Nearly 500 delegates to the South Dakota state republican convention overwhelmingly endorsed current Public Utilities Commission Chairperson Kristie Fiegen for her run for another six-year term. Fiegen started her re-election campaign over 18 months ago and has traveled over 30,000 miles to every corner of South Dakota visiting with voters about the importance of the PUC in their daily lives.
“I am humbled by the vote of confidence and trust the delegates have in me,” Kristie stated. “The PUC requires experience and knowledge about complex utilities issues that impact our citizens.” The Public Utilities Commission is led by a three-member elected commission who has a regulatory role with public utilities, grain warehouses and grain buyers. In addition, the Public Utilities Commission serves in a judicial role, evaluating facts and evidence presented in permit applications for energy projects.
“Decisions made by the PUC can be appealed to the circuit and supreme court, so as a PUC Commissioner, I do my job with the utmost respect for the law and evidence presented,” Fiegen explained. “Transparent and open government are values I take seriously at the PUC.” No decision of the PUC has been overturned by our supreme court in 22 years.
Kristie has several national and regional leadership roles regarding natural gas and the reliability of the electric grid. “We need all-of-the-above energy to keep the lights on and President Biden’s radical anti-fossil fuel energy policy is causing a major power struggle for the reliability of our grid,” Kristie emphasized.
Fiegen was elected to the commission in November 2012 and re-elected in November 2018. She was elected to four terms in the South Dakota House of Representatives, serving the residents of District 11 from 1993 to 2001. Kristie and her husband Tim, have two adult sons, Alex and his wife McKenna and Jackson and his wife Mara.
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