by Liam Niemeyer, Kentucky Lantern
August 29, 2024
Gov. Andy Beshear has filled two seats on a new energy planning commission with utility executives who, like Beshear, opposed the commission’s creation.
Kentucky lawmakers earlier this year created the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) to slow the retirement of power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.
Investor-owned utilities and environmentalists opposed the legislation which Beshear vetoed, calling it unconstitutional for “numerous reasons.” The new law also was opposed by the United Way of Kentucky, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chambers of commerce around the state. The Republican-controlled legislature easily overrode Beshear’s veto.
Among Beshear’s first eight appointees to the 18-member board are Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities CEO and President John Crockett and Duke Energy senior vice president Brian Weisker. The law requires that one of the governor’s appointees represent a Kentucky investor-owned utility.
Weisker in a statement to the Lantern said he agreed to serve despite opposing Senate Bill 349 which created EPIC because it’s “vital that Duke Energy continues to have a voice in securing Kentucky’s energy future.”
In March, Crockett told state lawmakers EPIC would be an “inherently political body” and that he feared it would be “just another layer of bureaucracy.” Crockett also has pushed back against Senate President Robert Stivers’ assertion that the state is “facing an electric reliability crisis.” LG&E and KU spokesperson Liz Pratt said Crockett agreed to serve on EPIC to “allow us to be part of the evaluation process and help responsibly shape the future of energy” while providing insights to “the long-term energy solutions proposed for the communities we serve and for Kentucky.”
“As regulated utilities, we must make decisions in the best interests of all of our customers and continue providing safe, reliable and affordable energy,” Pratt said.
Beshear also appointed Jeffrey Brock, an executive for Kentucky’s largest coal producer Alliance Resource Partners. Alliance’s CEO is Joe Craft, a prominent donor in Republican politics along with his wife and former candidate for Kentucky governor Kelly Craft, a Glasgow native. Brock serves on the Kentucky Coal Association’s board of directors.
Under the new law, most of EPIC’s decision-making power will be vested in a five-person executive committee. Beshear appointed Eston Glover to represent utilities on the executive committee. Glover is the former president and CEO of Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative and chair of the Pennyrile Regional Energy Agency that’s trying to build a natural gas pipeline in Western Kentucky.
Glover told the Lantern he had received a call asking about his interest in serving on EPIC but hadn’t spoken with the governor personally. He said he wanted to learn more about EPIC and its duties before commenting. “I’m interested in energy. I’m interested in making our community better and our region better and this state better,” Glover said.
The new law puts the director of the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, Rodney Andrews, on the executive committee. Andrews testified before lawmakers last week he is doing the “very early” work of understanding EPIC’s scope. Andrews would serve as EPIC’s executive director unless the executive committee chooses someone else.
Beshear still has to appoint a third executive committee member who has experience serving as a CEO or board member “of a company engaged in the production of coal.” The full board will choose the final two members of the executive committee.
The new law set a July 1 deadline for Beshear to appoint EPIC members. He still has multiple appointments to make from nominations by industry groups such as the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association, Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives and Kentucky Industrial Utility Customers. The law reserves one seat for an appointee representing residential electricity consumers.
The law also requires EPIC to submit a study of the state’s electricity supply and the impact of federal policies on it by Dec. 1.
Another of Beshear’s appointees, Mark Gooch, an executive of Community Trust Bank, has connections to One East Kentucky, an economic development nonprofit that opposed EPIC’s creation.
Colby Kirk, CEO and president of One East Kentucky, told the Lantern that Gooch served on One East Kentucky’s board until 2023 and was board chair when Kirk was hired. Kirk emphasized Gooch wasn’t involved with the decision to oppose SB 349 this year. Gooch didn’t return emails or a message at his office requesting an interview.
Kirk said One East Kentucky’s decision to oppose the creation of EPIC was spurred by their local investor-owned utility Kentucky Power. Kentucky Power’s COO and president Cynthia Wiseman serves as the current board chair of One East Kentucky, and Community Trust Bank has membership on the board.
“I felt that it’s just another, I would think, unnecessary barrier or layer of red tape,” Kirk said of EPIC. “We already have a Public Service Commission, and we already have an Office of Energy Policy. You know, what’s the real function of this?”
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