Four Vacancies

As I said in May 23rd’s column, there are 197 commissioners at the 51 state commissions. D.C. isn’t a state but let’s not get into that.

We don’t have a complete complement. There should be 201 commissioners. But there are four vacancies at the moment.

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission should have five commissioners, but it is one short currently. The New York Public Service Commission should have five too but is also one short. The Public Utility Commission of Texas and Virginia State Corporation Commission should have three but are each one short.

If there’s 201 state commission positions and 51 state commissions, the average per commission is four. Though no commission actually has four commissioners.

About three-fifths of the states, 29, have three commissioner positions. Most of the remaining states, 20, have five commissioner positions.

Five commissioners is common in one region. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York have five. As do some of the larger states elsewhere in the country, California, Florida, Illinois.

That leaves two states. The Carolinas, North and South, are different from all the other states. They each have seven commissioner positions.

Errata: Yesterday’s column mentioned that Commissioner Pat Apple recently left the Iowa commission, which would be particularly notably since he served on the Kansas commission. And, the column mentioned that Commissioner Rich Zipperer has assumed the chair at the Wisconsin commission. Rather, Commissioner Lon Roberts now holds the gavel there.

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Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly, and President, Lines Up, Inc.
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com