As part of a yearlong appointment to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Federal-State Current Issues Collaborative, IUC Chair Sarah Martz provided remarks Feb. 11 at a meeting addressing the impact of growth on affordability. The focus of the meeting, held during the NARUC Winter Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., was to examine how affordability considerations are being addressed at the state and regional levels as load growth and transmission expansion accelerate in response to rapid AI demand growth.
Commissioners talked about recent trends that impact costs, policies and programs that are being used for cost controls without undermining speed or certainty, the impacts of load forecast, transmission planning, and cost allocation at state and regional levels.
NARUC provides two state commission representatives to the Collaborative from each of the five NARUC regions. Iowa is part of the Mid-America Regulatory Conference (MARC).
The Collaborative is the most recent effort that brings together federal and state utility regulators, following the Joint Federal-State Task Force on Electric Transmission that concluded last year. Chair Martz is serving the appointment through August 2026.