NARUC's Powelson Addresses Key Energy And Telecom Priorities In Trump Transition Team Outreach

Calls for Action on Yucca Mountain and FCC Overhaul

On behalf of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, President Robert Powelson of Pennsylvania today sent letters to President-Elect Trump, as well as representatives of his energy and telecommunications transition teams.

NARUC, as the representative of state public utility regulators, engages with each incoming administration’s transition team to help ensure that state priorities on energy and utility issues are heard and understood and to develop cooperative relationships.

In terms of energy issues, key concerns include infrastructure replacement and nuclear waste—with a call to address the stalled Yucca Mountain proceedings—state-federal jurisdiction and modernizing the 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. NARUC has also expressed a desire to renew its relationship with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.   

The telecommunications letter stressed the need for an improved relationship between states and the federal government, along with two specific objectives. The first is to decentralize federal telecommunications policy “by returning more power to states on important issues such as state broadband, universal service and consumer protection programs.” The second is reform of the Federal Communications Commission. 

“NARUC members possess a depth of knowledge and practical experience in energy and utility matters that affect every American citizen,” said Powelson. “NARUC is a non-partisan association.  We know how to work collaboratively and effectively, and that is our goal with the new Administration.”   

NARUC has also extended an invitation to the Trump Administration to participate in its Winter Committee Meetings in Washington, D.C., on February 12-15, 2017, where state commissioners, industry representatives, government officials and consumer advocates convene to discuss matters affecting energy and utility regulation.

Copies of the letters are available on NARUC’s website at http://bit.ly/2iYo5Id and http://bit.ly/2jRwlIo.

NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of State public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.