By The Arizona Republic Editorial Board
(Editor’s note: Posting opinion pieces does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Rose Law Group.)
The arguments for and against market-based electric-power competition in Arizona frankly could make your head spin.
Would deregulation — creating competition among a variety of power providers in what had been a tightly regulated market dominated by utility monopolies — prove beneficial to consumers? Or would it stick it to them?
Industry experts were divided. So were political interests. You could find just as many rock-solid advocates of free markets on the side of regulation as you could on the side of deregulation.
In the end, none of those complex issues mattered. The decision to halt consideration of a deregulated electricity market in Arizona turned on the explicit language of the state Constitution, not on the merits of competition.
Related: [VIEWPOINT] Why did state try to deregulate electricity?
