The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) has assembled nine former state utility regulators to try to make electricity more affordable for ratepayers.

RAP announced the initiative Nov. 6 and said the former commissioners will try to influence regulatory initiatives to “secure access to clean, affordable and reliable energy for all.”

The bipartisan council includes:

• • Jay Griffin, former chair and commissioner of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission and executive chair of RAP’s U.S. program;
  • Kent Chandler, former chair and vice chair of the Kentucky Public Service Commission;
  • Megan Decker, former chair and commissioner of the Oregon Public Utility Commission;
  • Sarah Freeman, former commissioner on the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission;
  • Carl Linvill, former commissioner on the Nevada Public Utilities Commission;
  • Michael T. Richard, former commissioner on the Maryland Public Service Commission;
  • Ted Thomas, former chair of the Arkansas Public Service Commission;
  • James Van Nostrand, former chair of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities; and
  • Carrie Zalewski, former chair of the Illinois Commerce Commission.

RAP said the council is necessary as the grid becomes strained by growing demand. It said the group can “speak candidly and with authority” to current commissioners “on what’s holding back progress in U.S. energy systems.”

Griffin said the council will offer advice to utility regulators on how to achieve the most meaningful changes through commission action.

“This group understands the pressures on regulators and will serve as trusted peers to commissions throughout the U.S.,” Griffin said in a press release.

“At a time when energy issues are becoming increasingly politicized, this council’s experience will help today’s decision-makers cut through the noise, focus on the most urgent challenges and set the course toward the affordable, safe and secure energy all Americans deserve,” RAP CEO Katherine Dixon said in a press release.

Griffin told RTO Insider that RAP doesn’t plan for the council to weigh in on individual proceedings like rate cases, but it would release statements on topics it deems important.

RAP staff and senior advisers, including some council members, will continue to release reports on regulatory topics and engage directly with commissions, other government entities, utilities and stakeholders, he said. RAP assembled the council “to support today’s leaders in state commissions across the U.S.”

RAP will hold its first full meeting with the council in December and plans to hold a second meeting in February, Griffin said. It plans to maintain the council for the foreseeable future and is working out the details of council members’ terms. He said some “natural turnover” could occur, and he anticipates more former commissioners serving as senior advisers to RAP.

Nationwide, electricity prices have jumped approximately 40% since February 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The increase is attributed to grid modernization, rising data center demand and higher natural gas prices.

Household debt in the U.S. reached a record $18.59 trillion in the third quarter of 2025, up $197 billion from the previous quarter, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Financial outlets increasingly refer to a bifurcated, “K-shaped economy,” where the upper arm of the “K” represents upper-class Americans’ income and spending growth since the COVID-19 pandemic, while the lower arm depicts lower- and middle-class Americans struggling with inflation, debt and increasingly expensive necessities like housing and health insurance.

RAP is a think tank that describes itself as “an independent, global non-governmental organization with a mission of advancing policy innovation and thought leadership within the energy community.”