Governor McKee has nominated Donna Sams, former CVS executive and real estate consultant, to an opening seat on the PUC. The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is a small, little-known regulatory agency that has the power to regulate RI’s utility, Rhode Island Energy. McKee's selection is dangerous for a few reasons.First, the PUC is small but powerful. It only has 3 members, which means that McKee’s nomination of this one individual has the power to shape the decisions the commission makes. The PUC “may issue orders that have the force and effect of law.”

Sams will be entering this position with two key dockets on the table: the rate case and the future of gas. These will shape the future of Rhode Island’s energy landscape. We need commissioners who are ready to jump in and tackle these issues – there isn’t time to get up to speed. Though Sams has experience in the business field, she does not have experience in the regulatory area. McKee is replacing Commissioner Abigail Anthony—an environmental and natural resource economics PhD—with a real estate consultant and former CVS administrator. Based on publicly released information, there is no obvious reason why McKee chose Sams over countless other qualified candidates. This leaves a lot of open questions around motivation to replace an experienced environmental and energy professional with a business leader. We need to ask thoughtful questions, not only about whether we can count on a fortune 500 admin to reliably hold industry actors accountable, but also about the political motivations of McKee’s choice.

As we’ve seen, the governor is not ready to forgo the material and financial dangers of natural gas. As his recent pushback of the renewable energy standard and his campaign finance records show (with RI Energy contributing the maximum legal limit in both 2024 and 2025), he has made an ally of RI energy. The rate case is where the utility justifies what they charge the state, and the future of gas docket determines the role fossil fuels will continue to play in our energy system. We need a PUC that will take action against RI Energy, preventing them from ripping off ratepayers and the state.

The Senate must NOT simply ‘rubber stamp’ this nomination. The Senate Committee on Commerce is likely to hear the nomination first and pass a recommendation on to the rest of the Senate. Sending the letter below will help convince them to block McKee’s nomination, moving us one step closer to a strong PUC that will hold RI Energy accountable to ratepayers.