Colleagues

Veteran state regulator and former governor’s communication director Kris Mayes was selected Tuesday by her colleagues as chairman of the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC). She is a Republican who has been elected twice to the regulatory panel after originally being appointed by Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2003.

Ramping up the photo-ops on oilman T. Boone Pickens’ alternative energy crusade, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson Monday became the first of his colleagues nationally to sign a pledge to join Pickens’ campaign to “break America’s addiction to foreign oil.”

Former Vice President Al Gore came back to Washington, DC, on Wednesday, not to announce any future election plans, but rather to appear before his former colleagues and testify about an issue he first held hearings on as a congressman from Tennessee 20 years ago: global warming.

Contrary to what some of his colleagues might believe, NRG Energy Inc. CEO David Crane says that carbon — its presence in the environment and what that means for global warming — is of preeminent importance to the power industry.

Striking back at a host of critics, Sen. Pete Domenici, (R-NM) told his colleagues Thursday that killing the energy bill would “kill the fuel diversity efforts, the drive to produce alternative sources of fuel for America.”

Citing deep philosophical differences with two increasingly entrenched colleagues, the newest California utility regulator, Susan Kennedy, indicated this week the current 3-2 split will continue among the five members of the California Public Utilities Commission. “And that is not necessarily bad if we’re consistent,” Kennedy said during a wide-ranging interview in her San Francisco office.

FERC Commissioner Linda K. Breathitt was feted by her colleagues at last Wednesday’s regular Commission meeting, which she acknowledged was “very likely to be my last.”

FERC Commissioner Linda K. Breathitt was feted by her colleagues at Wednesday’s regular Commission meeting, which she acknowledged was “very likely to be my last meeting.”

Chairman-designate Pat Wood III is looking for a few good energy executives to interpret for him and his FERC colleagues the reams of data that come into the Commission on the natural gas and electricity markets, so they’ll be better equipped to detect when something “smelly” is taking place.