12:26
News Story
Former Democratic member of Kansas House appointed to Kansas Corporation Commission
Governor nominates KCC’s Andrew French to a second term on regulatory panel
Gov. Laura Kelly nominated former state Rep. Annie Kuether, a Topeka Democrat, to a vacancy on the Kansas Corporation Commission. Kuether spent 25 years in the Legislature and served on the House’s energy committee. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — A Topeka Democrat who served a quarter century in the Kansas House was nominated by Gov. Laura Kelly to the state commission responsible for regulating the utility industry, oil and gas production and safety of commercial trucking.
Kelly appointed retired Rep. Annie Kuether, who served in the Legislature form 1997 to 2022, to replace Kansas Corporation Commission member Susan Duffy. Duffy was appointed by Kelly in 2019 to a four-year term on the commission, but the governor said Duffy chose not to seek a second term.
“Representative Kuether brings experience to the Kansas Corporation Commission from her 25 years in the Legislature, where she served as a ranking minority member on the energy, utilities and telecommunications committee,” said Kelly, a Democrat who was in the Kansas Senate for 14 years.
The KCC’s influence extends to hundreds of thousands of Kansas residences and businesses through regulation of utility rates proposed by Evergy, Southern Pioneer, Liberty Utilities, Black Hills, Kansas Gas Service and Atmos Energy. Cooperative and municipal utilities don’t generally fall under KCC jurisdiction.
If confirmed by the Republican-led Senate Confirmation Oversight Committee, Kuether would begin service on the KCC in October.
In a statement Friday, Kelly said she would renominate KCC member Andrew French to a term that would begin in March if he was confirmed again by the Senate. He was appointed in 2020 by Kelly. Prior to working in a private legal practice, French was a staff attorney at the KCC from 2012 to 2017.
The KCC consists of three members appointed by the governor to overlapping four-year terms, but no more than two members of the regulatory commission can be in the same political party.
The other member of the commission is Dwight Keen, who was initially selected by Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer in 2018 and was reappointed by Kelly in 2022. Keen, a corporate and securities attorney, served six years as Kansas securities commissioner and four years on the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals. His term on the KCC would expire in 2026.
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