Executive Director
Scott Hempling
301-588-5385 ext. 304
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Telecommunications Research and Policy  
Sherry Lichtenberg, Ph.D., Principal
(301) 588-5385 ext. 309
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Multi-Utility Research and Policy

 

Natural Gas Research and Policy
Ken Costello, Principal
(614) 562-9397
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Water Research and Policy
Scott J. Rubin, Esq.
(570) 387-1893
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Electricity Research and Policy
Howard Stone, Principal
(301) 588-5385 ext 307
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Research Analyst
Evgenia Shumilkina
(301) 588-5385 ext. 308
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Scott Hempling, Executive Director of the National Regulatory Research Institute, has provided legal and policy advice to public and private sector clients involved in regulated industries. His research emphases include mergers and acquisitions, the introduction of competition into formerly monopolistic markets, corporate restructuring, ratemaking, utility investments in nonutility businesses, and state-federal jurisdictional issues.

Mr. Hempling received a B.A. cum laude in (1) economics and political science and (2) music from Yale University, where he was a recipient of a Continental Grain Fellowship and Patterson research grant. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a recipient of an American Jurisprudence award for Constitutional Law.

He has appeared numerous times before committees of the U. S. Senate and U. S. House of Representatives; and before state legislative committees in Arkansas, California, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia.

Mr. Hempling’s articles publications include “Corporate Structure Events Involving Regulated Utilities: The Need for a Multidisciplinary, Multijurisdictional Approach,” The Electricity Journal (Aug./Sept. 2006); "Reassessing Retail Competition: A Chance to Modify the Mix," The Electricity Journal (Jan./Feb. 2002); The Renewables Portfolio Standard: A Practical Guide, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (with Nancy Rader) (Feb. 2001); Promoting Competitive Electricity Markets Through Community Purchasing: The Role of Municipal Aggregation, American Public Power Association (with Nancy Rader) (Jan. 2000); Is Competition Here? An Evaluation of Defects in the Market for Generation (National Independent Energy Producers, Jan. 1995) (co-author); The Regulatory Treatment of Embedded Costs Exceeding Market Prices: Transition to a Competitive Electric Generation Market (Nov. 1994) (co-author); "Depolarizing the Debate: Can Retail Wheeling Coexist with Integrated Resource Planning?," The Electricity Journal (Apr. 1994); and "Making Competition Work," The Electricity Journal (June 1993).

In 1997, Mr. Hempling began a series of annual seminars, at the introductory and advanced levels, for students of electricity law. Attendees and purchasers of the accompanying seminar book have come from all 50 states and from all sectors and professional disciplines within the electric industry.

Ken Costello is the Natural Gas Research and Policy expert at the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI). Ken previously worked for NRRI as an Associate Director and a Senior Institute Economist, for the Illinois Commerce Commission, for the Argonne National Laboratory, for Commonwealth Edison Company, and as an independent consultant.

Ken has conducted extensive research and written widely on topics related to the energy industries and public utility regulation. His most recent work has focused on the natural gas sector, particularly in relation to issues facing state public utility commissions. His research has appeared in books, technical reports and monographs, and scholarly and trade publications. These publications include the Cato Journal, Electricity Journal, Energy Journal, Energy Law Journal, Public Utilities Fortnightly, Regulation, Resources and Energy, Utilities Policy and Yale Journal on Regulation.

Ken has also provided training and consulting services to the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, the Central and Eastern European countries, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Japan, the Newly Independent States, and Russia. His recent areas of research include revenue decoupling, rate issues in retail gas markets, fuel diversity in electric generation, the effects of EPAct 2005 on the natural gas market, incentive mechanisms for gas procurement, long-term contracting for gas pipeline services, and assessing market trends in the natural gas sector. Ken is a member of the NARUC Subcommittee on Gas.

Ken earned his B.S. and M.A. degrees from Marquette University. He also completed some doctoral work in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. 

Before joining NRRI, Stone served as a team leader in the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Electric Power Division, where he served as the Division's electric power industry subject matter expert. Major duties included conceiving, planning, initiating, and developing a broad range of economic analyses and research assignments involving the state and federal regulation of generation, transmission, and distribution services. He was responsible for monitoring industry trends that impact EIA data collection activities for the electric power industry and managed multidisciplinary intra-agency teams to plan, design, and conduct surveys and verify their results. He prepared analyses and presented findings in briefs to Executive Branch officials, members of Congress, and congressional staff. He also served in senior positions at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). At FERC, he served as Technical Advisor to Commissioner Branko Terzic of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, advising the Commissioner on all matters pertaining to the corporate regulation of public utilities and the issuance of certificates of public convenience and necessity for the construction of natural gas pipelines and the provision of open-access transportation services. At REA, he served as the Chief Economist of the Administrator's Special Project Staff, which was responsible for developing, negotiating, and implementing debt restructuring agreements and bankruptcy reorganization plans for financially distressed rural electric cooperatives.

Stone also has twenty years of consulting experience in the electric power industry. His consulting activities have focused on the federal regulation of wholesale bulk power markets and transmission services and the provision of financial and investment advisory services to electric cooperatives and institutions offering debt and lease financing for generation and transmission facilities owned and operated by electric cooperatives. Over the course of his career, he has presented expert testimony before state public utility commissions, FERC, Canadian provincial regulators, and the U.S. Federal District and Bankruptcy Courts.

Stone holds a B.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University and an M.A. in Economics from the University of Delaware.

Sherry Lichtenberg, Ph.D.

Sherry Lichtenberg, Ph.D. is an advocate, leader, and executive with wide ranging expertise in competitive advocacy on the state and federal level, operational support systems design, performance metrics, contract arbitration, program management, and third party testing. She has been a product manager, business manager, and operations team leader for MCI and Verizon Business competitive local services.

Sherry worked closely with ILECs, CLECs, state commissions, and the FCC to evaluate the competitive landscape as part of the state level 271 proceedings and the TRO and TRRO hearings. She evaluated the incumbent provider’s wholesale and retail interfaces and proposed changes that made them more useable for all parties. Sherry joined MCI in 1997 to lead the team responsible for developing MCI’s local services products, both UNE-P and facilities based. Prior to joining MCI, she held a number of positions at AT&T, including serving as Staff Director for AT&T Government Markets.

At MCI and VZB, she designed, managed, and implemented local services on a mass-market basis nationwide, including negotiating contracts with the ILECs worth over $600M. She was a key player in them Telecom Act-required 271 third party testing efforts and advocated for MCI's positions at both the State and Federal level. Sherry also represented MCI (and VZB) in the metrics development and testing process for each of the ILECs, most recently as part of the teams negotiating the wholesale metrics agreements for AT&T in California and Florida. She also oversaw MCI’s efforts to create an interface with Hawaii Telephone after that property was sold to the Carlyle Group.

Prior to joining MCI, she held a number of positions at AT&T, including developing methods and procedures and billing/ordering systems, managing Pricing and Proposals, and serving as Staff Director for AT&T Government Markets.

Evgenia Shumilkina

Evgenia Shumilkina is a research analyst at the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI), where she conducts research related to the electric industry. She is finishing her PhD in economics at Northeastern University. Most of the work that she has done over the course of her PhD studies is related to regulation, antitrust, and electricity. The first part of her PhD dissertation--the paper on the effects of the mergers eliminating potential competition--was accepted for publication in the Journal of Industrial Economics.

During her PhD studies, apart from her dissertation work, she has been involved in various other projects related to the changes in the electric industry--including projects with the American Public Power Association and the American Antitrust Institute.

She received a master in economics from St. Petersburg State University, Russia.