AUGUSTA — The Maine Senate has voted to confirm Thomas Welch as the state’s Public Utilities Commissioner.

Gov. Paul LePage’s nominee was confirmed Tuesday, a day after he won a unanimous endorsement from the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee.

Welch, of Hancock, joins Commissioners Vendean Vafiades and David Littell on the PUC. Welch served as chairman of the PUC from 1993 to 2005 and before that was a law school professor, chief deputy attorney general for Pennsylvania’s antitrust division and in-house counsel for Bell Atlantic.

Welch fills a slot vacated by PUC Chairman Jack Cashman, who had served since 2008.

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