JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Departing Chair of the Public Services Commission Robert Kenney released his plans for the next step of his career Thursday night. He will travel to California to serve as the Regulatory Relations Vice President for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, one of the largest gas and electricity providers in the country.
In that role, Kenney will act as a representative for PGEC when the company deals with the California Public Utilities Commission, the Californian equivalent of the PSC.
“PGEC recruited me and made a very compelling offer,” Kenney said, though he was not just referring to the salary that comes with the job. “It represents a great professional opportunity.”
He says his time as the chair of the Missouri PSC will help him relate with commissioners in California since he may be able to deduce what they are thinking and provide an “insider’s perspective” for the company and that he wanted to challenge himself.
“I will bring the ability to interact with a variety of stakeholders who don’t always agree on issues,” Kenney said. “I can take an enormously complex area of law and public policy and communicate that to different audiences in a way they understand.”
California also presents a unique opportunity for anyone working in the energy business, Kenney said. He noted that in California, the intersection between environmental and energy policy was enormous.
“California is on the leading edge of a lot of energy policies and energy issues,” he said. “They are looking to deploy more electric vehicles and they’re managing their environmental regulations to reduce greenhouse gases and commissions.”
Kenney, a St. Louis native and lifelong Missouri, added that he would miss Missouri and the people in the state with whom he had worked.
“I’m enormously grateful to Gov. Nixon for the opportunity to work on the Missouri Public Services Commission, to serve as a commissioner and as the chairman,” he said. “Without that opportunity, I wouldn’t have this opportunity. It was a bittersweet decision to leave Missouri.”
