Philip Bartlett, chair of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, speaks at a hearing in 2019. The governor nominated him for a second six-year term Friday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald file

Gov. Janet Mills announced Friday she will renominate Maine’s top utility regulator as the state takes up a rising workload made increasingly complicated by policies targeting climate change and the rising cost of electricity.

Philip Bartlett, a former majority leader of the state Senate and chair of the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, was tapped for a second six-year term to head the Public Utilities Commission. The governor credited him for guiding the agency through stronger oversight and accountability of the state’s two dominant electric utilities and planning for improved grid reliability and resilience.

“As chair, Phil Bartlett has led the Public Utilities Commission during a time of expansive and complicated changes to Maine’s energy and utility environment,” Mills said in a statement announcing his renomination.

Bartlett, a lawyer, said in a statement he is honored to be renominated. He is one of three commissioners who serve staggered six-year terms. The governor designates one commissioner as chair.

The PUC regulates the state’s electric, gas and water utilities. It sets rates, settles consumer complaints, applies energy policy established by the Legislature to the operation of Maine’s utilities and has ruled on issues as varied as the state’s area code, gas and electric utility ownership, solar subsidies and even illegal marijuana grow houses.

Utility regulation — a complicated task inscrutable to those who are not lawyers, lobbyists, industry analysts or utility executives and staff — has become even more impenetrable due to demands to reach increasingly strict climate goals. At the same time, regulators are struggling to hold the line on the rising cost of electricity.

Much of the PUC’s time is taken up reviewing proposals to connect renewable power to the grid and advancing grid modernization to handle rising demand brought on by greater use of electric vehicles and electrification of heating and cooling in buildings.

The PUC staff of 78 in 2024 was up from 73 the previous year and 63 in 2019, according to the agency’s annual report. The PUC’s Regulatory Fund Assessment, financed by ratepayers, was up 63% over five years, to $12.4 million in 2024, from $7.6 million in 2019.

Bartlett’s nomination must be reviewed by the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee and confirmed by the state Senate.

Mills nominated Bartlett in 2019, a decision that was praised by advocates who cited his work to move policy away from fossil fuels and toward zero-carbon energy.

His salary was $172,825 in 2024.