The Arizona Corporation Commission claims it had full authority to repeal the state’s Electric Energy Efficiency Standards earlier this month.
That comes after Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes blocked the utility regulator from repealing a similar standard in June.
State law requires the commission to send rules to the Attorney General’s Office for review when they aren’t directly related to utility ratemaking.
The Republican-controlled commission claims the efficiency standard repeal fell under that exclusive ratemaking authority.
“Under long standing court precedent, rules based under Article 15, Sec. 3, are implemented under the Commission’s ratemaking authority. The Attorney General does not have any role to assert in this rule making,” said ACC counsel Thomas Van Flein in a statement.
But when the commission first adopted the standards in 2010, it sent them to the attorney general for review, saying rule changes often contain some elements that are ratemaking and some that aren’t. Another slate of commissioners were seated when the standards were implemented.
Mayes chaired the commission at the time the standards were adopted, but she hasn’t commented on the repeal.
While the current commission asserted that this decision did not have to go to Mayes’ office for review, it also said, "... the Arizona Supreme Court, if asked, may not view the EEE Rules as having been wholly authorized by the Commission’s constitutional ratemaking authority, contrary to the Commission's position at the time they were enacted.”
The rules required Arizona’s utilities to achieve energy savings of about 22% by 2020. When the process to repeal the standards started, the commission said that power companies had surpassed the original goals, and that the rules were now outdated.
The repeal comes at a time where Arizona’s utilities are facing unprecedented energy demand driven by data centers and other large industrial users.
And while the commission saw consumer opposition, utilities like Tucson Electric Power and Arizona Public Service supported the move.
Former AG Terry Goddard told KJZZ the Attorney General’s Office has an important role in protecting consumers.
“Invariably, what the Arizona Corporation Commission does is going to impact consumer interests, and therefore, outside of the ratemaking process, the AG has a huge interest in making sure that they get it right,” Goddard said.
He went on to say interagency review of rule changes is a critical step to protecting consumers, a role that is given to the attorney general as well as the commission.
“Rules review between the legal side and the corporation commission side is positive,” Goddard said. “It puts a great deal of attention on changes that can have huge implications for the future. So just to completely avoid that, I think it's a big mistake.”
-
Mayes first filed a lawsuit against the park last year. She said management didn’t tell residents about a faulty electrical system, which led to frequent power outages during dangerous summer heat. -
Tonto National Forest will be closing Canyon Lake later next month so the Bureau of Reclamation and SRP can conduct dam safety inspections and maintenance. -
Coal-fired power generation jumped 13% in the U.S. last year, according to a recent report from the federal Energy Information Administration. That helped push carbon emissions from the power sector up about 4% — the first rise after years of declining emissions. -
Residents were unanimous in their call for a ban on data centers, but city staff say that would likely be prohibited under state law. -
Commissioners voted to repeal the rules in July, stating that they had expired and the utilities had exceeded their target. Mayes contends the 2020 deadline was a target, not an official expiration.
