Service in the Public Interest: Joseph C. Swidler

By
Branko Terzic

One of the great names in US public utility regulation is that of the late Joseph Swidler (1907-1997) His was a remarkable career dedicated to public service and the regulation of public service (utility) companies. The initial US Supreme Court ruling Munn v. Illinois allowing government regulation of prices for private corporations was based on the principle that such regulation was “in the public interest.” Seidler’s career adhered to that throughout.

As a young lawyer in the 1930's Joe Swidler was tasked by newly appointed Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Chairman David Lilienthal to successfully negotiate the acquisition of transmission assets from the Central and Southwest electric holding company, then led by Wendell Wilke, to create the backbone of the TVA.

Wilke, an influential New York lawyer, would later be the GOP presidential candidate against Franklin Roosevelt. As a side note Lilienthal understood public utility operations and economic having earlier been appointed and serving as Commissioner on the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. The appointment of the flamboyant Chicago lawyer to the Wisconsin PSC was made by Wisconsin’s Progressive Governor Robert “Fighting Bob” LaFollette.

Later Joe Swidler would serve as Chairman (1961-1965) of the Federal Power Commission (FPC), predecessor to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and after that as Chairman (1970-1974) of the New York Public Service Commission.

I had met Swidler earlier in my career while I served as a Commissioner on the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. But it wasn't until I was on the FERC that I had some regular meetings with Swidler.

The topic was always the same - the state of the nation’s power systems. Swidler had served on the FPC during the great blackout of the northeast USA in 1965. Subsequent to that event he led the Federal government's efforts to assess the nation's electric grid leading to the publication in 1970 of the National Power Survey.

At one lunch meeting I caught Swidler glancing at the enamel pin I wore in my lapel.

"What's that?" He asked.

"Oh" I replied, "It's a new FERC pin!"

"it's very nice!"

"Please" I said " Take this one, there are plenty of these at the commission."

I removed the pin from my lapel and passed it across the table to him. He immediately attached it to his suit lapel thanking me while doing so.

A week later a package from Joe Swidler arrived at my FERC office. Inside was a hand written note and a smaller box.

The note said "Dear Branko, Thank you for the new FERC pin. Please accept this FPC Commissioner's pin. It is an extra as I also have a FPC Chairman's pin which differs as it has a diamond center. Yours Joe"

The FPC Commissioners pin was significantly more elaborate than the enamel FERC pin. Firstly, it is solid gold and secondly it has a tooled screw mounting! Clearly, I got the best of the swap. I still proudly wear that pin on special occasions.

It took another east coast blackout, this time in 2003, to get federal legislation on establishing a National Reliability Organization to address Joe Swidler's long standing concerns about the resilience of the nation's power grid. Perhaps, had we listened to Joe a decade earlier, that 2003 disaster could have been avoided. I believe so.

It was now 1990 and Swidler was adamant that the government needed to immediately update the 20 year old report. As a new FERC commissioner I was supportive but budget realities and institutional indifference meant that Seidler's pleas for an update fell on deaf ears of the agency bureaucrats.

For more about Joe Swidler read his remarkable autobiography:

“Power And The Public Interest: The Memoirs Of Joseph C. Swidler”
University of Tennessee Press 2002
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Public-Interest-Memoirs-Swidler/dp/1572331836