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Arthur O'Donnell is an independent energy journalist and electricity market analyst, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but with direct experience throughout the Western Interconnected Grid.
I've had a long and varied career, as a radio disc jockey and news reporter, turned energy journalist and public servant. I began my career in rock radio, covering neighborhood activism in the 1970s, then carried that passion into my own activism and musical enterprises in the 1980s before devoting my talents and experience to the energy profession.
Below, find some highlights of a long and winding path that has taken me from New Jersey to Oregon, from Seattle to San Francisco, then Albuquerque. And now on to my new home in San Diego, CA..
Archives and Activities
New Mexico Public Regulation Commission
New Mexico Public Regulation Commission
Commitment to Fellowship
Commitment to Fellowship
One of the great joys of my career has been to serve as a mentor to younger reporters and energy professionals. Here I am with Meredith Tidwell, a current DOE Clean Energy Innovator who works at the NM PRC in Santa Fe.
Director of Policy Administration and Special Advisor to the Commission 2021-2024
Director of Policy Administration and Special Advisor to the Commission 2021-2024
After moving to New Mexico in 2019, I was fortunate to be acccepted as a US Department of Energy Clean Energy Innovator, working with the New Mexico PRC to initiate new rules and policies for the interconnection of solar power, integrated resource planning and the modernization of the utility electric grid.
A change in the agency, from five elected commissioners to three members appointed by the governor, opened a new opportunity for me as Director of Policy Administration in 2023-24.
Though I've relocated to California, I continue as a special advisor to the PRC helping to implement the new and revised rules we put into place and working hard to bring a 200 MW Community Solar program into operation.
California Public Utilities Commission 2012-2018
California Public Utilities Commission 2012-2018
I served as Program and Project Supervisor for the Risk Assessment section of the Safety & Enforcement Division, and for the Grid Planning & Reliability section of Energy Division.
My teams of engineers and policy analysts helped innovate policy and practice for energy storage, electric vehicle safety, methane emissions reduction, wildfire mitigation, and utility corporate Safety Culture, among other high-profile proceedings at the CPUC.
Center for Resource Solutions 2008-2010
Center for Resource Solutions 2008-2010
I was Executive Director of this internationally active environmental non-profit that created and administers the Green-e certification program for renewable energy and carbon offset markets. Green-e is among the most recognized and trusted environmental service marks in the nation. The annual Green Power Markets conference continues to be a highlight for the green power community.
Energy Overseer 2002 - 2012
As an independent energy reporter, I covered California and national energy/environmental issues for a wide variety of specialized publications and news services. These included being West Coast correspondent and contributing editor for E&E's Greenwire and Land Letter. I wrote the award-winning "Business Electric" column for Energy Central.com and contributed several cover articles for E-Biz magazine along with editing special publications. My frequent contributions to California Current (aka Energy Circuit) newsletter and Public Utilities Fortnightly reached national audiences in the utility industry.
I also programmed and co-chaired many energy policy conferences for Law Seminars International (LSI) and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland.
In the City of Neighborhoods
In the 1970s, Seattle, Washington, earned a reputation as a hotbed of community activism and a pioneer of the national neighborhood movement. This book was drawn from my Graduate Fellowhip Masters Thesis project: a 20-part series of radio programs doucmenting Seattle's neighborhood movement. With additional articles about the Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) phenomenon related to energy developments in various locations.
This "cultural biography" of the California Independent System Operator describes how the transmission operator and its staff weathered the Western Energy Crisis of 2000-2001. "Soul" continues to be considered a seminal documentation of the energy crisis and is highly recommended by historians and political leaders.
Books and Special Projects
The Guilty Environmentalist
Join me as I trip lightly through the history of the electric and natural gas utility business from the Age of Electricity to the Fall of Enron. This collection of 50 essays, satires and opinions derived from the "Bottom Lines" column in the award-winning California Energy Markets newsletter.
Soul of the Grid
After the Storm
A special project for the Energy Foundation, interviewing prominent energy economists and political leaders about the aftermath of the Western Energy Crisis.
21st Century Transmission & Distribution
I compiled and edited this special, and prescient, E-Zine with prominent thought-leaders exploring the potential for Smart Grid technologies on the electric utility system.
When I started reporting about "alternative" energy developments in California, I noticed that many solar, wind and cogeneration facilities were being site along or near state Highway 58.
This journey -- from the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant at San Luis Obispo to the oil fields of Kern County and solar panels in the Mojave Desert -- showed the range of new technolgies coming into the utility grid. I never published the book I was hoping for, but ABC-TV did produce a video for one of its news programs.
Power Road: A Renewable Journey
From 1989 - 2002, I was the founding editor and associate publisher of California Energy Markets. CEM received awards from the National Press Club and the Newsletter & Electronic Publisher's Foundation, among other news organizations, particularly for its prescient and insightful coverage of the Western Energy Crisis.
I worked with many fine editors and reporters at CEM and its Northwest sister publication, Clearing Up.
In May 2019, CEM celebrated its 30th anniversary with a fine tribute from current editor Jason Fordney.
California Energy Markets
California Energy Markets
California Energy Markets
California Energy Markets
The Energy Overseer