District 2
After graduating in 1968 from Cal Poly University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering, he was employed by Pacific Gas Transmission Co. (PGT) in Spokane. For most of his 34-year career with PGT, Jim was the Director of Gas Control and Customer Transport Services on one of the largest natural gas pipelines in the United States. PGT has over 300 transportation customers who perform some 2,000 buy/sell transactions and move $6-$10 million worth of gas each day. In addition to operating the pipeline, accounting for all of the transport customer’s gas, he bought and sold millions of dollars worth of natural gas. He also managed department budgets, personnel and dealt with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on open access and rate case matters.
Jim brings this unique experience of operating in the FERC open access environment to KEC. Whether dealing in natural gas or electricity the concepts of acquiring supply and transportation capacity in a federally regulated environment are the same. Much of KEC’s electric supply is acquired from BPA but as demand grows so will the need to participate in open market priced electric generation and transmission capacity through marketing/generating asset agents such as PNGC or by buying on the open market. Jim is currently KEC’s appointed member of the statewide Idaho Consumer Owned Utility Association (ICUA) board of directors.