri should be also?

So, what would Hall be doing in his new, windy position?

“We are excited to have Daniel on our team,” said Amy Farrell, SVP Public and Government Affairs for AWEA.  “His legal and technical expertise, along with his years of experience in regulation at the state level will help us work toward AWEA’s transmission vision of an increasingly connected, national grid.”
 
Hall will be responsible for policy concerning the efficient and affordable integration of wind energy, including consideration of seams issues between Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), RTOs and similar Independent System Operators (ISOs), are electric power transmission operators that coordinate, control, and monitor multi-state electric grids across much of North America.
 
“Wind energy has been a remarkable growth and success story, especially in our part of the country,” Hall said.  “But for that growth to continue, we need to update America’s electricity grid to meet 21st century needs. I look forward to bringing together state utility commissions, federal regulators and RTO’s to make that happen.”

Sounds like he will be using his connections developed during his stint as a public service commissioner to promote new transmission for wind.  In fact, that seems to be exactly what he's doing in this article, where AWEA believes the cost of new transmission to reliably interconnect new wind farms in remote areas should be shifted from the owner of the new wind farm to electric consumers in MISO.  Instead of these new generators built in areas where their electricity isn't needed having to pay for their own driveway to interconnect to the existing highway systems, AWEA wants everyone in the region to pay for the new generator's driveway.  In exchange, AWEA wants to pretend that these electric customers get some "benefit" in exchange for their payments, such as increased economic activity and payments to landowners.  Much of this new electricity is intended to be exported out of the region, so why should electric customers in the region pay for it?  So they can have their community overrun with oversized wind turbines that make their lives a living hell, along with oversized transmission superhighways that devalue their land on their way out of the region?  And just how far does this crazy scheme stray from Hall's thinking about GBE as a "benefit" to Missouri?

Maybe Missouri needs to take steps similar to those proposed by OMS?

“Avoiding the appearance of impropriety is an important goal for this body,” Skrmetta said. He suggested OMS adopt a recusal mechanism or require members to disclose extracurricular tasks that might conflict with the aims of their offices.

Kentucky Public Service Commissioner Talina Mathews suggested OMS begin the effort by taking inventory and comparing each state’s existing code of ethics on post-employment policies, a task the board assigned to an informal board subcommittee.

Skrmetta said initiating a code of conduct would create protections for OMS and create an “absolute armor plate” for the organization. He also argued that as AWEA’s central region director, Hall was active in MISO states immediately after leaving OMS.

Thomas suggested OMS might add some boilerplate language that directors are bound to their state’s individual code of ethics.


OMS President Matt Schuerger asked the subcommittee to wrap up its research in time for the board’s January meeting.
“It’s a reasonable question that’s been put before us,” he said, promising more discussion.

Regulators, especially politically appointed ones, rarely make a career out of regulating.  Appointments always have a term limit, and changing political winds can guarantee that a regulator may not be reappointed by a elected successor.  So, why would anyone WANT the job of public service commissioner?  Because it's a springboard to riches in the regulated sector.  Former regulators are highly prized within the industries they regulate, or within the law firms that work for the regulated.  Every company wants to own a former regulator or public service employee who has connections that may help them with future proceedings before the regulator.  These former regulators are simply worth more in the employment market AFTER they serve than before.  What's a former public service commissioner to do if he doesn't sell himself to the industry he formerly regulated?

But, we definitely need some sort of cooling off period between public service and private industry so that a former commissioner's new job doesn't cause the kind of stink cloud that's enveloping former Missouri PSC Commissioner Daniel Hall right now.