Tom Beach is principal consultant with the consulting firm Crossborder Energy.  Crossborder provides its clients with strategic advice, economic analysis, and expert testimony on market and regulatory issues in the natural gas and electric industries.   Mr. Beach began his career in the energy industry in 1981, when he joined the staff of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to work on the state's implementation of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. He went on to serve as a policy advisor to three CPUC commissioners, where he was a key advisor on the CPUC's restructuring of the natural gas industry in California. Since entering private practice in 1989, Mr. Beach has testified before state regulatory commissions in nineteen states on a wide range of ratemaking, resource planning, and renewable energy issues. Over the last decade, Crossborder Energy has prepared cost-benefit studies of net metering or distributed solar generation in many states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wyoming.