California Gov. Gavin Newsom continued changing up the state’s energy leadership last week by appointing Energy Commission (CEC) member Karen Douglas as his senior advisor on energy and naming Douglas advisor Kourtney Vaccaro, a former CEC chief counsel, to fill the vacant commission seat.

Gov. Gavin Newsom named CEC Commissioner Karen Douglas as his senior advisor on energy. | CEC

The changes followed a similar switchover at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) late last year, when then-CPUC President Marybel Batjer decided to leave two years into her seven-year term and the governor named Alice Reynolds, then his senior energy advisor, to take Batjer’s place.

The changes continue a trend in which Newsom has appointed senior staff, instead of outsiders, to fill seats on the CEC and CPUC daises.

Little more than a year ago, Newsom named new members to the three bodies that govern state energy policy —  CAISO, the CPUC and the CEC — and reappointed a sitting member of the ISO’s Board of Governors.

The governor picked CEC Deputy Director Siva Gunda, a high-ranking staff member, as a CEC commissioner after former Commissioner Janea Scott left to take a post at the U.S. Department of the Interior in the Biden Administration.

Newsom chose then-CEC General Counsel Darcie Houck, a former CPUC administrative law judge, to fill an open spot on the CPUC after he selected former CPUC Commissioner Liane Randolph to head the California Air Resources Board.

Newsom also named Jan Schori, a longtime NERC trustee and former CEO of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, to fill a seat on the CAISO board left vacant when former Chair David Olsen decided to retire at the end of November.

Kourtney Vaccaro is the state’s newest energy commissioner. | CEC

The latest appointments of Douglas and Vaccaro come as the CEC, the CPUC and CAISO are trying to head off energy shortfalls this summer as the state transitions from fossil fuels to renewables. The rolling blackouts of August 2020 led to calls for better synchronization among the three entities, which forecast energy demand, order utility procurement and run the state’s grid, respectively.

The CPUC has struggled to prevent utility equipment from sparking wildfires and is currently attempting to control rate increases for customers of the state’s three large investor-owned utilities. The CEC grants more than $130 million a year for research and development of projects to decarbonize the transportation and building sectors, and to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Douglas has served on the CEC since 2008. She was previously director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s California Climate Initiative. Douglas earned a law degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree in environmental policy from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her new role does not require state Senate confirmation.

Vaccaro has served as Douglas’ adviser at the CEC since 2019. Her prior positions at the commission from 2009 to 2019 included chief counsel and assistant executive director of compliance assistance and enforcement. Her appointment requires Senate confirmation.

Neither Douglas nor Vaccaro was available for comment Monday.