Letha Tawney was appointed to the Oregon Public Utility Commission by Governor Kate Brown in June 2018.

Commissioner Tawney represents Oregon on the Electricity and the Critical Infrastructure committees for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). She also serves on the Energy Trust of Oregon Board of Directors, as well as the Energy Imbalance Market Board of State Regulators (EIM-BOSR), engaging closely on Western electricity market development in several forums.

Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Tawney was an expert on electric utility business models, state regulation, clean energy development, and large customer buying strategies for World Resources Institute (WRI). As the WRI Polsky Chair for Renewable Energy, she propelled innovation in business and regulatory models in the power sector. Commissioner Tawney has a deep understanding of the constraints and interests driving both utilities and their customers as technology creates large-scale change in the sector.

Commissioner Tawney holds a Master’s of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.