Phil Bartlett will step down as chair of the Maine Public Utilities Commission on October 9, creating a leadership transition at the state regulator while several consequential utility and energy proceedings remain active. Gov. Janet Mills announced that Bartlett is leaving for a private-sector opportunity and that Commissioner Patrick Scully will become acting chair.
The interim arrangement is expected to last beyond the current administration. According to the governor’s announcement, Scully will serve until a permanent chair is nominated by the next governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate. That timing means Maine’s November election will help determine who chooses the commission’s next long-term leader, but the agency’s ongoing cases will continue under its existing statutory process.
The change matters because the commission regulates roughly 430 electric, telephone, water and gas utilities and districts. Its responsibilities include setting rates, granting operating authority, enforcing service standards and monitoring safety and reliability, according to the PUC’s description of its authority. The three full-time commissioners decide final matters by public vote or majority action, so an acting chair remains one member of a multi-member decision-making body rather than a sole utility policymaker.
Scully joined the commission in 2021 after a career in municipal, energy and utility law. The commission’s official roster lists his term as expiring in March 2027 and identifies Carolyn Gilbert, whose term runs through March 2029, as the third commissioner. Bartlett was first appointed chair in 2019 and reconfirmed in 2025 for a term that otherwise would have continued through March 2031.
The leadership handoff comes during an active regulatory calendar. The PUC’s current case list includes Central Maine Power and Northern Utilities rate proceedings, a standard-offer electricity supply process, a northern Maine renewable-energy solicitation and inquiries into natural-gas policy and storm-cost resilience. Technical conferences and hearings already scheduled around the transition are part of formal records that commission staff and commissioners use before issuing decisions.
Mills credited Bartlett with expanding utility accountability, supporting regional transmission planning and increasing assistance for lower-income electricity customers. The state release says annual funding for Maine’s Low-Income Assistance Program grew from $7.8 million to $33 million during his tenure and that a revised bill-discount model is scheduled to begin in October. It also attributes work on extending the life of Maine’s 207 area code and lowering Maine’s share of planned northern transmission costs to commission initiatives under Bartlett.
For ratepayers, the immediate practical point is continuity: existing dockets, filing deadlines and public-comment procedures remain in place. The larger policy consequence will come with the eventual permanent appointment, because the chair helps guide an agency balancing affordability, reliability, infrastructure investment and state energy mandates. Until then, Scully will preside while the commission continues deciding cases through public votes and established records.
