Local opinion: Can Tucson survive TEP’s profit mission?

With ever-increasing record temperatures and the imminent loss of Colorado River water supply from the Central Arizona Project, one should begin to question what is the best strategy for Tucson to remain a viable and habitable city.

For 4,000 years, humans have thrived when daily temperatures did not require air conditioning and the aquifer was within human-powered reach. But with the advent of electrification, a whole raft of technological innovations, including air conditioning and centrifugal water pumps, started the insatiable quest for more and more energy supply. The end result of burning fossil fuel to meet this demand has made Tucson’s habitable future increasingly tenuous.

The importance of an energy supply to our modern world is paramount. And a rapid transition to non-carbon-dioxide-emitting energy sources is the best chance for Tucson to thrive into the foreseeable future. Tucson’s super-abundant solar resource is free, reliable and consumes almost no water. When coupled with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), solar energy can satisfy needs around the clock. And with prices for photovoltaics and batteries now lower than 19-20th Century fuel-burning systems like coal, gas, or nuclear, the sane choice for a stable energy future is clear.

What is not clear is how to move rapidly to this logical future when Tucson Electric Power Company has near-monopoly control over Tucson’s electricity supply. As an investor-owned utility (IOU), TEP is required to provide its shareholders with maximum profits. Its strategy towards fulfilling this obligation is to generate profits by building costly power plants and gas pipelines that customers end up paying for. Increasing fuel costs, disrupted by international wars, are passed directly on to customers. TEP executives are even contemplating new nuclear power plants with their long history of unforeseen accidents and cost overruns, both of which would be paid for by captive customers. Decisions have been made to eke out another decade of the dirtiest coal-fired power plant production, denying the urgency of needed change, and flying in the face of global warming science. Even after becoming aware of the dangers of Global Warming, as presented to Congress in 1987 by Dr. James Hansen, TEP has only 14% solar in its energy mix, preferring higher profit-generating systems.

When pressed this past year to become a significant partner with the City to fund their Climate Action Plan: Tucson Resilient Together, TEP managed to offer $2M/year, the equivalent of 10% of the CEO’s annual pay, and only one-tenth of one percent of profits. Money is flowing out of Tucson to TEP shareholders year after year. Meanwhile, TEP power plants draw water directly from Tucson’s aquifer using their private wells.

Beyond the usual business of supplying Tucson customers with electricity, TEP has entered into secret agreements to supply Project Blue’s Data Center. This side agreement may require TEP to double its current power capacity, has unknown implications for current TEP customers, and will require more water resources for Data Center cooling. No doubt this will be profitable for TEP shareholders, maybe doubling their dividends.

TEP has a history of helping itself — that is its mission. Its mission is not to help Tucson transition to a clean energy future. Given the acceleration of climate change and global warming here in the desert, TEP’s continuing record of decisions, adding fossil-fueled resources to its arsenal, shows little concern for this existential problem. As long as shareholders are happy and CEOs can take their golden parachute retirements after serving their 10 years, the system is working splendidly for them.

But if Tucson wants to assert its right to have the most affordable and least environmentally damaging power source, and keep its economy well fed by local solar power, it needs to find another option to TEP’s mission. If Tucson can find the way, it may re-invent itself and thrive as a solar-powered desert city.