Beshear appointee bumped from Public Service Commission after Senate takes no action to confirm him
Republished from Kentucky Lantern
FRANKFORT — A former Democratic state lawmaker is no longer sitting on a powerful commission regulating utilities in Kentucky after the GOP-controlled Kentucky Senate took no action to confirm him before the 2025 regular session ended Friday.
Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in September appointed John Will Stacy of West Liberty, a state representative from 1993 to 2015 who later served as the Morgan County judge-executive, to the three-member Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC).
Stacy sat on the commission and heard requests from utilities in the months after his appointment but needed confirmation by the Kentucky Senate to continue serving through the end of his term in 2028. No resolution to confirm Stacy had been introduced, confirmation hearing scheduled or vote taken on his appointment by the time lawmakers adjourned Friday.
Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Mancester, told reporters Friday the reasons for not confirming Stacy included that the former lawmaker was drawing a pension from his previous time in government on top of a six-figure salary PSC commissioners make.
Stivers also said he knew of Stacy’s business interests and local and government experience, but he considered Stacy to be unqualified for the role given the complexity of topics dealt with by the PSC.
“What is his background in energy?” Stivers said. “This is a highly technical field.”
The Republican Senate leader said he hoped Beshear would appoint a new PSC member who has experience in a range of utilities from electricity to drinking water given the technical nature of overseeing the “delivery of cheap, dispatchable energy to the consumer.”
But the Senate is making it harder to recruit PSC candidates, Beshear spokesperson Crystal Staley told the Lantern on Monday.
“This is now the third Public Service Commissioner that the General Assembly has not confirmed. Each has been qualified, and the failure to confirm them has drastically reduced interest in the positions. The Senate continues to create new structures or take actions to pressure the commission on the outcome of or the reopening of cases.”
The PSC regulates the rates and services of more than 1,100 utilities, from large investor-owned electric providers such as Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities to small water districts providing drinking water to rural communities.
The legislature last year created an 18-member commission, separate from the PSC, charged with examining and making recommendations on requests from utilities to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants. In 2023, the legislature passed a law making it harder for utilities to retire coal-fired power plants.
Stacy’s removal leaves two commissioners on the three-member board, PSC chair Angie Hatton and Mary Pat Regan.
Stivers had introduced a bill in this year’s regular session to expand the membership of the PSC from three commissioners to five but ultimately tabled the legislation.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: [email protected]. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter. Kentucky Lantern stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Donate to Kentucky Lantern here.
