The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) swore in three new members Thursday, bringing the five-member board to full strength for the first time in 30 months as it faces the challenge of balancing the push toward clean energy with the continuation of the state’s strong fossil fuel sectors.

The Republican-controlled state Senate approved Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s nominations Wednesday, reappointing John F. Coleman Jr. to the PUC after 12 years as a commissioner. Newly appointed members were Stephen M. DeFrank, a government relations professional who spent 24 years in state government, and Kathryn L. Zerfuss, a veteran government affairs strategist who worked on regulatory and policy issues.

The PUC last held a full board complement prior to April 2020, when Commissioner Andrew Place resigned to take a job outside the state. Commissioner David Sweet’s position became vacant in 2021 when his term expired, and Coleman’s job had been vacant since Oct. 1 when his term expired, leaving the PUC with just two members.

Coleman will serve until April 1, 2027, DeFrank until April 1, 2025, and Zerfuss until April 1, 2026.

The three commissioners join Chair Gladys Brown Dutrieuille and Commissioner Ralph V. Yanora in steering an agency with 526 employees and an $85.3 million budget. The PUC regulates about 9,000 entities in industry sectors that include electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, water, rail, motor carriers and pipelines.

In a release announcing the Senate’s approval of the three nominees, Dutrieuille welcomed the continuation of Coleman’s “experienced voice” on the board and the “new perspectives” of DeFrank and Zerfuss.

“Pennsylvania continues to face a diverse list of utility issues, and their voices, insights and backgrounds will be vital as the PUC moves forward,” Dutrieuille said.

Energy Disputes

The appointments come amid criticism from environmentalists at the slow pace of Pennsylvania’s embrace of clean energy — solar provides less than 1 % of the state’s energy — but strong support elsewhere for the state’s legacy energy industries. They also accompany uncertainty over Wolf’s effort to bring the state into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which Republicans oppose.

The RGGI effort was blocked in July when Commonwealth Court Judge Michael Wojcik issued a temporary injunction in response to petitions by the coal industry, operators of the Keystone and Conemaugh plants, and others. That case is pending. (See Court Blocks Pa. from Joining RGGI.)

The dispute over RGGI had earlier derailed Wolf’s effort to fill the PUC board when Republicans last year refused to approve the governor’s nomination of Hayley Book, a climate adviser in the state Department of Environmental Protection who led the effort to join RGGI. Republicans said they would not approve PUC nominees until Wolf dropped his unilateral effort to join RGGI, and the governor eventually dropped Book’s nomination.

The approval of the three nominees who took office Thursday was part of a deal between Wolf and Senate Republicans under which the GOP would back two Wolf nominees and he would reappoint Coleman, a Republican, according to a local press report. Without the deal, the vacancies could have been left for the next governor to fill, after the November election.

Business and environmental representatives welcomed the appointments.

Elowyn Corby, Mid-Atlantic regional director at Vote Solar, who co-authored an opinion piece last week contending that Pennsylvania’s clean energy strategy is inadequate, said she was “delighted” by the approval of the three commissioners.

“The PUC plays an integral and often under-appreciated role in shaping Pennsylvania’s energy landscape, and I’m grateful and relieved that it will once again have the five Commissioners it needs to do its important work,” she said.

Jon Anzur, vice president of public affairs at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, said the organization was pleased to see the Senate “bring the panel to full complement.”

“The PUC commissioners and their staff work on important issues affecting the business community, like siting energy infrastructure, protecting ratepayers, and having a voice in ensuring that the PJM grid is reliably managed,” he said.

Qualifications, Aspirations

Coleman was serving as CEO of the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County in 2010 when then-Gov. Edward Rendell, a Democrat, nominated him. He served as PUC vice chair from 2011 to 2015 and from October 2021 to September 2022.

He is a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Committee on Gas and was an inaugural member of NARUC’s Pipeline Safety Committee. He served as a board member of the Organization of PJM States from 2013 to 2017.

Addressing the state Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee, which supported all three nominations, Coleman cited his accomplishments at the agency. Among them: his work advocating for legislation to enhance enforcement of the PA One Call Law, which aims to prevent accidental disruption of underground utility infrastructure. He also cited his effort to lead “the implementation planning for the PUC reorganization” and in “enhancing natural gas expansion pilot projects.”

In written testimony, he said his future priorities would include leading a PUC One Call Working Group; ensuring the commission “continues to be structured in the best way to accomplish our mission;” and “keeping a close eye on energy suppliers to make sure everyone is following the rules in our competitive marketplace.”

In his only mention of clean energy, Coleman said he would “foster new technologies and competitive markets in an environmentally sound manner.”

DeFrank, in written testimony to the committee, said that, if confirmed to the board, he would focus on utility regulation, including the “PUC’s core function of ensuring the delivery of safe and reliable utility service to our ratepayers.”

“I also intend to focus on the ever-increasing cyber threats that exist to our distribution systems and ensuring our utilities are prepared to meet those challenges,” he said. “Cyber threats are only going to increase in quantity and sophistication. We must be prepared to meet those challenges.”

Until his confirmation to PUC, DeFrank was a principal in the government relations group of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, of Harrisburg, where he moved after 24 years working in state government, including stints for three senators. Among the positions he held was chief of staff/executive director to Sen. Lisa Boscola, Democratic chair of the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee, which endorsed him for the PUC position.

Zerfuss, who in testimony to the committee said she was the first person in her immediate family to go to college, served as deputy secretary for legislative affairs in Wolf’s office at the start of his second term. While there, she helped establish an initiative to encourage students, workers and businesses to collaborate on programs that meet the needs of a 21st century workforce. She also helped secure Pennsylvania’s first tax credit to help working families with childcare.

Zerfuss had earlier served as director of legislative affairs at the state’s Transportation and Agriculture departments, and as deputy director of legislative affairs at the state Department of Revenue. She also worked at the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

“Everything that I have done in my almost 20 years in Harrisburg has prepared me to become a public utility commissioner and taught me something about the commission’s constituencies,” she said.