A nominee to fill the empty seat on New Hampshire’s Public Utilities Commission made his case to the Executive Council on Wednesday for why he’s the right person for the job.
Mark Dell’Orfano, who was nominated for a spot on the commission by Gov. Chris Sununu, is currently an assistant attorney general for New Hampshire. Before that position, he worked on environmental and energy issues at the law firm Sheehan Phinney and at Sector Capital Group, a firm started by Dell’Orfano’s father.
The nomination comes at a time when the commission is facing criticism and trying to contend with several important issues: how renewable energy resources are compensated for their power, how much the state’s largest utility will be allowed to charge customers, and the rules of the commission itself.
But who is Dell’Orfano? Here are five things to know:
His dad influenced his career
Dell’Orfano told the Executive Council that his father, a power plant developer, had a big impact on his life.
“I may have been the only Seventh grader in Bedford who could tell you what PURPA was and why that statute was so important to New Hampshire’s energy future,” he joked.
Dell’Orfano’s father developed, built and operated gas-fired and renewable energy power plants, he said. He later founded Sector Capital Group, which worked on large energy and natural resource projects mostly outside of New Hampshire. The firm was affiliated with three mining companies working in Canada and South America.
Dell’Orfano worked at Sector Capital Group for 16 years, according to his LinkedIn. He told the Executive Council he was proud of working for his dad, but left to pursue a “diversified group of clients.”
“Watching him hard at work taught me how energy is made and transmitted to customers, and how important and impactful the energy industry is on the environment, consumers’ monthly budgets, and the national and New Hampshire economies,” he said.
He’s an Eversource customer
Asked by Councilor Joseph Kenney to opine on New Hampshire’s electric and gas utility companies, Dell’Orfano said he had no personal opinions.
“I think all of the investor owned utilities, whether it’s energy, water, sewage or gas, their primary purpose is public service. It’s supplying the public with utility resources at fair prices, safely and adequately. I actually take that very seriously,” he said. “Otherwise I don’t have an opinion about any of them. My lights are on at home. So I got to figure that Eversource is doing what it’s supposed to be doing.”
He represented the state’s lottery commission
As an assistant attorney general, Dell’Orfano had his hands in many pies. He represented the Public Utilities Commission, the Site Evaluation Committee, the Department of Revenue Administration, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, the Pease Development Authority, and several councils for the Department of Environmental Services.
He also represented the Lottery Commission throughout a high-profile case involving former state Sen. Andy Sanborn. Ultimately, a judge suspended Sanborn’s charitable gaming license and ordered him to sell Concord Casino.
“The lottery has been involved in a matter that has gained some publicity. And our attorney throughout that has been Mark Dell’Orfano,” said Charlie McIntyre, executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery. “It has been a difficult proposition to be our attorney. I don’t know much about energy, but I do know somebody who works hard and somebody who is a good lawyer. And Mark is both.”
He believes government has a role in addressing climate change
Asked directly if he believed in climate change, Dell’Orfano said yes. He also said he believes the scientific consensus that human activities are driving climate change, though he waffled a bit on that statement.
“I’m just not qualified enough to say from my heart of hearts that mankind is the sole cause of it. I do believe, though, that mankind has contributed to it. So that is the honest answer I can give. But I don’t dispute science,” he said.
He said he thinks the government should ensure industries they regulate are following rules and are accountable for their emissions.
He has the support of several state officials, but drew opposition from some advocates concerned about wind power
Several state officials, including the current chair of the Public Utilities Commission, Dan Goldner, spoke in support of Dell’Orfano.
Don Kreis, the state’s consumer advocate and lately a vocal critic of the commission, said he was enthusiastic about Dell’Orfano’s nomination, and suggested he could bring on a “reset.”
“I was and am concerned about the commission’s resistance to staying in the lane carved out for it,” Kreis said. “I am hoping that once Mr. Dell’Orfano joins the commission, we will see a PUC with a renewed commitment to collaborating with its stakeholders so that we can all work together to help the agency produce its product good decisions as efficiently and responsibly as possible.”
Two advocates who said they were involved in creating rules to protect people living near wind farms told the council they opposed Dell’Orfano’s nomination, saying he disregarded rules during a meeting of the state’s Site Evaluation Committee.
The issue at hand was testing of noise from wind turbines in Antrim after complaints from nearby residents. A transcript shows Dell’Orfano saying that rules for wind farm operators to test noise levels during the same conditions present when complaints were made could be waived, but had not been formally waived before testing went forward under different conditions.
Lisa Linowes, who said she appeared many times before the Site Evaluation Committee, described Dell’Orfano as “aggressive towards the public” and said others experienced him as “hot headed.”
“He acted like a private practice attorney representing an applicant,” she said. “The first time I appeared before the (Site Evaluation Committee) was 2007. All those years I had never been treated, nor did I see the public ever get treated, the way he treated people.”
Dell’Orfano said by the time he started at the Site Evaluation Committee, the scientific data had already been collected. On the description of him as hot headed, Dell’Orfano said he didn’t know where the characterization came from.
“No one has ever referred to me in that way to my face,” he said.
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