Advertisement

Emails Show Regulator Tipping Off Anti-Renewable Governor’s Office

Emails from acting Commissioner Michael Richard to his former colleagues at the governor’s office have brought his appointment into question. CREDIT: MARYLAND PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
Emails from acting Commissioner Michael Richard to his former colleagues at the governor’s office have brought his appointment into question. CREDIT: MARYLAND PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Update:

The Maryland Senate Executive Nominations Committee voted 15–2 on Thursday to confirm Michael Richard’s appointment.

A utility regulator in Maryland is under fire for his close relationship with the office of Gov. Larry Hogan (R), after emails surfaced suggesting that he has worked in coordination with the administration, where he was formerly deputy chief of staff, since his nomination in January.

Acting Public Service Commissioner (PSC) Michael Richard sent emails to the administration staff sharing a wind credit application before it was public and requesting help to convince his PSC colleagues to limit the size and scope of a community solar program, according to emails uncovered by a public records request by Public Citizen.

Advertisement

Public Citizen and the Energy & Policy Institute are now urging the Senate Executive Nominations Committee to reject Richard’s nomination. The committee is expected to vote on the appointment Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

During a hearing last week, Richard told the committee that there was nothing improper about his communication with his former colleagues. “I’m sorry I created a doubt about my independence,” Richard said. “I guess I saw these activities as trying to be very conscientious in handing off all my portfolio.”

But critics say that the emails read less like wrapping up former business, and more like the acting commissioner coordinating with administration staff in Annapolis.

An email dated February 15 from acting Public Service Commissioner Michael Richard to former colleagues at the governor’s office appears to reflect coordination on policy. The PSC is currently considering a rule for community solar.
An email dated February 15 from acting Public Service Commissioner Michael Richard to former colleagues at the governor’s office appears to reflect coordination on policy. The PSC is currently considering a rule for community solar.

On February 15, more than a month after Richard began serving as an active commissioner at the PSC, he asked former colleague Adam Dubitsky, a policy director with Gov. Hogan’s office, to “help” on the rule-making process for a new community solar program. “Let’s discuss a possible statement via [the Maryland Energy Adminstration] that I can use to vigorously assert the Governor’s office position on this,” Richard wrote. Richard told Dubitsky that he was trying to convince his PSC colleagues to limit the size of solar installations that could qualify. A law creating the program was signed into law last May, and the PSC has until May to approve the details.

The communication appeared to be “direct coordination of political strategy,” State Senator Jamie Raskin, chair of the Senate Executive Nominations Committee, told ThinkProgress. “The emails read a bit like he never took off his jersey,” Raskin said.

Advertisement

Richard also forwarded an application from a wind energy company for the state’s OREC program, which the governor’s office has opposed. In the email, he noted that the application status is “not yet public information.”

Richard also forwarded an OREC application to the governor’s office. The name of the company was redacted in the PSC’s response to Public Citizen. It was included in the original email.
Richard also forwarded an OREC application to the governor’s office. The name of the company was redacted in the PSC’s response to Public Citizen. It was included in the original email.

During his hearing in front of the senate committee, Richard said that he was merely noting that the application had not yet been publicly announced. He did not know why the PSC redacted the name of the company in the release.

In the email, he told his successor that the administration had “time to form a response” to the application. “I thought it was important that they knew the process,” Richard said.

The governor’s office is considered a party to the PSC’s decision on the application, and the communication could be seen as ex parte, critics said.

According to the state senator, the debate over Richard’s fitness as a public service commissioner is not politically motivated. “The emails that surfaced… raised questions about confidentiality and ex parte communications,” Raskin said. “We understand there may be philosophical differences.”

With a Democrat-led statehouse, Maryland has made strides in recent years on both renewable energy and energy efficiency programs. In fact, on Monday, the Senate voted to increase the state’s renewable energy standard, increasing the goal to 25 percent renewable energy by 2020. The Hogan administration, though, has not been eager to implement any plans that require upfront investment, according to sources familiar with the state’s renewable energy programs. Even the EmPOWER Program, seen as a successful investment program to increase energy efficiency, has been targeted by the governor’s office.

Richard was not supposed to communicate that information

Gabe Elsner, director of the Energy & Policy Institute, was forthright in his assessment of Richard’s emails.

“Richard was not supposed to communicate that information,” Elsner told ThinkProgress. “That’s a violation of the public trust, and makes it clear that Richard is unfit to serve as an independent commissioner — and that’s based on his own actions. “

Advertisement

“He claimed that he was not coordinating with the governor’s office to impact future decisions at the commission, and the emails show that he was,” Elsner said.

In a statement emailed Wednesday, Gov. Hogan’s office told ThinkProgress, “Interaction between commission members and the administration, along with legislators and advocacy groups, is normal, just as it was in previous administrations. Any attempt to suggest otherwise is politically motivated and fueled by partisan politics.”

Interestingly, this is not the first time Richard has been criticized for pushing behind-the-scenes communication. In 2005, the Washington Post reported that Richard “fought aggressively to obtain information about [a] list of qualified contractors on behalf of two companies that he identified as [then-Governor] Ehrlich campaign supporters. The names of those competing for a spot on the list are required to be kept confidential.”

In an emailed comment at the time, Richard said, “I acted appropriately and no lines were crossed.”

The article was titled, “Ehrlich Appointee Presided as Agency Bled Qualified Staff,” and reported that half of the MEA’s staff left after Richard became director. “Past employees and other state workers said Richard forced out several of the agency’s most qualified people and politicized the office in ways not intended when it was established 14 years ago,” the article said.