AUGUSTA (AP) – A legislative panel this week is scheduled to take up the nomination of a top aide to Gov. John Baldacci for a post on Maine’s three-member Public Utilities Commission.

Kurt Adams has been the governor’s chief legal counsel. If confirmed by the Maine Senate, he would replace Thomas Welch, who wrapped up a second term as chairman of the regulatory panel on April 1.

Adams’ hearing before the Legislature’s Committee on Utilities and Energy, chaired by Sen. Philip Bartlett, D-Gorham, and Rep. Lawrence Bliss, D-South Portland, is to be held Wednesday.

Sharon Reishus, who was selected by Baldacci for the PUC in 2003, is currently serving as the commission’s acting chairman. Also serving on the panel is Stephen Diamond, who joined the commission in 1998 and was reappointed in 2001.

State House observers have begun speculating already about a possible replacement for Adams as chief gubernatorial counsel.

Before going to work for Baldacci, Adams was a partner in the Portland firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, where some of his work involved energy law. Adams has been Baldacci’s representative on the New England State Committee on Energy and, according to Baldacci’s office, developed the governor’s Connect Maine telecommunications strategy.

Originally from Kittery, Adams earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Skidmore College, a master’s in international affairs from The George Washington University and a law degree from the University of Maine School of Law.

Active in Democratic Party politics for more than a decade, Adams has had broad range in the Baldacci administration and has been credited by the governor for his role in negotiations to preserve paper mills in the state.