Did you know the Michigan Public Service Commission launched a new podcast, Behind the Meter: An MPSC Podcast, at the beginning of the year?
This launch episode, hosted by Mark Burn, the commission's chief operating officer, featured all three MPSC commissioners: Chair Dan Scripps, Katherine Peretick, and the most recently appointed Alessandra Carreon. The monthly podcast aims to update listeners on energy and telecommunications news, share the work the MPSC is involved in, and answer questions on those topics. In this inaugural episode, each commissioner shares their background: Scripps, a born-and-raised Michigander, former lawyer, and one-term member of Michigan's House of Representatives; Peretick, a mechanical engineer, also born and raised in Michigan, who worked at a series of energy companies from wind to energy storage; and Carreon, who worked at a clean-energy NGO focused on equitable access and trained as a chemical engineer.
While seeking better public engagement, an advocate attending a public hearing in Flint inspired the podcast. The goal was to provide more ways to communicate the commission's work, and the MPSC's communications team developed it internally. With the formal legal orders not being very accessible to the public, the commission is beginning to 'pull back the curtain' on those complex processes — through issue briefs on cases, explainers on decisions, and the MPSC Spotlight newsletter.
The commissioners discuss the commission's history, originally formed in 1873 as the Michigan Railroad Commission. Scripps shares: 'Railroads were the initial monopoly. They provided a vital public service, but monopolies tend toward monopolistic behavior — so the idea was to put in place, in each state, a check on that, so the benefits of delivering core essential services that are often natural monopolies could be made sure they were operating in the public interest.' In 1939 it was reformed into what it is today: three governor-appointed commissioners with staggered six-year terms, all currently appointed by Gov. Whitmer. The commission's history is broad — it once even had regulatory authority over ferries to Mackinac Island. The legislature sets the parameters around its powers, which currently cover natural gas, electric, and licensing telecommunications.
The commission exists to ensure the safety, accessibility, and reliability of energy and telecommunications services at reasonable rates. — Commissioner Katherine Peretick
Commissioner Carreon continues: 'I can imagine it feels very frustrating to know there's something so massive — a service you can't do without — but you don't understand how it gets to you or your role in how it's operated.' She raises the importance of Michiganders understanding what the commission does, as 'an opportunity to understand how to engage in these highly complex proceedings that we administer, but also to get a better understanding of the expectations around the service you obtain.' She highlights education in helping ratepayers understand the difference between regulation and the implementation of policy as laws change: 'In our function, we aren't making the policies — we're implementing them.'
Overall, it was an informative episode expressing the commission's vested interest in greater public participation. Scripps — whose father is an orchestra conductor — compares the commission's work to an orchestra production: a slew of moving parts working together to produce a seemingly effortless product that many fail to notice unless something goes wrong. He calls his position a 'dream job.' Carreon explains what drew her: 'protecting people, protecting the planet, in the best way any organization I was part of could… our work directly impacts the public, and this group of people strives to make sure that's always as positive an impact as we can possibly make it within our mission, our purview, and our authority.'
