Three individuals appointed by the mayor (and not directly accountable to voters) could stand in the way of the city meeting its climate goals, or they could push the District to take aggressive climate action, according to environmentalists and lawmakers who are urging the D.C. Public Service Commission to take a more proactive role in fighting climate change and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The three-member Public Service Commission was created by Congress in 1913. At the time its purview included setting streetcar fares, telegraph rates, and regulating refrigerant pipes feeding the city’s ice factories. Over the past century, much of the commission’s work has been setting the rates that utilities in the city can charge for electricity and natural gas.

But now, the commission is faced with a much more important task than deciding whether residents will pay $0.08 per kilowatt hour of electricity or $0.10 (this was one of its first big disputes with Pepco, in 1917).

“We have to stop burning fossil fuels. This is a known fact,” says Barbara Briggs, with the D.C. chapter of the Sierra Club. “Combustion energy has to be ended and we need to transition to clean, renewable sources of energy.”

Briggs and other environmentalists say the PSC should be leading that transition away from fossil fuels, and making sure Pepco and Washington Gas are in alignment with the District’s climate goals. These goals, among the most ambitious in the nation, call for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half, District-wide, by 2032, and going carbon-neutral by 2050. In addition, District law requires that 100% of electricity sold comes from renewable sources, like wind and solar, by 2032.

The debate over the PSC mirrors battles elsewhere in the nation, as regulators and lawmakers struggle with how to adapt energy systems built on fossil fuels to a new era. In California, for example, regulators recently hit pause on a controversial proposal that would make solar more costly for homeowners. In Florida this year, lawmakers passed a bill that would have gutted the solar industry in the state, according to clean energy advocates. It was vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

In D.C., the issue of the PSC’s role in climate action came to a head during debate over confirmation of the commission’s next chairperson. At a D.C. Council meeting in late May, a vote to advance the nominee was abruptly shelved, after two council members objected that he didn’t have expertise in clean energy and grid modernization.

The council committee reconvened this week, with more members in attendance, and voted to advance the nominee, Emile Thompson. Two council members, Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), voted “present.”

At issue is legislation the council passed last fall, requiring the next person appointed to the PSC to have “experience in electric grid modernization and renewable energy integration or technology.”

The legislation notes that with the rapid growth of small solar facilities in the District in recent years, the role of the commission “has shifted from overseeing a handful of large, traditional utilities to, in many ways, overseeing the infancy of a rapidly developing competitive market, including developing rules for entry, interconnection, pricing, and fair competition.”

How the commission goes about regulating this nascent clean energy market is “quite literally shaping the grid of the future,” according to the legislation.

Prior to the new legislation, there were very few requirements to qualify for appointment as a commissioner — a nominee simply had to have lived in the District for three years, and not have conflicts of interest with any public utility companies.

Thompson previously served an assistant United States attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and sits on the board of DC Water. He was appointed to the PSC by Mayor Muriel Bowser last year to finish the term of a previous commissioner, and currently serves as interim chairperson. The D.C. Council is now considering Thompson’s reappointment for another four-year term and permanent designation as chairperson of the PSC.

Thompson argued that his experience with clean energy and grid modernization began when he joined the DC Water board, and that he gained additional experience over the past year on the PSC.

But D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen said ahead of the vote this week that Thompson did not fit the requirement to have grid modernization and clean energy expertise.

“While I’m confident Mr. Thompson has had exposure to these topics in his brief time on the commission, his entire career prior to joining the commission had been in public safety and criminal justice. I would have no problem, for example, voting for him to fill a seat requiring that specific expertise. But I do have trouble accepting that he is an expert on topics that he’s only recently begun exploring,” Allen said.

Allen and Cheh both spoke highly of Thompson, and said they did not want to vote against him, thus voting “present.”

Likewise, environmental and clean energy groups did not oppose Thompson’s appointment, but stressed that the commission needs to take a more proactive role in promoting clean energy and the electric grid upgrades that will allow more of it.

“If approved, he will lead the PSC through the most consequential time,” said Nicole Rentz, with the Chesapeake Solar & Storage Association, an industry group, speaking during a hearing on Thompson’s nomination earlier in May. “In recent months, it’s clear the District is at a turning point in the transition to renewable energy, as concerns about the solar interconnection and billing practices of our electric utility have begun to reach a tipping point.”

Rentz said solar developers in the city are “facing arbitrary cost delays, barriers and inefficiencies imposed” by Pepco, adding up to an estimated loss of $1.6 million. She also cited a recent complaint filed with the PSC against Pepco for allegedly mishandling billing on community solar projects, potentially overcharging thousands of customers.

The PSC should be more proactive, advocates say, in making sure Pepco doesn’t get in the way of new solar projects.

Both Pepco and Washington Gas have submitted climate business plans to the PSC, which are currently under review. These plans outline how the utilities aim to meet the District’s greenhouse gas reduction and carbon neutrality goals.

Briggs, with the Sierra Club, said the PSC needs to take a careful look at those plans, particularly the one submitted by Washington Gas. Commissioners are faced with “the difficult issue of how to end emissions from fossil fuels by a utility whose primary business is selling fossil fuels,” she says.

Natural gas is comprised mostly of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, and it contributes to global warming not only when combusted for heating or cooking, but also by leaks throughout the system of underground distribution pipes. Washington Gas is currently working on a 30-year project to replace gas pipes throughout the city, at a total cost of as much as $3 to $4.5 billion dollars. Briggs says ratepayers will be paying for the project for decades after the city’s 2050 goal of carbon neutrality — in other words, paying for fossil fuel infrastructure for years after fossil fuels should have been phased out.

“What Washington Gas would like, they want to keep selling us gas, they want to keep burning gas,” Briggs says.

The climate plan submitted by Washington Gas envisions widespread adoption of “renewable” natural gas — methane captured from sources like sewage treatment plants and landfills. But many environmentalists say it’s not truly a clean energy source (it’s still methane); it’s also too expensive and not abundant enough to replace conventional natural gas, they argue.

Thompson, during a hearing on his nomination, defended his and the commission’s work on climate and efforts to cut carbon emissions from District’s energy sector. “We fully understand and we feel like we have the authority to begin decarbonization,” he said. But he added that some people wanted the commission to take actions outside its power.

“When people begin to say, ‘well the commission should say Washington Gas should be prohibited from selling natural gas’ — we believe that’s not within our purview,” Thompson said.

On the topic of Pepco’s handling of solar projects in the city, Thompson said the commission is helping speed things up. “Over the past last year, we had the most solar facilities interconnect in the District than we ever have, and this year we’re on pace to exceed that already. That doesn’t just come from inertia. I think that comes from proactive leadership by the commission.”

Thompson’s appointment is still pending a vote by the full D.C. Council. There is one other vacancy on the commission.