Bruce Hagen. (Photo courtesy of State Historical Society of North Dakota via the North Dakota Monitor)
(North Dakota Monitor) – Bruce Hagen, who served on North Dakota’s Public Service Commission for 39 years, died at age 94 in Bismarck.
Hagen is believed to be the only Democrat to serve on the state’s Public Service Commission.
The Devils Lake native was appointed to fill a vacancy on the three-member board in 1961 by Gov. William Guy. He was reelected to six six-year terms, choosing not to run for reelection in 2000.
He was known for reaching across party lines.
“Two parties are healthy for all levels of government and regulatory commissioners are no exception,” he wrote in an article submitted in 2006 to the National Regulatory Research Institute.
The PSC regulates utilities and telecommunications, oversees siting for pipelines and energy projects and has a hand in grain and railroad regulations. Hagen and his contemporaries are credited with spearheading the regulation of coal, electricity, oil and gas and electricity in North Dakota.
His career spanned North Dakota extending telephone service to the entire state in the 1970s to regulating cellphone service in the 1990s.
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