HARRISBURG, Pa. (May 24, 2024) — The Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Public Utility Law Section will present its Christianson Award to Christine Maloni Hoover, retired deputy consumer advocate, Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA), Harrisburg, during the Public Utility Bench Bar Conference, May 28, in Harrisburg. The conference is cosponsored by the PBA Public Utility Law Section and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI).
The Christianson Award was named in honor of Robert A. Christianson, a former chief administrative law judge for the Public Utility Commission. The award recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the development, improvement and advancement of the profession of public utility law.
After working for the OCA for 37 years, Hoover retired in March, having served her last two years as the OCA’s first deputy consumer advocate. Prior to that role, Hoover served as a senior assistant consumer advocate from 1999 to mid-2022, with a brief period as the interim acting consumer advocate from May-December 2021.
During her career at the OCA, Hoover worked on all aspects of utility law and regulation. For more than 25 years, she was responsible for water and wastewater cases, consumer education, outreach and policy issues and supervising administrative, technology and support staff. Notably, she worked to ensure consumer interests were represented regarding access to clean, safe, reliable and affordable water and wastewater service. She also was instrumental in the
implementation of the Act 11 of 2012 addition of the distribution system improvement charge, ensuring that utilities
were held accountable through their long-term infrastructure improvement plans.
Hoover was the OCA’s representative on the Department of Environmental Protection Public Water System Technical Assistance Center Board. She was also a past chair and member of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates Water Committee.
A frequent presenter, Hoover spoke about public utility topics for the PBI, American Water Works Association and Michigan State University Institute of Public Utilities, among other organizations. She was a longtime faculty member at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Rate School.
Within the PBA, Hoover was a member of the Administrative Law and Public Utility Law sections.
Hoover earned her Juris Doctor from the American University Washington College of Law and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.