Ron Binz
Ron Binz is President of Public Policy Consulting, specializing in policy and regulatory issues in the telecommunications and energy industries. Mr. Binz was appointed as Chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission by Governor Bill Ritter in January 2007 where he served until 2011.

While serving on the commission he was Chair of the Task Force on Climate Policy of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and served on NARUC’s Energy Resources and Environment Committee and the International Relations Committee.

Mr. Binz was also the President of the Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners and served as a NARUC representative on the Advisory Council to the Board of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). He is also a member of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group.

For eleven years, until 1995, he directed the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel, the state’s utility consumer advocate. His office represented residential, small business and agricultural utility consumers before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, federal regulatory agencies and the courts.

Until 2003 Mr. Binz was President of the Competition Policy Institute (CPI), based in Washington, D.C. CPI was a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing competition to telecommunications and energy markets in ways that benefit consumers. He describes CPI as “a combination consumer organization and think tank.” He is also a frequent speaker and expert witness on competition and consumer issues.

Mr. Binz was previously President of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) and chaired the group’s Telecommunications Committee. On behalf of NASUCA and CPI he has testified before Congressional committees fifteen times.

Mr. Binz is a member of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group and also served on the Network Reliability Council to the FCC. He is a director of several non-profit organizations.

He received a B.A. in Philosophy from St. Louis University in 1971 and an M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Colorado in 1977. He also completed course work for a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Colorado.

Steve Beuning

Mr. Beuning is the Director of Market Operation at Xcel Energy where he supports the four Xcel Energy utility operating companies: Northern States Power Company, Northern States Power Company (Wisconsin), Public Service Colorado and Southwestern Public Service. He is responsible for regional energy market design and regulatory policy for energy trading and generation ancillary services. He also directs the procurement of transmission services and new resource interconnections for Xcel Energy’s resource portfolio. He serves on the board of directors for the Utility Wind Integration Group and is active in numerous industry efforts to improve grid operating practices.

John Candelaria

John Candelaria is a Senior Associate at Aspen Environmental Group and is a specialist in power production, electric and gas resource planning, regulatory policy and utility regulation. He has 27 years of experience in the electric utility industry working with investor owned utilities and regulatory agencies.

His recent experience includes: Preparing comments and testimony for clients addressing electric & gas resource planning, transmission planning, renewable energy rulemaking and other regulatory issues; Participating in Western Interconnection transmission forums including the Western Electricity Coordination Council (WECC) –TEPPC process and the Sierra Subregional Planning Group on behalf of clean energy clients; Supporting development renewable energy and transmission to access renewable resources in Nevada for the Energy Foundation; Assisting rural counties with the development of a transmission strategy to deliver renewable energy to the southwest markets; Preparing the “Transmission for Export” section of the Governor Gibbon’s Phase II Renewable Energy Transmission Access Advisory Committee (RETAAC) report; Assisting the CPUC with its assessment of the feasibility of a 33% renewable portfolio standard; Developing white papers on flexible infrastructure and financing options for emerging technologies.

He currently is Aspen’s representative on WECC’s Planning and Coordinating Committee and represents the Western Grid Group.

Paul Denholm

Paul Denholm is a Senior Energy Analyst in the Strategic Energy Analysis Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. His research interests include examining the technical, economic, and environmental benefits and impacts of large-scale deployment of renewable electricity generation, including the role of enabling technologies such as energy storage, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and long distance transmission. He holds a B.S. in physics from James Madison University, an M.S. in instrumentation physics from the University of Utah, and Ph.D. in Environmental Studies and Energy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Alan Gilbert

Alan Gilbert is the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Interior for the Southwest and Rocky Mountain Regions. He is Secretary Ken Salazar’s representative in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Alan is based in Lakewood, Colorado.

As a senior advisor, and on behalf of the Secretary, Alan works with governments, agencies, organizations and citizens to address issues that span the very broad jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. He spends considerable time listening to those constituencies and transmitting their views to the Secretary and to the Department more generally. Alan also has concentrated upon conservation projects supported by the Department as part of the President’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative.

During 2006 Alan was Deputy Chief of Staff to then-U.S. Senator Salazar in Washington, DC. He focused upon judicial nominations, social security, and tort reform issues among his other duties in the Senate.

Alan was the Solicitor General for the State of Colorado from 2000 to 2005. He was Colorado’s chief appellate lawyer and he assisted the Attorney General to manage the Colorado Department of Law. Alan was active on Colorado’s behalf in the U.S. Supreme Court and the Colorado Supreme Court, among other tribunals.

Outside his government service, and over a period of about twenty-five years, Alan was a partner and member of two large law firms in Denver, Colorado. He practiced environmental and natural resources law, appellate law, and litigation. Alan’s work in private practice assisted clients to solve problems with state, federal, and local governments and agencies, as well as in private transactions.

