Two New Regulators Fill Out Utilities Panel

By Kristi E. Swartz, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.

May 4–The panel that regulates the state’s utilities has been brought back to full strength.

The Florida Senate on Thursday unanimously confirmed the nominations of former state Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Crystal River, and Nathan Skop, a former Jupiter resident and onetime FPL Energy employee, to the five-member Public Service Commission.

The commission, which regulates electric and telephone companies as well as some water and wastewater utilities, has a meeting scheduled Tuesday.

The Senate move followed an approval earlier in the day by the Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections.

During that vote, panel Chairman Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, jokingly told his colleagues not to confirm Argenziano, 52, who has spent 11 years in the Florida Legislature, so she could stick around in the upper chamber.

But although Argenziano said she looked forward to serving the entire state as a utility regulator, she said she may return to the Senate.

“Anything I tackle, I try to do with all I’ve got in me,” she told the panel. “Maybe with Mr. Skop up there, we can do something to instill people’s confidence in the Public Service Commission, and maybe after I do that, I will come back and join you all again.” Skop, 40, who recently graduated from law school at the University of Florida, grew up in Sanford, has a master’s in business administration and has worked for Boeing and FPL Energy. He said he would take a “fair and balanced approach” to his job as a utility regulator.

“Coming from limited means, it’s important to me to give back to the community,” said Skop, who put himself through college. “I want to take my education and serve the state of Florida.” This was the second time Skop applied for an opening on the commission. Last year he was one vote shy of being sent to then-Gov. Jeb Bush.

“I was very proud to make that vote to put him in this time,” Constantine said. “I think he will make an excellent, excellent commissioner.” Commissioners are paid $132,690 annually.

The vacancies were created in January when Gov. Charlie Crist pulled all of Bush’s appointments that had not been confirmed by the Senate. That included former Rep. Ken Littlefield and Isilio Arriaga, who had been a Florida utility regulator for two years.

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