You could fit a dozen of David Kolata’s offices at the Citizens Utility Board inside one utility executive’s office. He doesn’t have access to corporate jets or armies of lobbyists, as his opponents do.
He spends a fair amount of time simply reviewing utility bills, line by line, with senior citizens, helping them figure out ways to save money.
Yet, in his role as executive director of the Chicago-based advocacy group, Kolata has maneuvered his way to the center of some of the biggest consumer utility issues to affect the state.
His organization had a hand in drafting the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, which aims to have 25 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources like wind and solar by 2025. CUB also helped create the Illinois Power Agency, which acts as a neutral third party to buy energy and ensure customers get the best prices possible.
Earning a front seat on major policy issues is no easy task. The majority of CUB’s funding comes from its 100,000 members, residents who make small contributions to pay for the lobbying and lawsuits it can take to keep utility bills low.
Springfield insiders say CUB’s influence stems from its ability to form coalitions and partnerships, not the least of which is its connection to Pat Quinn, who helped found it some 25 years before becoming governor.
The concept seemed simple enough in 1983 when the Illinois General Assembly created CUB as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization to represent the interests of residential utility customers statewide, after an outcry over spending on nuclear power plants. Utilities are government-regulated monopolies empowered to recover their costs directly from customers, but in its role as watchdog, CUB could fight to ensure that utilities weren’t attempting to pass along excessive costs.
At the time, phones had cords, electricity had far fewer household applications and the natural gas industry hadn’t changed much since Abraham Lincoln was president.
Today, Kolata is dealing with nuances of smartphone plans that have little to do with phone calls, smart grid technology that can turn appliances on and off in time with power prices, and corporations that are attempting to manufacture natural gas from coal — and asking natural gas customers to pay for it.
Energy companies often argue that their ideas will save consumers in the long run. Kolata’s job is to cut through the spin. At the same time, his organization must consider the needs of 12 million consumers — from Chicago renters on fixed incomes to downstate farmers.
“We have a $2 million-a-year budget. Often the utilities will spend more on one case than our annual budget,” Kolata said. “You’re always somewhat of an underdog. But we do have a lot of members, influence. You use what cards you have.”
Energetic ‘robot’
Kolata got his first taste of Springfield politics while working for the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center in the late 1990s. He was working to prevent Route 53 from being extended into Lake County, proposing alternatives and arguing in the halls of the Capitol that rather than alleviate congestion, the road would lead to urban sprawl and destroy wildlife.
“What I liked about Springfield was, unlike Washington, D.C., there’s a low barrier to entry. You could go there and pretty much talk to anyone,” Kolata said. “There was definitely a little bit of an adrenaline rush.”
In Springfield, Kolata got to know Martin Cohen, then executive director of Citizens Utility Board, and found a kindred spirit, both in terms of their political philosophies and their love of music. When a policy analyst position opened at CUB in 2001, Kolata jumped at the chance.
“I was ready to do something else and to try to get involved in energy issues, which I really see as one of the most important issues of our time,” Kolata said.
Matthew Summy, at the time working for the state’s economic development agency, said Kolata saw the unique role consumer issues could play in the broader policy issues of the day. Rather than playing a simply protective role, Kolata saw how — if handled correctly — the interplay of technology, energy markets and the environment could aid consumers.
Summy, now regional vice president for external and government affairs for Comcast, said Kolata saw early on how, in his role as advocate, he could push for environmental and energy policies that could positively affect consumers’ pocketbooks.
He also had a knack for getting other people on board.
Charles Parnell, vice president, public affairs at Edison Mission Energy and Midwest Generation, which owns wind farms and coal plants, said there were plenty of times he and Kolata were on different sides of the aisle. “I know I’m right, and he thinks he’s right,” he said. But even when they fundamentally disagreed, it was always just business.
“People genuinely like Dave,” Parnell said. “He’s a high-energy guy, and he’s got this big bear laugh that just attracts people to him.”
Kolata’s wife likes to call him “the robot” because when they are debating something, he always keeps his cool.
Kolata points out that policy issues unfold over months, even years, and successes often come in waves.
“Temperamentally, you have to go Zen on stuff,” he said. “Often in politics, it’s two steps forward, one-and-three-quarters steps backward. Things happen not necessarily for reasons you would expect; not necessarily in a straight line.”
In 2005, the executive director position came open when Cohen was appointed chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission. A week later, Kolata had the job.
Few, including Kolata, expected him to stay in that role as long as he has. Those closest to him say Kolata is above all else “intellectually restless,” never stops working, wakes up and draws his phone close to his face to read his messages before taking time to put in his contact lenses.
“It’s a constant challenge to keep up with David’s race for the next great idea,” said Jim Chilsen, a spokesman at CUB who has worked with Kolata since 2001. “That’s a great safeguard against becoming complacent at an organization. You have to be ready for David to come into your office and say, ‘I have a job for you.'”
Academic jock
Kolata received a schooling in politics and energy issues growing up in South Bend, Ind. His mother was deputy director for economic redevelopment for South Bend, and his father was a nuclear physicist and professor at the University of Notre Dame.
