HURON The chairperson of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Kristie Fiegen, spoke to the Beadle County Republican Womens monthly meeting Thursday at Ryans Hangar.
Fiegen explained that her grandmother is from Huron and that she wanted to focus on being at the table with people to have conversations on tough issues. She cited that as a way to combat current party in-fighting that has shown up in the Republican party at large within the state.
She explained that she first became part of the PUC in 2011 after serving in the state legislature when Gov. Dennis Dougard appointed her to the position. Shes been re-elected twice to the position.
Fiegen explained that unless its at a public forum, shes unable to discuss pending legislation, litigation, or other docket information, which leads to her spending a lot of her time in the office with the door shut to avoid hearing fellow commissioners discussing issues.
The role of the PUC, she explained, is to regulate utilities within the state, outside of co-ops and municipalities. She also said that she has been appointed to multiple national boards, explaining how power in our area is successful with areas of the country that struggle with generation and distribution of power.
Fiegen said that many dont realize that South Dakota produces plenty of renewable energy, but the state still uses a large amount of fossil fuel-based energy, due to selling a large part of the renewable energy that is produced to other grids.
Fiegen was asked questions regarding carbon pipelines, but she cited the issue pending before the board limiting what she could say about pipelines or Senate Bill 201.
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