Jackie Pfannenstiel — inspiration to women as state energy expert
Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, an energy expert who helped push California to embrace efficient practices while also inspiring other women who worked in the sector, died April 26. She was age 69.
The former assistant secretary of the Navy and chairwoman of the California Energy Commission died surrounded by family at her Piedmont home after battling breast cancer for five years, according to her husband, Daniel Richard.
Colleagues in California’s energy and natural resources sector remember her as a trailblazer for women in the industry. She was the first female corporate officer in Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and also the first woman to be appointed to her positions at the Energy Commission and the Navy.
“I look back on my career, and virtually all my successes had Jackie in the mix,” said Dede Hapner, a PG&E vice president. “There weren’t a lot of women when she started out. She would present opportunities and coached people, which led to our successes.”
Ms. Pfannenstiel was born Sept. 7, 1947, in Norwich, Conn., the middle child of of Richard and Alys Pfannenstiel. She grew up in New England and attended Clark University in Massachusetts, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. She received a master’s degree in economics from the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
After working as an economist at the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control, she moved to California in 1978 after being recruited by the state’s Public Utilities Commission. In 1980, she joined PG&E, where she worked for 20 years. There she met her second husband, Daniel Richard.
“She just impressed me. She was a small person at 5 feet 2, in meetings with big egos, and she got people who didn’t want to work together to work together,” Richard said.
She was one of the key people involved in writing a California policy designed to encourage energy conservation in the 1980s. The policy, known as decoupling, establishes a system in which a utility's profits are no longer based on the amount of electricity or natural gas it sells. Instead, the utility's profits are based largely on the value of its infrastructure, from power poles to pipelines.
“At a time when the industry leadership was questioning of continuing energy efficiency, she was an unflagging voice for it,” said Ralph Cavanagh, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s energy program co-director. “The state’s leadership in energy efficiency — that was because of her,”
In 2004, she was appointed to the Energy Commission by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and she was named its first female chairwoman in 2006.
In 2010, she came out of retirement when President Barack Obama appointed her to be the assistant secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and the Environment. There she maintained her focus on saving energy and helped plan the Great Green Fleet, a squadron of 10 ships and 70 aircraft that half runs on biofuel.
In 2013, Ms. Pfannenstiel co-founded San Francisco startup Advanced Microgrid Solutions, which installs batteries in buildings and uses software to help utilities improve efficiency
Ms. Pfannenstiel was soft-spoken in the office. But in the baseball stadium, Richard said, she was an impassioned Red Sox, Washington Nationals and Oakland A’s fan, and she never missed her sons’ games in Piedmont no matter how busy she got. She was an avid traveler and photographer and loved mystery novels.
Ms. Pfannenstiel is survived by husband, Daniel, two sons Mathew and Steven Deutsch, grandson Wesley Deutsch, sister Kathleen Pratt and her brother Richard Pfannenstiel.
A memorial for Ms. Pfannenstiel will be held at the Oakland Museum of California at 4 p.m. next Sunday.
“I look back on my career, and virtually all my successes had Jackie in the mix. There weren’t a lot of women when she started out. She would present opportunities and coached people, which led to our successes.” Dede Hapner, a PG&E vice president