Can Maricopa County Afford to Trust Lesko’s Money Backers?

I ask the question in the title mainly due to the recent news of the 8% increase in our power bills and the Biden admin plan to turn 55 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land into solar fields. Both will and may have huge impacts not only on Maricopa County but Arizona.

First things first: Arizona Public Service (APS) is owned by Pinnacle West Capital Corporation. According to the APS website, they are in the fast moving train of clean energy by 2050 and they want to eliminate coal altogether by 2031. To do so, they will need to invest in electrical energy sources like marine energy, solar, windmills, tidal, wave, etc. According to www.opensecrets.org, Pinnacle West Capital Corporation has given more than $90,000 to Congresswoman Lesko since 2018. Now I know that Congresswoman Lesko has no power over what Pinnacle West or APS decides to do, that is up to the Arizona Corporation Commission, but she could be a very important ally to them as a Maricopa County Supervisor. I will get to that topic in a minute.

Second, lets talk about DEPCOM, headquartered in Scottsdale. Having been recently acquired by Koch Industries, the second largest privately owned company in America, they have given the Congresswoman nearly $50,000 since 2018. Why is this important? Butch companies appears to fall in line with the leftist ideology of going 100% green by 2050 or sooner. For example, DEPCOM oversaw the engineering and construction of the 720 acre Altavista Solar Farm in Virginia. But Rob, how does a 720 acre solar farm in Virginia impact Arizona? Glad you asked yourself that question Rob.

So how does this all tie in together? The Biden admin plan to turn 55 million acres of BLM land into solar fields includes land in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Arizona and other western states. After doing some very basic research and non-common core math, I found out that Maricopa County has more than 200,000 acres of BLM land and Arizona has a lot more.

Now if I were a car salesman and wanted to make more money, I would need to sell more cars. If I owned a utility company making the switch to solar energy, how would I make more money? I would buy cheap land out in the middle of a desert somewhere so that now I have the justification of building thousands of solar panels. We all now who has the power to sell county owned land, you guessed it, our county supervisors.

It all comes down to this: will Debbie Lesko, if she is elected to the MCBOS, fight to protect BLM land in our county? Make no doubt about it, the MCBOS will have a huge impact on whether we lose any land for solar fields. Or will she speak out against this idea and risk losing big money donors?

For those who may not know, I was once a bodyguard to the ‘important’ people in Washington DC. My duties included keeping them alive and safe, driving them from their homes to the Capitol/Senate buildings, meeting spots, bars, etc. I can honestly tell you that deals are made almost every day from the back seats of Chevy Suburbans, Ford Expeditions, restaurant tables, and other big, fancy events. Like the rest of you, I have a set of ears that still work good enough, and the vehicles that I drove them around in weren’t ‘Hollywood’ vehicles where the person in the back could push a button and a divider went up between them and the front seat. While some of these deals aren’t illegal, they could be highly unethical.

I am not saying at all that Congresswoman Lesko is bought and paid for or unethical, even the $140,000 that she has received from the above corporations is not a lot of money in regards of contributions. However, the next round of Maricopa County Supervisors will have the landscape (literally and figuratively) in the palms of their hands. I would just prefer those hands belonged to someone who hasn’t taken money from companies like these.

Before anyone says that this is my opinion and that I am just attacking Congresswoman Lesko, you are right, it is my opinion but I am not attacking. You can do whatever you wish with my opinion, however, I do recommend you checking to see what section of the Arizona Daily Independent this article is in. It is called the “opinion” section for a reason.

I my best, the late great Paul Harvey voice, Good Day.