The Arizona Corporation Commission is getting blasted by a watchdog group for Arizona taxpayers after the Commission voted 3-2 this week to approve an amended version of the Arizona Corporation Commission Policy Statement Regarding Formula Rates.
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club called the Commission’s act “rushed” and a “rubber stamp for the utility companies.
“Following contentious double digit rate hikes being approved and ESG Resource Plans committed to going ‘Net Zero’ by 2050 being rubber stamped, the Commission has rushed through approving new rules masquerading as a mere ‘policy statement’ that could insulate utilities and the Commission from having to face ratepayers in future rate cases,” the Arizona Free Enterprise Club argued in a press release. “The ‘policy statement’ would depart from traditional rate making and pursue ‘formula based rates’ offloading risk from investors to ratepayers and baking in automatic rate increases with little transparency or opportunity for ratepayer engagement.”
“The only support for this ‘policy statement’ came from the utilities themselves,” noted the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “The Commission is charged to protect ratepayers by regulating the utilities, not the other way around. The Commission should pump the brakes, not rush through major rulemaking decisions in a lame duck session.”
“The Arizona Free Enterprise Club is committed to protecting ratepayers, ensuring affordable and reliable energy in Arizona. We will continue to work to ensure utilities will not be able to force their captive ratepayers to foot the bill, especially through automatic rate hikes, for their costly goal to go ‘Net Zero’ by 2050 by shuttering reliable sources of energy generation to build out expensive and unreliable wind, solar, and battery storage projects,” concluded the Arizona Free Enterprise Club.
The ACC is out of control. We voted for some conservative replacements for three of the seats. Congrats to Rachel Walden, Rene Lopez, and Lea Marquez Peterson! Hopefully they will be able to turn the ship around and make Arizona’s utilities so they are once again serving the people and not the corporations or their government handlers.