“I’ve always been interested in practical politics,” said Kolata, who attended Notre Dame as an undergraduate. “I like to go back and forth between policy ideas and where the world should be with where the world is. I never wanted to be an academic per se or do academic research.”
Mike Truppa, a communications specialist in Chicago, said when he and Kolata were paired as roommates freshman year, he met a young man with an immense appetite for knowledge but who defied structure.
He recalled a time that Kolata’s attempt to tie a necktie failed — the skinny part of the tie was dangling below the wide part — so he grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the rogue end off.
“He was this unorthodox mix of jock and academic. He was a hockey player who loved heavy metal, and yet someone who would voraciously read academic journals,” Truppa said.
Kolata graduated from Notre Dame in 1991 with a major in government and went on to earn a master’s degree in political science at the University of Toronto. But before moving on to pursue his doctorate, Kolata decided to follow his other love: music.
It was the early 1990s, the era of alternative rock.
Nirvana and Pearl Jam were gaining commercial success. Kolata got in his car and drove to Seattle to deliver pizzas and live at the nexus of the grunge scene. “He just decided to drive away,” Truppa said. “He was a huge fan.”
Kolata’s wife, Suzanne Martineau, said that when she met her future husband at Vanderbilt University, where he began working on his doctorate after a year-plus break in Seattle, “I instantly liked him. He was this funny guy, always riding a bicycle, and he would argue anything just because, just to see.”
By 1998, Truppa was working at the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago, and Martineau, one year ahead of Kolata, had just finished her doctorate. Truppa persuaded Howard Learner, the center’s executive director, to hire his friend as a policy analyst while Kolata finished his dissertation, billing him as “the smartest guy I know.”
“He came to Chicago armed with a non-quite-finished Ph.D. and a background as a scholar and a pizza delivery guy,” Truppa said.
Within seven years he would be heading up the state’s largest independent consumer advocacy organization.
‘Big-picture guy’
Amid talk about replacing coal, traditionally the nation’s least expensive form of power, with next-generation power plants, Kolata has recently focused his efforts on increasing the role energy efficiency can play in saving consumers money.
“More and more we are involved in applied programs,” Kolata said. “I think to some extent we got sick of just beating up utilities saying, ‘You should do this, you should do that.’ We started to do things ourselves.”
The agency has launched its own online tools to help consumers find ways to save energy. Kolata’s team is working with South Korea, which has invested more than $5 million in energy efficiency equipment it is testing in Chicago buildings. CUB also is involved in other energy-saving efforts, including a demand response program, in which 16 buildings power down for cash when energy load is at its height.
Those efforts also mean that while environmental groups push for policies that would help get more solar and wind farms built, CUB has advocated policies that urge the state to use less energy altogether.
“What we are most excited about from a consumer point of view is maximizing energy efficiency, maximizing demand response and distributed generation — consumers putting solar on their roofs,” he said. “It’s pretty much the end of the world for consumers if we have to build a bunch of new plants. It’s just so expensive, and we don’t think there’s a need to do that.”
In 2011, CUB fought controversial legislation backed by ComEd that would alter the way electricity rates would be set and that would encourage investment in smart grid technology and other capital improvements. Ultimately, the bill became law, meaning millions more in revenue for ComEd.
While Kolata disagreed with ComEd over the rate-setting portion of the law, he finds himself aligned with ComEd on smart grid technology. It can potentially give consumers more control via in-home smart meters that allow them to monitor their power use and run major appliances when prices are cheapest.
“The nature of the role of CUB is certainly to be adversarial as it relates to utilities,” said Anne Pramaggiore, CEO of ComEd. “But Dave’s a big-picture guy. He doesn’t allow himself to get stuck in that role if thinking in a broader way can help.”
When ComEd came back to the legislature in the spring asking for money, Kolata said he didn’t have the votes to fight them and decided instead to put more resources behind another cause: stopping a telecommunications bill that would have deregulated telephone service, taking away consumers’ rights to land lines. Ultimately, he said, he had to prioritize a battle CUB could win.
“In the end, you just have to try to keep the ball moving forward and try to have more wins than losses,” Kolata said. “I think we have.”
Twitter @littlewern
David Kolata, executive director, Citizens Utility Board
Residence: Uptown
Family: Wife, Suzanne Martineau, and dogs Maurice, a hound mix, and A.C., a rat terrier/Chihuahua.
Also a member of: Illinois Environmental Council, Northern Illinois Energy Project
Reading: “Bad Monkey” by Carl Hiaasen. “His stuff is absurdist and fun, with a healthy dose of political satire.”
Management tip: “You should manage to your personality. You can’t be something you’re not, and there are many different styles that can work. In my case, I focus on setting an overall strategic vision, generating ideas, and giving our staff the freedom to create and execute.”
Hobbies: Music, hockey, drums. “I play in an over-30 men’s hockey league and also play drums — neither very well, but they are fun hobbies. I listen to a ton of music from almost all genres. It would be a close call, but I probably listen to progressive hard rock more than anything else, with Tool, Rush and Meshuggah being my favorites.”
