HURON — With the health of Kristie Fiegen’s husband Tim preventing her from a scheduled appearance Monday in Huron, fellow Public Utilities Commissioner (PUC) Chris Nelson spoke to Beadle County Republicans about Fiegen’s candidacy and other notable PUC issues.

Nelson first lauded the efforts of Fiegen in campaigning for re-election, noting that since she announced her candidacy for re-election in August of 2023, she had accumulated more than 50,000 miles of travel to all corners of the state to talk with voters. He mentioned that her opponents had left the Black Hills area for campaigning just one time, when one of her opponents attended the PUC debate at the South Dakota State Fair.

Nelson explained that Fiegen has been very active on a national stage in multiple energy organizations and has been chosen to represent the region in decisions with the Southwest Power Pool. While she has been part of the PUC for 13 years, she has not simply been someone who stayed in Pierre, and Nelson explains that her experience is invaluable to South Dakotans.

After speaking for some time about Fiegen’s candidacy, Nelson took questions from the gathered group on PUC-related issues.

The first question asked was about “green” energy generation and the PUC role in that. Nelson stated that the important part of “legacy” energy, such as nuclear, natural gas, and coal, is that it is energy that can be turned on and turned off. Many renewable energy sources, such as wind and sun, are reliant upon the environment to provide the stimulus to produce energy.

He explained that many areas that began to push for significant use of renewable energy on their state grid have realized that legacy energy is still needed to produce the lion’s share of energy consumption across the country. This has led to the re-opening of multiple nuclear power plants once considered for closure.

Nelson was asked about how Referred Law 21 could potentially impact the PUC’s role going forward. He noted that current legislation puts the onus on the applicant to show that they follow county-ordered setbacks and such things on a local level in order to get PUC approval. If RL-21 is passed, Nelson explained, the onus would shift to the counties or individuals who want enhanced setbacks or other additional requirements to defend those requirements, rather than the applicant to state how they are meeting the requirements or to show why they may be an unnecessary burden.

Nelson also discussed carbon pipelines and stated that Summit Carbon Solutions had not re-applied through the PUC for a permit to build a carbon pipeline through the state - yet.