Gov. Kate Brown Will Replace Longtime Utility Commissioner With Port Lawyer

Megan Walseth Decker will succeed John Savage on rate-setting panel.

Gov. Kate Brown

Gov. Kate Brown will nominate Megan Walseth Decker to the Public Utility Commission tomorrow.

Decker, currently assistant general counsel at the Port of Portland, will replace Commissioner John Savage, who has served since 2003. His term expires at the end of March. Savage did not seek reappointment to his position, according to Brown's spokesman, Chris Pair.

The three-member PUC wields significant influence over the daily lives of Oregonians.

It sets rates for the state's major utilities, Portland General Electric, PacifiCorp and NW Natural, and decides what generating facilities get built, a process increasingly fraught with conflict as the state grapples with climate change. Unlike many commissioners, PUC commissioners are full-time state employees paid about $140,000. They serve four-year terms.

The normally low-profile commission made big news last year when commissioners pushed back hard against legislation backed by Gov. Kate Brown and environmentalists that shifted Oregon utilities away from coal and toward more renewable energy generation.

Emails obtained by The Oregonian showed that then-Commission Chair Susan Ackerman and Savage were concerned that proponents were overstating the benefits of the shift away from coal and overstating Oregonians' ability to determine policy in coal-burning states such as Montana and Wyoming that supply electricity to Oregon. The commissioners expressed concerns about the cost and effectiveness of the policy, but lawmakers moved forward, and Brown now cites to coal-to-clean energy as one of her top accomplishments.

Ackerman resigned from the commission in March 2016 and was replaced by Lisa Hardie, formerly an administrative law judge at the PUC.

Decker, a graduate of Stanford and the University of Washington School of Law, comes to Salem with experience at the Portland law firm Ball Janik; as chief counsel of Renewable Northwest Project, a strong proponent of alternative energy; and since October 2015, assistant general counsel at the Port.

Her appointment is subject to confirmation by the Oregon Senate.

 

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