Joe Sutter, director of regulatory and external affairs, told the board Feb. 19 that state government reorganization and active legislation warrant close company engagement. He highlighted Senate Bill 4 as a measure that would extend a certificate-of-need style review—similar in concept to an energy certificate of public convenience and necessity—to long-haul water pipelines defined in the bill as 30 miles or longer with capacity of at least 10 million gallons per day.

Sutter said the bill would also require Department of Natural Resources permits for moving water between basins or between communities, and that the measure is intended to ensure projects are economic, needed and do not have reasonable alternatives that would better serve ratepayers. He noted that Citizens’ service territory crosses three basins and that routine inter-basin transfers for operations have been treated as acceptable in the past.

Sutter also described another bill (referred to as Central 28 in the presentation) focused on groundwater and giving DNR additional authority to review cases where one large water user might affect another large user, a concern in agricultural areas. On energy policy, Sutter said the state’s new administration is emphasizing base-load generation (coal, natural gas and nuclear) and is exploring small modular reactors, while attention to renewables has changed in emphasis.

Sutter encouraged continued engagement with the new secretaries and agency leaders because the state’s cabinet structure has shifted to a smaller group of secretaries who now coordinate clusters of agencies, including agencies relevant to water and energy policy and permitting.

No board action on the legislative matters was recorded at the meeting; Sutter’s briefing served as a situational update.