Alan received his Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School. He holds a Bachelor in Science degree in mechanical engineering, also awarded magna cum laude, from Brown University.

John A. “Skip” Laitner

Skip Laitner is the Director of Economic and Social Analysis for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). He previously served almost 10 years as a Senior Economist for Technology Policy for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but chose to leave the federal service in June 2006 to focus his research on developing a more robust technology and behavioral characterization of energy efficiency resources for use in energy and climate policy analyses and within economic policy models.

In 1998 Skip was awarded EPA’s Gold Medal for his work with a team of other EPA economists to evaluate the impact of different strategies that might assist in the implementation of greenhouse gas emissions reduction policies.  In 2003 the US Combined Heat and Power Association gave him an award to acknowledge his contributions to the policy development of that industry.  In 2004 his paper, “How Far Energy Efficiency?” catalyzed new research into the proper the characterization of efficiency as a long-term resource.

Author of more than 280 reports, journal articles, and book chapters, Skip has nearly 40 years of involvement in the environmental, energy and economic policy arenas.  His expertise includes benefit-cost assessments, behavioral assessments, resource costs and constraints, and the macroeconomic impacts of climate and energy policy scenarios.  He’s been invited to provide technical seminars in diverse places as Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Netherlands, South Africa, and Spain.  His clients have ranged from the United Nations and the United Nations Foundation to the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Argonne National Laboratory, and the U.S. Department of Energy. He has served as an adjunct faculty member for the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the University of Oregon, teaching graduate courses on the Economics of Technology.  Skip has a master’s degree in Resource Economics from Antioch University in Yellow Springs, OH.

Among Skip’s latest publications is a book he co-edited with colleague Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, People-Centered Initiatives for Increasing Energy Savings. Washington, DC: American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

Kris Mayes

Kris Mayes, is the Director for the Program of Law and Sustainability, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and Partner at the Kris Mayes Law Firm.

Until 2011 Ms. Mayes served on the Arizona Corporation Commission and was Chairman for two years. She was appointed to the commission by Governor Napolitano in 2003 to fill an open seat. Ms. Mayes was elected to the seat in 2004 and re-elected to a four-year term in 2006.

During her time on the Corporation Commission she helped co-author the Arizona Renewable Energy Standard, which requires that by 2025 utilities must generate 15 percent of their overall energy portfolio from renewable sources, like wind solar, biomass, biogas, geothermal and other technologies. Mayes also helped establish one of the most ambitious energy efficiency standards in the nation, requiring utilities to sell 22 percent less energy by 2010 than they would have under current forecasts.

Ms. Mayes attended the ASU College of Law and graduated magna cum laude. While in law school, she was press secretary for Janet Napolitano’s campaign for governor in 2001 and served as her Communications Director in 2002-2003.

Ms. Mayes attended graduate school at Columbia University in New York, where she earned a Master of Public Administration. Prior and after graduate school she work for The Republic, where she covered the 2000 presidential campaigns of Sen. John McCain, former Vice President Dan Quayle, publisher Steve Forbes and then-Governor George W. Bush. During this time, Mayes co-authored a book entitled Spin Priests: Campaign Advisors and the 2000 Race for the White House.

A Prescott native, Ms. Mayes attended ASU on the prestigious Flinn scholarship and was editor-in-chief of the State Press, interned in Washington, D.C., for Congressman Bob Stump, and completed an internship with the Johannesburg Star in Johannesburg, South Africa. She won the Truman Scholarship, the nation’s top scholarship for public service, was a national finalist for the Rhodes scholarship and graduated valedictorian from ASU with a degree in political science.

Dave Olsen

Dave Olsen is Managing Director of Western Grid Group (WGG), a network of former state regulators working to advance clean energy policies. WGG works with Governors, utilities, regulators, agencies and advocates to increase utilization of the existing grid, ensure system planning evaluates non-fossil resources objectively, and to expand and modernize electricity infrastructure.

From 2007 to 2010, he led California’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI). The RETI collaborative involved representatives of utilities, generators, state and federal permitting agencies, counties, consumers, environmental NGOs, tribes and the military to produce a consensus statewide conceptual transmission plan capable of achieving California’s renewable energy goals. RETI was the first transmission planning process to incorporate environmental as well as economic costs in evaluating infrastructure alternatives. Earlier, he initiated and led California’s Imperial Valley Study Group and helped lead its Tehachapi Collaborative Study Group to identify the infrastructure necessary to export large amounts of renewable energy from those regions.

