Forum: Janet St Clair is right person for PUD Commissioner

Published 1:30 am Saturday, July 11, 2026

I appreciate your recent coverage of the race for Snohomish PUD Commissioner. Too often, these “down ballot” races get overlooked, when in fact they are often the positions with the most direct relevance to our community and our daily lives.

And right now, this year, who gets elected to govern our energy systems could not be more important. It is a critical time for the right people to be guiding energy planning and energy decisions. And, based on my experience, Janet St Clair is the right person for PUD Commissioner.

As a Whidbey Island resident, I’ve known Janet through her work as an Island County Commissioner, where she has a well earned reputation for not “going along to get along” but, instead, for doing her homework and asking critical questions to better analyze and shape policy decisions. It is thanks to her willingness to ask questions, to question the status quo, that Janet has affected real, positive change here in Island County, including expanding internet access in the most rural parts of our county and leading the effort to stop the island’s only hospital and women’s health clinic from closing.

Janet also successfully passed the County’s first Climate Change Resolution – a commitment to specific and measurable climate action, to align County planning with current science and to make continual efforts to cut climate pollution. That climate ‘lens’ made a real difference in the County’s just adopted Comprehensive Plan.

With all the stress climate change is putting on our electric energy systems, plus an aging transmission system and the rapidly growing demand for electricity, I would urge voters to elect a PUD Commissioner with a real track record of asking questions, of focusing on the needs of underserved communities and for prioritizing climate action by local government – Janet St Clair.

Kim Drury lives in Langley.