By Tom McGhee
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 01/23/2007 10:13:57 PM MST
Ron Binz, 57, was the state's first director of the Office of Consumer Counsel. He owns a winery in Loveland.
Gov. Bill Ritter on Tuesday nominated former consumer counsel Ron Binz to head the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the agency that oversees electric and telephone rates.
The appointment was hailed by consumer advocates who had accused Gregory Sopkin, the former chairman of the PUC, of being too close to the businesses he regulated.
Sopkin, whose four-year term ended this month, is a lawyer who once represented the state's largest electric company, Xcel Energy.
"I don't think we should be congratulating Ron Binz. I think we should be congratulating the state of Colorado and Gov. Ritter for making an outstanding choice," said Nancy LaPlaca, chairwoman of consumer group Ratepayers United of Colorado.
The PUC regulates the state's investor-owned electric and gas utilities, telecommunications firms including Qwest, and the state's taxi and limousine industries. Representatives of Denver-based Qwest and Xcel Energy, the state's largest electric company, said they were looking forward to working with Binz.
"I have known Ron Binz for nearly a decade and find him extremely knowledgeable and objective on telecommunications issues," said Chuck Ward, Qwest president for Colorado.
It is the second time that Binz, 57, has received a nomination to serve on the three-member commission. In 1984, then-Gov. Richard Lamm nominated him for a seat on the panel. Binz failed to win the state Senate approval needed to sit on the commission.
"I have been involved in utility regulation for 27 years, and this is a great opportunity for me to bring all the experience and knowledge I gathered to bear on the challenges ahead," Binz said Tuesday.
Binz, who has a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Colorado, parlayed his math love into a career marked by the arcane regulations and formulas that surround utility rates. He was the state's first director of the Office of Consumer Counsel, representing consumers in electric and telecommunications cases before the PUC from 1984 to 1995.
After he left that position, he became president of the Competition Policy Institute, a consumer think tank that worked to develop pro-consumer regulatory policies. He is currently president of Public Policy Consulting, a business he formed after leaving the consumer counsel's office, where he represents consumer groups, including AARP and other clients, in utility cases around the country.
Ritter, who took office this month, made renewable energy a centerpiece of his campaign, saying the use of alternative energy sources could boost the state's economy.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or at tmcghee@denverpost.com.