TOPEKA - Today, the Kansas Senate confirmed Governor Laura Kelly’s reappointment of Andrew J. French to a second four-year term on the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC). Earlier this month, the Senate Utilities Committee voted unanimously to advance the nomination to the full Senate for approval. French’s term will expire on March 15, 2028.

"I thank the Governor and Kansas legislators for the opportunity to continue serving the State. As I step into my second term, my focus is on effectively fulfilling the KCC’s core responsibilities, while also elevating Kansas’s voice on regional and national energy issues,” said French. 

French is currently serving as Chairperson of the Commission. He is joined on the three-member board by Commissioner Dwight D. Keen and Commissioner Annie Kuether. Members are appointed by the Governor and serve staggered four-year terms. State law provides that no more than two of the three Commissioners may belong to the same political party.

French currently serves as the Kansas representative to the Southwest Power Pool and regularly participates in various SPP stakeholder groups, including the Regional State Committee (RSC) where French served as the 2023 RSC President. He is also one of 10 state utility regulators selected to serve on the Joint Federal-State Task Force on Electric Transmission formed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2021.

Before his appointment to the KCC, French practiced law with a focus on energy policy and the regulation of utility rates and services. Prior to his work in private practice, French was a staff attorney with the KCC from 2012 to 2017, French held a number of positions within the agency, including Senior Litigation Counsel representing the KCC Staff in litigated administrative proceedings. He also advised the Commission on legal, electric reliability, and cost-recovery issues associated with actions of the Southwest Power Pool, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

French has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Kansas and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kansas School of Law.

The Kansas Corporation Commission is a multi-faceted agency responsible for regulating public utilities including electric, natural gas, telecommunication and water companies as well as motor carriers, oil and gas pipelines and oil and natural gas production. The Commission’s headquarters is in Topeka with the central Oil and Gas Conservation office in Wichita and four Conservation district offices located in Chanute, Dodge City, Hays and Wichita.