Douglas R.M. Nazarian's first month on the job took an unexpected turn.

Nazarian, 41, officially became chairman of the state's Public Service Commission on Aug. 16. A month later, Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group Inc. agreed to be acquired by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. for $4.7 billion -- a deal the PSC has to approve -- suddenly throwing him into uncharted territory.

"There are going to be events that are going to pop up that we didn't anticipate. A possible sale of Constellation obviously isn't something that was on our docket a few weeks ago, but it is now," Nazarian said during an interview last week in his office, where he has a cabinet shelf lined with Pez dispensers that he's proud to have never bought for more than $1.50.

Nazarian's ascent to chairman came just 15 months after he arrived at the PSC as its general counsel. Back then he said he knew little about electricity, other than "how you turn on the switch and check the circuit breaker in the basement."

Then, as now, Nazarian's first month on the job was what he called "baptism by fire." He immediately began working on two rate- case orders, investigations into Constellation's corporate governance issues and Verizon's service quality problems. He said he dove into it headfirst, similar to his work as a litigator in the Baltimore office of Hogan & Hartson LLP.

Gov. Martin O'Malley appointed Nazarian when Steven B. Larsen decided to step down as chairman and return to life in the private sector. Larsen was brought on to shake things up following a season at the commission under Kenneth D. Schisler, an appointee of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who Democrats in the legislature labeled too pro-business.

"I really don't think the governor could have made a better choice," Larsen said. "Doug is one of the smartest people I know and one of the best lawyers I know. He's got that key quality of common sense, which I think is important as a regulator."

While many said Larsen was tasked with bringing electricity rates down for consumers, a job that proved impossible, Nazarian said he does not feel that pressure from the governor.

"At the end of the day, we're an independent agency," he said. "I don't feel like I came here in any role with a mandate to accomplish certain political goals. I feel strongly that the first word in the title of this agency is not an accident."

Larsen has been "hands off" since he left the PSC -- he said the Constellation news initially sounded "exciting" and later like "a lot of work and a big headache for somebody, and it's not going to be me" -- but Nazarian said he learned a tremendous amount from him on the job.

"The fact that it hasn't been done a certain way before doesn't mean you have to just accept that," Nazarian said. "It's not about gratuitously sticking it to companies. It's get to the right outcome and get all the information you need to make the right decisions."

Mindy L. Herman, former associate general counsel for Pepco Holdings, is now special counsel in the energy and utility practice group at the Baltimore office of Saul Ewing LLP. She has appeared before the commission under Nazarian and said he brings a lawyer's instinct to the job.

"I see Doug asking a lot of questions," Herman said. "He brings a real lawyer's perspective to the commission, which I think is good for it, especially now."

Even on the less exciting issues, Nazarian has made it his goal to get to the answers. He has not been afraid to question the commission's jurisdictional boundaries or push the scope of its authority when necessary. He applies his problem-solving vision to each case, knowing that every one will cost someone.

"I don't get bored at all," he said. "There's still a lot of what we do that's new. There are things that you see in the weekly administrative agenda, when you see them or if I describe them to you, they sound excruciating, but they're important. They affect people."

It is that thoughtfulness that Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph Tyler, a mentor to Nazarian when the two worked at Hogan & Hartson, said will serve the state well.

"He's just a totally decent and kind person. I think that we in the state and in the public generally are very fortunate to have him in this position," Tyler said. "He will approach it with great care and total integrity. In the forefront of his mind will be the obligation to the people of Maryland."

While working at Hogan & Hartson, Nazarian represented a mix of clients, including Qwest Communications, a telecommunications firm, Baltimore City Public Schools and the state. Later, he became the partner in charge of the Baltimore office's pro bono practice, and won the 2007 Maryland Pro Bono Service Award from the state's bar association.

Nazarian grew up in Rochester, N.Y., where his parents still live. After graduating from Yale and Duke University School of Law, he clerked for Judge James B. Loken in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Paul, Minn. When his wife, Jeanette, got into medical school at the University of Maryland, the couple moved to Baltimore.

He spent two years commuting to Washington, working for the law firm Ross, Dixon & Masback --now Ross, Dixon & Bell -- where he did insurance litigation and represented the Commission on Presidential Debates during the Ross Perot debacle, before taking a job with Hogan & Hartson.

The Nazarians live in Catonsville with their two daughters, who are 7 and 10.

Nazarian and his wife, a critical care physician at Mercy Medical Center, juggled busy schedules before he became chairman of the PSC, but the next few months at the commission are bound to be intense. The PSC is set to receive the Constellation-MidAmerican merger filing for its review and begin a hearing to address the state's predicted future electricity shortage.

The utilities will present information about the electricity shortages that the PSC anticipates will hit the state as soon as summer 2011. Several new transmission lines have been proposed to harness more electricity from neighboring states, but Nazarian is wary of promises to get them built on schedule.

"We're assuming this line doesn't show up in time because I don't feel like it's responsible to cross our fingers and hope for something we don't control," he said.

The other course of action would require Nazarian and his fellow commissioners to direct the utilities to find or build additional sources of capacity, but it's not something he would suggest lightly.

"We can't blindly and reflexively direct the companies to build things we don't really need, because people are going to pay for that for 40 or 50 years," he said.

Perhaps the biggest issue on the commission's plate -- other than the Constellation merger -- is the final report on re-regulation, due Dec. 1.

In its interim report, the agency concluded that deregulation had not done what it was supposed to do -- open the market to competition and bring lower prices for consumers. Buying back power plants that were sold during deregulation would cost utilities between $18 billion and $24 billion.

"I think the way that this has all played out and the fact that there's an announced deal for the sale of Constellation Energy in the $4.7 billion range means that we have to look differently than we did last year at the question of whether re-regulation, full boat re-regulation, get back the plants re-regulation, is economically feasible or not," Nazarian said. "We're going to address that differently than I thought we were going to."

Voices in the General Assembly have said the sale of Constellation should mean that the state gets to re-regulate the power plants. The governor has publicly said MidAmerican might not agree to a deal in that case.

Nazarian would not say where he stands on the issue, only that the situation has changed.

"I guess all I can really say is that circumstances are very different than they were last December," he said, "and we're going to report to the General Assembly accordingly."

Originally published by Danielle Ulman.

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