William Dann Steinmeier

Bill has nearly twenty-three years of experience with the electricity, telecommunications, natural gas and water industries as a State regulator, attorney and consultant. In 1992, he founded William D. Steinmeier, Professional Corporation, a law and consulting firm which focuses locally on Missouri Public Service Commission practice and nationally on utility industry competitive and restructuring issues, particularly electric industry restructuring.

From 1984 to 1992, Bill served as Chairman of the Missouri Public Service Commission (MoPSC), having been appointed by Governor Kit Bond to finish an unexpired term and then re-appointed twice by Governor John Ashcroft. He is also a former President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). Immediately preceding his appointment to the Commission, he served the MoPSC as a Hearing Examiner (now called "Regulatory Law Judge") from 1980 to 1984. Professionally, he has also worked as a trial attorney for what is now the Missouri Department of Transportation, and as a law clerk for the 22nd Judicial Circuit of Missouri. Bill earned his B.A. degree in political science in 1972 from Wheaton College in Illinois and his J.D. from the School of Law of the University of Missouri-Columbia in December 1975.

Well-known for his expertise and insight into utility industry restructuring, Bill writes, gives speeches, lobbies, and offers advice, counsel and expert testimony on regulatory and restructuring issues, particularly concerning electric industry restructuring. As a regulator, he appeared before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. Since then he has testified as an expert witness before a number of State regulatory commissions, state legislative and Congressional committees, and in federal court litigation, on a variety of regulatory issues. In articles, speeches and expert testimony over the last ten years he has addressed such issues as industry, regulatory and political trends; federal-state jurisdictional tensions; market and regulatory structures; incentive (performance-based) ratemaking; mergers and acquisitions; system reliability; diversification; resource planning; environmental issues (Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act), and stranded cost issues. He and the firm have also provided advice and counsel to clients on the regulatory environment and requirements in various state jurisdictions, including Missouri, for evaluation of merger and acquisition, and other business, opportunities.

Bill has written and co-authored papers with national distribution on a number of regulatory and restructuring issues. These include three papers on electric stranded cost recovery principles and methods, and "cooperative federalism," with Ms. Linda Stuntz, former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Since 1996, Bill has served as National Chairman of the Electric Utility Shareholders Alliance ("Electric USA"), an ad hoc political coalition that represents a number of shareholders, rural electric cooperatives, the IBEW and many locals, and small consumer interests in the Congressional debate about retail restructuring of the electric power industry. In that capacity, he has testified before the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on electric industry restructuring.

A trained arbitrator and mediator, Bill was named a member of the National Energy Panel of the American Arbitration Association in 1997. He has served as sole arbitrator, and on panels of arbitrators, in both energy and telecommunications disputes.

Internationally, Bill has consulted on the restructuring and privatization of electric systems in several former Soviet Republics, including Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and in Ghana in West Africa. His work contributed to new electricity laws adopted by the Republic of Kazakhstan in 1995 and 1998. He served on the faculty of a World Bank-USAID seminar, in Vienna, Austria, for electric industry personnel from Hungary, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republics, to discuss strategic resource planning by electric utilities, and has performed consulting services on regulatory ratemaking theories and issues for a major electric utility in Spain.

Mary Ann (Garr) Young

Mary Ann has more than twenty-one years of experience with the telecommunications, electricity, natural gas and water industries as a State regulator, attorney and consultant. In October 1993, she associated with William D. Steinmeier, P.C., and is "Of Counsel" to the firm.

Mary Ann served as General Counsel to the Missouri Public Service Commission from 1988 to 1993. She joined the Missouri PSC Staff in 1981 as an Assistant General Counsel and later held the position of Deputy General Counsel. She has also served as Deputy Director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development and as Policy and Legal Advisor to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and was in private law practice in Kansas City, Missouri.

Mary Ann earned her B.A. degree, Magna cum Laude, in Integrated Social Science in 1976 from Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Missouri and her J.D. from the School of Law of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1979. She is a member of Alpha Sigma Nu honor society. Admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1979, she is a past vice chair of the Administrative Law Committee. She also is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Mary Ann has extensive experience in telecommunications regulatory matters before the Missouri Public Service Commission. She and the firm have provided service to scores of competitive telecommunications providers in recent years, helping secure certificates authorizing them to provide basic local exchange, interexchange and local exchange service in the State; gaining approval of tariffs, interconnection agreements, mergers, acquisitions, sales and transfers of assets and customers; as well as defending clients against complaints by other telephone companies and regulatory actions by the Commission.

Firm Utility Regulatory Experience

During their years at the Missouri Public Service Commission, Bill and Mary Ann participated in hundreds of complex contested cases. These cases included implementation of the AT&T divestiture and FCC equal access policies; nuclear power plant construction cost prudence determinations; electric, gas, telephone, water and sewer utility rate cases involving complex cost-of-service, rate design and capacity planning issues; consumer complaints against regulated utilities; and cases setting new policies for emerging competition in telecommunications and natural gas. As Chairman of the Commission, Bill had primary management responsibility for a Staff of over 200 personnel and served as the Commission’s chief spokesperson in dealing with the Missouri General Assembly and the press. As General Counsel, Mary Ann had direct management responsibility for a legal staff of ten attorneys and support personnel.

Bill is also a former President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). As an active participant in, and officer of, NARUC, he was involved in national policy debates affecting the electric, natural gas and telecommunications industries. He served on both the Executive and Electricity Committees of NARUC. Mary Ann served on the Staff Subcommittee on Law of NARUC.

• President, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, 1991.
• National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), 1984-1992; Executive Committee and Electricity Committee.
• Chairman, Missouri Governor's Task Force on Telecommunications Reform, 1986.
• President, Mid-America Regulatory Conference (MARC), 1989-1990.
• Member, Board of Directors, National Regulatory Research Institute, 1990-91.
• Member, Advisory Council to Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), 1991.
• Acid Rain Advisory Committee to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1990-91.
• Edison Electric Institute-NARUC Task Force on Electric Regulatory Issues, 1990-1991.
• Energy Subcommittee, President's Commission on Environmental Quality, 1991.
• Keystone Project on Emissions Allowance Trading, 1991-1992.
• National Chairman, Electric Utility Shareholders Alliance, 1996-present.
• American Arbitration Association, National Energy Panel, 1997-.
• Missouri Bar; Administrative Law Committee.