North Dakota Public Service CommissionGovernment

The North Dakota Public Service Commission (PSC) is a constitutional regulatory agency of the State of North Dakota, governed by three commissioners elected statewide for staggered six-year terms. Its mandate is to regulate investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities, oversee telecommunications, license grain warehouses and buyers, permit energy facility and pipeline siting, and enforce surface coal mining reclamation and weights and measures standards. Established as a constitutional office in 1889 upon North Dakota's admission to the Union under the title Board of Railroad Commissioners, the agency's name was officially changed by constitutional amendment to the Public Service Commission in 1940 to reflect its expanded role over modern utilities.