Chairman Jeff Ackermann is to be commended for reaffirming the integrity of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission by voting with Frances Koncilja, a Pueblo native, and against Wendy Moser to reject Black Hills Energy’s ill-advised attempt to remove Koncilja from the PUC’s deliberations in the Black Hills rate case.

The 2-1 vote Wednesday means that the PUC won’t bow to Black Hills’ unprecedented move against Koncilja, a respected Denver lawyer. Ackermann, a former energy adviser to Gov. John Hickenlooper, showed his own integrity by siding with the PUC’s independent regulatory authority over Black Hills, which provides electricity to 94,000 customers in the Pueblo area.

Moser, a former Black Hills lawyer, now must bear the black mark as the lone PUC member to vote for one of the utilities over the commission that is supposed to regulate it. If she and Black Hills had prevailed, a terrible new precedent would have been set for similar attacks on other PUC members in the future.

Read more at The Pueblo Chieftain.