MADISON, Wis. — Republicans who control the Wisconsin Senate voted Tuesday to fire a state utility regulator because he supports setting energy rates according to customers’ ability to pay and opening up the solar energy sector.
The Senate voted 21-11 to reject Public Service Commissioner Tyler Huebner’s confirmation. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointed him to the commission in March 2020 and again in March 2021. Huebner previously served as executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit organization that advocates for renewable energy.
The commissioner is the latest in a line of gubernatorial appointees the Senate has fired over the last five years as Republican lawmakers chafe under the Evers administration. Democratic Sen. Brad Pfaff — who served as Evers’ agriculture secretary until the Senate fired him in 2019 — argued before the vote that Huebner is one of the brightest minds in renewable energy and accused Republicans of trying to cripple state government.
Rejecting Huebner’s confirmation "is not something you should be doing so you can be bragging about it to your base,” Pfaff said. “It sends a signal it doesn’t matter what your background is. It doesn’t matter your qualifications, your hard work ... what matters is the political party and who appointed you.”
Republican Sen. Julian Bradley, a member of the Senate’s utilities committee, said the vote wasn’t political, pointing out that the Senate has confirmed scores of Evers appointees since the governor took office.
“We have confirmed over 480 of the governor’s appointments," Bradley explained. "If this were purely political, I suspect those numbers would be significantly lower. There is a reason we are moving rejection for Commissioner Huebner.”
Bradley also said on the Senate floor that Huebner supports setting energy rates based on a customer’s ability to pay rather than usage, a concept known as income-based rates. State law doesn’t allow the PSC to take that approach, Bradley said, but Huebner insists it does. The senator dubbed that activism.
Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard, another member of the Senate utilities committee, said in a statement after the vote that Republicans also were upset that Huebner voted in December to allow property owners to lease panels from a solar power company at lower rates than what an electric utility might charge. Utilities have generally opposed such deals and Wanggard said the Legislature hasn't approved them.
He added that the PSC in 2021 ordered utilities to provide workplace diversity data in annual reports without any authority to do so and he found Huebner to be evasive during meetings.
Huebner said in a statement that he was proud of the decisions he made to “balance safety, reliability, and affordability" and he planned to move on.
“I am proud of the work I put in and the decisions I made to balance safety, reliability, and affordability in the delivery of utility services, get people connected to high-speed internet, remove lead service lines and ensure clean drinking water, and so much more," Huebner added.
The governor appointed Kristy Nieto, administrator of the PSC's Division of Energy Regulation and Analysis, to replace Huebner immediately after the rejection vote. He issued a statement saying the vote “defies justification and logic.”
“These are qualified, hard-working Wisconsinites we're talking about,” Evers said. “They should be celebrated for service and experience, not bullied, vilified, and fired simply for doing their jobs.”
Last week, Evers announced Commissioner Summer Strand will succeed PSC Chairperson Rebecca Cameron Valcq, who said earlier this month she plans to leave the agency in early February. Strand was confirmed to the PSC by the Senate in a 27-5 vote Tuesday.
However, Senate Republicans have voted to reject multiple appointees’ confirmation since 2019, beginning with their refusal to confirm Pfaff.
Last September they voted to reject Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe, but Attorney General Josh Kaul won a court ruling nullifying the rejection.
In October, Republicans rejected eight more Evers appointees, including Joseph Czarnezki, a Democratic member of the elections commission who abstained from voting on whether the commission should reappoint Wolfe. The move resulted in a deadlock that prevented Wolfe’s reappointment from legally reaching the Senate, angering Republicans who have vowed to oust Wolfe.
Also among the eight appointees who lost their jobs were four Evers appointees to the state Department of Natural Resources Board who angered Republicans by hedging on whether the agency’s new wolf management plan should include a hard population cap.