Chairman, Kentucky Public Service Commission
Governor Steve Beshear appointed David L. Armstrong Chairman of the Kentucky Public Service Commission on June 3, 2008, and reappointed him to a second term on July 8, 2011. His term ends on June 30, 2015.
Prior to joining the PSC, Chairman Armstrong was of counsel to the law firm Greenebaum Doll & McDonald in Louisville.
Chairman Armstrong has had a lengthy career in government, beginning as Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 30th Judicial District from 1976 to 1983. He served as mayor of Louisville from 1999 to 2003, Jefferson County Judge-Executive from 1989 to 1999 and Kentucky Attorney General from 1983 to 1988. Chairman Armstrong has also been a prosecutor and juvenile court judge and taught urban planning at the University of Louisville.
Chairman Armstrong is a member of the Louisville and Kentucky bar associations and the Society of Attorneys General Emeritus. He is admitted to the practice of law in Kentucky and before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Over the course of his career, Chairman Armstrong has served in many leadership positions, including as president of the National Council of County Executives, chairman of the Southern Conference of Attorneys General and president of the National District Attorneys of America. He was named Kentucky’s Outstanding Mayor in 2002 and Louisville was twice named a Most Livable City in America during his tenure. The University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law has named him an Outstanding Alumnus and in 2008 he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Hanover College.
Chairman Armstrong serves on many boards and civic groups. He is a trustee of the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law and the University of Kentucky School of Design. He is on the boards of the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, the Kentucky Opera Board, the Muhammad Ali Center, the Frazier History Museum and the Partners for Livable Communities.
Chairman Armstrong is a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, is chairman of its international relations committee and serves on its electricity committee, the subcommittee on clean coal and carbon sequestration and the subcommittee on nuclear issues-waste disposal. He is second vice president of the Southeastern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and president of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissions.
Chairman Armstrong serves on the Research Advisory Committee of the National Regulatory Research Institute and served on the advisory committee to the Midwest Independent System Operator, a regional transmission organization, and the advisory council for the Center for Public Utilities at New Mexico State University. He was on the planning committee for the 2012 World Forum on Energy Regulation.
Chairman Armstrong attended Hanover College and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in history from Murray State University. He received his law degree from the University of Louisville.
Chairman Armstrong and his wife Carol reside in Louisville. They have two grown children and two granddaughters.
Vice Chairman, Kentucky Public Service Commission
Governor Steve Beshear appointed James W. Gardner as vice chairman of the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) on June 16, 2008, and reappointed him to a second term on July 24, 2012. His term will expire on July 1, 2016.
Vice Chairman Gardner is Chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Task Force on Environmental Regulation and Generation, Chair of NARUC’s Subcommittee on Education and Research, and Co-Vice Chair of the Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment. He co-chaired the December 2009 NARUC/National Council on Electricity Policy conference on Utilities of the Future. Gardner also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Financial Research Institute, the Gas Technology Institute, and the Electric Power Research Institute.
Vice Chairman Gardner was elected to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council in 1982 and served until 1986. He was a member of the Fayette County Board of Education from 1993 to 1997, serving as its chairman from 1995 to 1997.
Vice Chairman Gardner graduated from Franklin County High School and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Georgetown College, graduating summa cum laude. Vice Chairman Gardner holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was a member of the Kentucky Law Journal and Order of the Coif.
He is married to Michelle Milby Gardner and they have one son, Wilson Gardner.
Commissioner, Kentucky Public Service Commission
A resident of Lexington, KY Linda Breathitt has devoted her career in the areas of public policy and government affairs. Linda was appointed by Governor Steve Beshear in May of 2012 as one of three Commissioners’ to the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
In 2009 President Obama appointed Ms. Breathitt as the Federal Representative to the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB), where she served from September of 2009 – December 2012. SSEB is a non-profit interstate compact whose mission is to enhance economic development and the quality of life in the South through innovations in energy and environmental policies, programs and technologies.
Linda was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as a Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) from Nov. 1997 to Nov. 2002. Prior to joining FERC Linda was appointed by Gov. Brereton Jones as Commissioner and later Chairman of the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
Linda spent five years as a senior energy advisor for the international law firm of Thelen Reid & Priest LLP in the firm’s Washington D.C. office from 2003-2008.
She has testified numerous times before the United States Congress and has participated in energy symposiums and conferences all over the world. Ms. Breathitt oversaw the Energy Partnership Program between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission in India for USAID and the US Energy Association for 6 years.
Ms. Breathitt is a former Board of Director of Delta Natural Gas in Winchester, KY. She is on the Advisory Board of the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of KY and on the National Advisory Board of the Speed Museum in Louisville, KY. Linda serves on the Board of Directors of LexArts in Lexington, KY and was appointed by Governor Steve Beshear to the Kentucky Commission on Women in 2008 and the Kentucky Heritage Council in 2009. She is a Member of the Board of the Downtown Lexington Corporation.
Linda graduated from the University of Kentucky and attended the Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Program, Harvard University.
Chairman David L. Armstrong
- April 14, 2011 - Dick Armstrong Telecommunications Systems Management Leadership Award, Murray State University
- April 4, 2011 - Edison Electric Institute Transmission, Distribution and Metering Conference, Louisville
- April 28, 2010 - National Energy Marketers Association, Washington, DC
- October 14th, 2009 - Remarks at PSC 75th anniversary celebration (pdf format)
- May 7, 2009 - Eight Annual Conference on Carbon Capture & Sequestration - Pittsburgh, PA (pdf format)
- April 22, 2009 - Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives – Managers' Meeting (pdf format)
- August 26, 2008 - Addressess Kentucky Rural Water Association (pdf format)
