About Dusty
Dusty Johnson was elected statewide to the Public Utilities Commission in November 2004, becoming the youngest utilities commissioner in the nation. He managed to beat an 18-year incumbent by shaking 60,000 hands and traveling to more than a hundred communities. He also had help from friends and supporters from across the state.
Commissioner Johnson currently serves as the commission’s chairman, a post he also held in 2007. Since joining the commission, he’s worked hard to develop renewable energy resources, expand broadband and wireless phone capabilities, keep utility rates low and protect consumers.
Dusty grew up in central South Dakota in a family of seven. They didn’t have much, but he learned plenty of lessons from those experiences and from his fun, diverse family. He went to college at the University of South Dakota where he met his wonderful wife Jacquelyn. They both attended graduate school at the University of Kansas. He’s been small businessman, worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., and served as the senior policy advisor in charge of transportation, economic development, and energy issues for Governor Mike Rounds.
Dusty believes in being a leader in his church and his community. He is on the board of directors for the W.O. Farber Fund at USD and for the Abbott House (a residential treatment center for girls), and served on the Attorney General’s Open Government Task Force and as an adjunct professor at Dakota Wesleyan University. He is a former United Way board member, former chair of the South Dakota Rural Development Council, and run a political leadership camp for teenagers each summer in the Black Hills.
Dusty Johnson has tried to be a strong voice for South Dakota ratepayers in Pierre and in Washington, D.C. He was the only utilities commissioner in the country to have the opportunity to testify before the U.S. Senate against the provisions of the cap-and-trade bill that were unfriendly to the Midwest and to consumers. He serves on the board of directors and the electricity committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and on the Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Board. He has lobbied against policies that would cost ratepayers more, and has fought for a common sense approach to energy development and energy policy. Every year he speaks directly with hundreds of consumers, trying to help them resolve their concerns and complaints. They are his bosses, and he never forgets it.
Dusty and Jacquelyn have two sons, Maxwell (5 years) and Benjamin (2 years). When he get beat up at work or in the political arena, they always have a hug for him.
Commissioner Dustin "Dusty" Johnson