By Stacey Champion | Arizona Mirror
(Editor’s note: Opinion pieces are published for discussion purposes only.)
For the past 2-plus years, I have personally spent countless hours at the Arizona Corporation Commission for my complaint tied to the 2017 APS rate hike, as an intervenor in the APS rate review, and for many various stakeholder meetings. Over this time, I have studied rate-making and energy policies locally and nationally. I have delved into the history surrounding the creation of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) and Public Utility Commissions (PUC) as they’re known in other parts of the country.
This idea isn’t being driven by the voters. It is being driven by two legislators, both of whom received campaign contributions from APS (and its parent company, Pinnacle West), our state’s largest utility monopoly. It follows a strategy devised years ago by one of APS’s consultants – who now serves in upper management at the utility – to ensure less change in the regulatory environment.
