John Tuma

Background

About John Tuma

John Tuma was appointed to the Public Utilities Commission by Governor Mark Dayton, effective February 2, 2015. Prior to his appointment Commissioner Tuma had decades of experience working on energy and conservation policy issues for a variety of nongovernmental organizations. He most recently served as a Government Relations Associate with Conservation Minnesota. He helped lead efforts to pass key energy legislation, including Minnesota’s Mercury Emissions Reduction Act and Renewable Energy Standard – both of which garnered broad bipartisan support. He also served many other clients previously as a legislative policy liaison, most notably the Minnesota Inter-County Association covering areas of public safety and corrections. Tuma served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1995 to 2002, representing parts of Rice, Le Sueur, Scott, and Dakota counties. During his time in the House, he served as Chair of the Crime Prevention Committee and as Vice Chair of the Local Government Committee. While in the Legislature, Tuma was an active member of Judiciary Finance, Higher Education Finance, and Environment Policy committees. Rep. Tuma was awarded Legislator of the Year by ARC of Minnesota, the state’s largest disability organization; PACER, an organization defending the rights of the disabled in education; the Minnesota League of Conservation Voters; and the Women’s Auxiliary of the VFW. Tuma has practiced law in Northfield, Minnesota in the areas of workers’ compensation, criminal law, real estate, business organization and litigation, special education law, and personal injury litigation. He was Managing Attorney for Tuma and Thompson LLC from 1994 to 2001 in partnership with former Minnesota Senator Dave Thompson. Tuma is married to Wendy Tuma, lives in Northfield, and has two adult children, Cal and Molly. He earned his B.A. from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. Commissioner Tuma has served as the Commission liaison with the states regulated utilities on cyber security. He is the assigned Commissioner overseeing the rules amendment process for the rules relating to power plant and transmission line certificate of need and route selection. From 2015 through 2019 he served as the assigned commissioner overseeing the Consent Calendar. He serves on the NARUC Committee on Critical Infrastructure and the NARUC subcommittee on Nuclear Issues-Waste Disposal.