Decorah Power invites the public, business community, and local leadership to a presentation by John Norris, former chair of the Iowa Utilities Board and former member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee, Thursday, October 26, 7:30 p.m. at Luther College, Valders 362.
Decorah Power has asked Norris to focus on this question: If you had free reign to design a customer-owned utility from the ground up, how would you do it? Norris has titled his presentation, “A Clean-Slate, 21st Century Municipal Electric Utility in Iowa and in a National Context.”
John Norris is a partner and co-owner of the State Public Policy Group based in Des Moines, where he works with clients in the public, private and non-profit sectors providing issue management, research, advocacy, stakeholder outreach and facilitation, and project management services.
Norris has over three decades of political, policy and administrative experience at the highest levels of state and federal government including extensive experience on energy and agricultural issues. He served as the Minister-Counselor for Agriculture for the United States Mission to the United Nations Agencies in Rome, Italy. He was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009 and again in 2012 to serve as a Commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In 1999, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack asked Norris to chair the Governor’s Working Group on Electric Restructuring. The legislation resulting from his work made Iowa a national leader in wind generation. Vilsack subsequently appointed Norris as Chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB).
While Chairman of the IUB, Norris also was elected President of the Organization of Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) States and he chaired the Demand Response Working Group for the MISO. He co-chaired the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission/National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Smart Grid and Emerging Issues Collaboratives, served on the Board of Directors of the National Regulatory Research Institute, was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Iowa Power Fund and served on the Advisory Council of the Iowa Energy Center. Norris has spoken extensively on energy, agriculture and regulatory issues both domestically and internationally.
Norris’s presentation is part of a Decorah Power Learning Series designed to investigate the opportunities and challenges involved in a Decorah municipal electric utility—a locally owned, city utility that would provide electricity services in the same way it provides water and sewer services. With the support of the City Council, local citizens group Decorah Power is conducting a feasibility study with privately-raised funds. The study is expected to be completed before the end of the year.