Hutchinson appoints new PSC Commissioner Kim O’Guinn, replaces Beebe appointee Lamar Davis

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Monday made Little Rock native Kimberly O’Guinn his second appointment to the state Public Service Commission while governor. She replaces outgoing Commissioner Lamar Davis who resigned last week to take a position in the private sector.

In a press availability at the Governor’s Conference Room at the State Capitol, Hutchinson said O’ Guinn is a 16-year veteran of the state Department of Environment Quality (ADEQ) and expressed his full confidence in her to serve as one of three state commissioners tasked with regulatory oversight of the Arkansas’ utility sector.

“Kim’s background and regulatory experience make her a great addition to an already stellar group of commissioners,” Hutchinson said. “I have no doubt she will serve the PSC and our state well in this new role.”

O’Guinn earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, where she was designated the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Grant Consortium/NASA EPSCoR fellow. Following her three years with NASA, O’Guinn worked as an Environmental Engineer at the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, O’Guinn graduated from Little Rock Central High School. In replacing Davis, O’Guinn will serve a six-year term with current PSC Chairman Ted Thomas and Elena Wills, also a Democratic appointee.

Thomas and Davis were named to the PSC only a day apart in January 2015. In one of his last decisions, former Gov. Mike Beebe named Davis to fill Colette Honorable’s spot on the PSC. The following day Gov.-elect Hutchinson tabbed Thomas to replace Olan Reeves on the three-member regulatory panel and take over Honorable’s position as chairman. Honorable left the PSC after President Obama appointed her to the powerful Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

O’GUINN BRINGS ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATORY EXPERIENCE TO NEW ROLE
Unlike Thomas, who served in the Arkansas Legislature and is a graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Law, O’Guinn’s background is primarily in regulatory experience with no political or legal involvement.

With her 12-year old son, Prentice, at her side, O’Guinn thanked the governor and her current boss, ADEQ Director Becky Keogh, and offered a brief statement concerning her new role.

“After sixteen years of service to the state as an environmental engineer with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, I am humbled and deeply honored to accept this appointment to the Arkansas Public Service Commission,” O’Guinn said. “I thank Governor Asa Hutchinson for the opportunity to continue serving the people of the State of Arkansas, and I look forward to bringing my technical education and regulatory experience to the Commission.”

As the third commissioner on the state regulatory panel, O’Guinn will come into the job as the agency takes on a number of critical issues facing the state. In early March, Keogh and Thomas halted stakeholder compliance meetings on the state’s response to implementing the far-reaching carbon emission rules due to the high court’s controversial stay in February.

In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held hearings on the EPA’s precedent-setting mandate to limit carbon emissions from U.S. power plans. Arkansas and most other states did not meet the EPA’s first deadline to submit a final implementation plan to comply with the president’s plan on Sept. 6, 2016.

Once a ruling is handed down, the losing side is likely to appeal and send the case back to Chief Justice Roberts and the high court for a final verdict. If a new justice selected by President-elect Donald Trump is not seated at the time, a tie vote would uphold whatever ruling the 10-member federal appeals court decides.

HUTCHINSON WILL ‘WAIT-AND-SEE’ ON CLEAN POWER PLAN UNDER TRUMP’S EPA
Hutchinson said even if the Clean Power Plan rules are upheld, the new Trump administration will likely make substantive changes to the centerpiece mandate of the Obama administration’s climate change policy. Trump has said that he plans to completely overhaul or gut the EPA, and has called climate change a hoax.

“I expect that there will be changes, but regulatory changes have to be required with notice – so it takes a while,” Hutchinson. “We’ll see what the court rules and we’ll continue to do our preliminary planning and then we wait and see what changes the new administration has.”

In addition to appointing O’Guinn to the PSC, Hutchinson also announced that he will introduce legislation in the upcoming legislation session in January to consolidate the state Department of Energy as part of his ongoing efforts to streamline state government and achieve financial efficiencies.

As part of that effort, the State Department of Energy, now a part of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, will be housed with ADEQ.

Hutchinson said the ADEQ will receive $14 million from a $14.7 billion federal settlement that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) made with German automaker Volkswagen AG concerning allegations of cheating on emissions tests and deceiving customers.

“As has been by custom and practice, whether it has been in a special or a regular session, we’ve always looked at efficiencies and whether there is some restructuring in government that might be helpful in terms of making our services more available or more efficiently provided to the people of this state,” the governor said. “We are starting to put that together.”

Hutchinson said he has already had in-depth discussions with AEDC Chief Mike Preston and Keogh about the reorganization of the state Energy Department, which is now headed by Director Mitchell Simpson and is one of nearly a dozen smaller agencies under the economic development umbrella.

“It is just a better alignment over at ADEQ,” Hutchinson said.