Olsen is the former President/CEO of Patagonia, Inc., a leader in corporate sustainability initiatives and one of the first corporations to get its electricity from renewable energy. Under his leadership Patagonia developed high-performance materials to replace toxic ones in its product line, committed to reduce carbon emissions, reduced solid waste by more than 80%, entered eCommerce and expanded in the US, Japan and Europe. On the strength of Patagonia’s labor practices, US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich appointed him to the Apparel Industry Partnership to Establish Global Labor Standards (now the Fair Labor Association).

Earlier, he led development of wind, solar, hydro and geothermal power projects in more than 20 countries, as President of Clipper Windpower Development, President of Peak Power Corporation (off-stream hydroelectric pumped storage), President/CEO of Northern Power Systems (high-reliability wind and solar power for telecommunications), and Vice President of Magma Power Company (geothermal power). He has served on the boards of directors of several corporations, including International Utility Structures, Inc., which manufactured and sold recycled steel towers to replace toxic wood poles in more than 100 countries. He is a founding member of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, has served on a wide range of electric industry research initiatives and trade associations, and is the author of many papers on energy and environmental issues.

Olsen served as president of the CEO Coalition to Advance Sustainable Technology 1999-2002. In 2000, he led creation of the California Climate Action Registry, the first state registry of greenhouse gases and foundation for The Climate Registry that now includes 31 states. He has been a director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies since 1991, serving as Chair 1994-1996. In 1998, President Clinton appointed him to the American Heritage Rivers Commission Advisory Committee. He has been a director of many public interest and philanthropic organizations and initiatives.

Vickie Patton

Vickie Patton serves as Environmental Defense Fund’s General Counsel and manages the organization’s national and regional clean air programs.

For two decades, she has worked to protect human health and the environment from air pollution. She has been involved in numerous rulemakings under the Clean Air Act and associated cases (including several successful cases before the U.S. Supreme Court), testified before congressional and state legislative committees, and authored several articles on air quality protection and environmental policy.

She is the recipient of the Air & Waste Management Association’s 2011 Richard Beatty Mellon Environmental Stewardship Award, the 2011 Wirth Chair Award for Creative Collaborations in Sustainability, and the 2008 Healthy Community Award received from her local health department. Vickie serves as a member of EPA’s national Clean Air Act Advisory Committee.

Prior to joining Environmental Defense Fund, worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel in Washington, D.C., where she provided legal counsel on a variety of national air quality initiatives.

Vickie earned a J.D. from New York University School of Law and B.S. in Hydrology from the University of Arizona. She was award the EPA Gold Medal for Exceptional Service; Four EPA Bronze Medals; EPA Special Achievement Award; and a U.S. Department of Justice Commendation.

Kurt Yeager

Kurt E.Yeager serves as Vice Chairman of the Galvin Electricity Initiative, an effort to perfect the electric power system which was created by former Motorola chief Bob Galvin. As the Initiative’s Vice Chairman, Mr.Yeager works to design and build Perfect Power System models of a smart, efficient electric power system that cannot fail the consumer. He also works to drive the electricity policy changes necessary for system transformation at the state and federal levels.

Mr. Yeager previously served as the president and chief executive officer of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), retiring in 2004 after 30 years with the organization. Under his leadership, EPRI evolved from a nonprofit industry think tank to a family of companies that conducted proprietary and collaborative research and development. During that time he also guided an industry-wide collaborative effort to address challenges and plan for the future of electric power. “The Electricity Technology Roadmap” and the “Electricity Sector Framework of the Future” have since become the foundation of utility industry progress.

Before joining EPRI, Mr. Yeager was director of energy research and development planning for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research. Yeager served seven years, active duty in the U.S. Air Force and is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Nuclear Research Officer’s Program. He received a bachelor’s degree from Kenyon College, completed post-graduate studies in chemistry and physics at Ohio State and the University of California, Davis, and completed post-graduate management programs at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Finance.

Robert Zavadil

Robert Zavadil is the Executive Vice-President and a co-founder of EnerNex.  In that role,  Mr. Zavadil is responsible for developing and overseeing the company’s power system engineering consulting business.

He has worked on electric power system issues for wind generation for over 20 years.  Clients include wind turbine designers and manufacturers, project developers and operators, transmission service providers and ISOs, and research and development organizations including NREL and EPRI.

From 1989 to the summer of 2003, Mr. Zavadil served in various consulting and product development capacities for Electrotek Concepts and its parent company, WPT.

Mr. Zavadil began his career in the electric power industry in 1982 as a special studies engineer in the Transmission and Distribution Engineering Division of the Nebraska Public Power District.  .

He is a member of the IEEE Power Engineering, Power Electronics, and Industrial Applications Societies, and serves as Secretary of the IEEE PES Wind Power Coordinating Committee.