By South Dakota voters will be asked Nov. 5 to choose one of three candidates seeking a six-year term on the state Public Utilities Commission.
The state’s three elected commissioners oversee the regulation of private utility companies that provide essential services, including telecommunications, electricity and natural gas. The commissioners are assisted by a staff of analysts and lawyers.
The job of commissioners is to ensure private utilities provide reliable services at fair rates. They also approve major projects like new power plants or transmission lines.
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This year’s candidates are Republican Kristi Fiegen, Libertarian Gideon Oakes and Democrat Forrest Wilson.
Some information about each candidate follows. More in-depth coverage can be found on South Dakota Searchlight, which has longer question-and-answer stories on each candidate.
Kristi Fiegen, Republican
Appointed to the Public Utilities Commission in 2011, Fiegen is seeking her third six-year term.
Fiegen
She previously served as a state legislator, president of Junior Achievement of South Dakota, South Dakota area manager for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and as a sales representative for Monsanto.
She lives in Pierre and Sioux Falls.
Why are you running?
I’ve always been an advocate for people and doing the right thing. Ethics is important to me, very important to me, it’s my standard. And I love the state of South Dakota.
I was called by (Gov. Dennis) Daugaard to become a public utilities commissioner to fill a vacant seat. My family and I really prayed about it — whether we wanted to get out of the nonprofit world. I love the nonprofit world and looking out for people and helping people, and so, we had to decide if I wanted to go into public service and look out for people differently. And after much prayer, I said yes to Gov. Daugaard. And now I love it.
The people of this state need a strong voice at the Public Utilities Commission. They need a strong voice nationally so that South Dakota doesn’t get run over by D.C. politics.
Does the PUC fairly balance the interests of utility companies and their customers?
At the PUC, we have to balance affordability, but also investor-owned utilities (which), according to state law, have the right to earn a reasonable rate of return. What we do in the Public Utilities Commission is spend an incredible amount of time, often a year, looking at all their financials.
I’ll give Xcel Energy as an example. Xcel came in for a rate case in 2022 and we made a decision in June 2023. They asked for (an electric rate increase) around 18%, and we cut their request by 67% (to a 6% rate increase), and it was because I spent years in advance getting my questions ready, realizing I did not want South Dakota ratepayers to pay for the regulations of Minnesota. So, anytime they passed a new law in Minnesota, I’d take a note, and we would kick out those additional expenses.
When you look at the inflation of the last six years, it’s well over 20%, and what we’ve done with investor-owned utilities is kept their increases well below that, and it’s around 10%.
Gideon Oakes, Libertarian
Oakes helps run a family-owned bed and breakfast and some cabins near Keystone. He is also a volunteer emergency medical technician.
Gideon Oakes
He previously served on the boards of the Black Hills & Badlands Association, the Keystone Rural Fire Protection District and United Way of the Southern Black Hills. He served two terms on the town board of Keystone.
Why are you running?
I’m running for a chance to give the voters a fresh perspective. This office doesn’t turn over very often.
The current commission has a collective tenure of almost half a century if you go back and look at Commissioner (Gary) Hanson’s tenure, and then both Feigen and (Chris) Nelson, that’s 48 years of combined tenure.
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At some point, you have to ask yourself, “Are we taxpayers and the citizens of South Dakota benefitting from that much experience out of three commissioners?” And I’m going to leave that decision up to the voters. But as for me, I believe that elected office should be a calling, not a career.
Does the PUC fairly balance the interests of utility companies and their customers?
I think there’s always room for improvement. I’m not going to sit here and say that the current PUC is just a rubber stamp for utilities. I think they do have public interest at heart.
Let me put it this way — to me, the most effective government is that which is most local. In an ideal world, these siting issues are going to be decided by county commissioners and municipal officials who live, work, shop and worship alongside their constituency. As far as the siting issues go, those are who should be making those decisions for their own community, not a three-person bureaucracy working in an air-conditioned office.
Forrest Wilson, Democrat
Wilson graduated from Chadron State College in Nebraska and has worked at universities around the Midwest. He eventually moved to South Dakota where he worked at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
Forrest Wilson
For the past few years, he has served as the program services director for the Lead-Deadwood Boys & Girls Club.
Why are you running?
I really want to stand up and represent the little guy. I want to represent the average, everyday person who pays utilities. The cost of living has gotten exponentially out of hand. And, while I can’t do anything about the cost of housing, I truly believe that utilities is a lever that could and should be pulled to alleviate some of that pressure on the average person.
Does the PUC fairly balance the interests of utility companies and their customers?
No. I feel the Public Utilities Commission doesn’t take into account where the people of this state are at financially.
The average person can’t really just call and talk face-to-face with the commissioners and have that frank conversation. But I feel the companies have far more access to the commission than the average person does.