PORTLAND — Gov. Paul LePage has nominated a senior economist at the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security to the Maine state commission that regulates utilities.
LePage announced Monday that he has nominated Bruce Williamson, a professor at the University of Tennessee’s Howard Baker Center, to replace Commissioner David Littell on the three-member commission.
Littell was appointed by former Gov. John Baldacci and could have been reappointed to the post. Instead, LePage — whose positions on alternative energy and energy policy in general differ markedly from Baldacci’s — nominated Williamson to the six-year term.
If Williamson is approved, he would join commission Chairman Mark Vannoy and Commissioner Carlisle McLean, who was nominated earlier this year to complete the unexpired term of Tom Welch, who resigned early from his position on the commission.
Williamson also has experience in the private sector, serving as a consultant for the Alexandria, Virginia-based WAGsolutions, as a lecturer in data mining and business analytics at the University of Tennessee’s Center for Executive Education and as a senior economist at the university’s National Defense Business Business Institute, which studies defense department purchasing.
Williamson earned his Ph.D. in economics at the University of New Mexico, has an M.A. in International Relations from the Korbel School of International Studies in Colorado and has an undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
If the nomination is approved by the Legislature’s energy committee and the Maine Senate, all three commissioners will be LePage appointees.
“I encourage the Legislature to move swiftly on this nomination and base their consideration on the merits and qualifications of Dr. Williamson,” LePage said in a prepared statement. “There is important work to do at the PUC and I have the utmost confidence he will serve the people of Maine well.”
The nomination comes at a time of increased political attention on the PUC, specifically in relation to a decision about energy efficiency funding and about two long-term wind power contracts that were supported by Littell and Welch.
The commission also continues to deliberate whether it should assess a fee on electricity ratepayers to help support the expansion of natural gas pipelines in New England to serve power generators in the region.
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