Regulate Public-Utility Commissions to Ensure Meaningful Public Participation

Fund Public-Interest Intervenors in Public-Utility Ratepayer Cases

States have the ability to fund individuals and groups to participate in regulatory utility cases. This process is essential to ensure that the public’s interest is represented in cases. Currently, 20 states have authorized intervenor compensation programs designed to provide funding for people to participate in utility proceedings.1 States should build and/or strengthen these programs.

Strong example

As of 2025, California’s public-intervenor process has awarded over $3 million to 14 unique intervenors.

Remove Barriers to Public Intervention

States can pass laws reforming the public-intervention process, including removing laws that allow private entities to challenge and throw out intervenors before proceedings and removing requirements that intervenors need a lawyer to intervene. States can also institute strong standing principles that allow any organization to participate in the intervention process.

  1. Deanna Nussberger, “Intervenor Compensation: Supporting Public Participation in Utility Decisions,” Environmental Defense Fund, May 20, 2025, https://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2025/05/20/intervenor-compensation-supporting-public-participation-in-utility-decisions. ↩︎