Local opinion: We cannot afford to re-elect Lea Marquez Peterson

Lea Marquez Peterson has already had five years as an Arizona Corporation Commission (“ACC”) member to keep her campaign promises “focused on affordability for all of our customers.” How did that work out? How about rubber-stamping the last six Arizona Public Service requests for rate hikes with nary an objection to how they would affect the ratepayers she cares so much about. Peterson has not acted anything like the utility-industry watchdog the founders of the Arizona Constitution envisioned way back in 1910, when it specified that the ACC “make and enforce reasonable rules …for the convenience, comfort and safety and the preservation of health … of the patrons (1910 speak for ratepayers).

Instead, she has acted more like the folks who check your shopping carts when you exit Costco. Got a receipt? Ok you can go. So what if your shopping cart is mostly unhealthy sweets and snacks that that will kick your butt in the long run? That’s not Costco’s problem. But checking those shopping carts and protecting the ratepayers is exactly what the ACC is constitutionally required to do — to be that watchdog for us ratepayers so we don’t get screwed. Peterson is the problem. She hardly ever saw a rate hike she didn’t think justified.

She claimed her small business background would get things done. Instead the ratepayers got done in. Her business background is anything but successful. She went bankrupt in 2006 with $3.2 million in debt and only 100k in assets — claiming the industry changed and she got screwed. People adept at business know not to pile on debt. They adjust to the times. It’s not any different with her ACC tenure. She fails to see how the world is changing from a fossil-fuel-driven landscape to one with increasing renewable energy. With her head in the sand, she voted to remove all renewable energy standards that would require utilities to step up their renewable investment. And she voted to reduce the amount of money utilities pay for home solar, so much so that it’s approaching an existential attack on the entire Arizona solar industry. And this in Arizona! With just about the highest number of annual solar hours in the USA. Gosh, even Massachusetts has more distributed solar electricity than Arizona. Inexcusable!

She approved two huge climate-busting gas plants, the 420 MW Bella and 397 MW Redhawk without blinking an eye — at a time when solar is cheaper than gas and trending even lower. Perfect for the utilities! They make about 10% guaranteed profit for every $1 they spend that the ACC approves. Without those pesky renewable-energy standards, why in the world would any investor-owned utility build a $10 million solar array when they could build a $50 million gas plant? Not sure how many Arizonans want to bear the rate increases necessary to help Google and Amazon devour our electricity and water for their data centers.

Peterson’s ACC also approved that ‘PPFAC’ line item on your bill which gives the utilities an automatic rate increase — without even going to the ACC for approval! — when the price of gas goes up. Your bills are umbilically tied to what’s happening in the Middle East. You cannot make this stuff up.

Some industry watchdog she has turned out to be. Well at least there’s a federal law requiring gas plants over 200 MW to produce environmental impact statements (“EIS”). Hear what the rate paying public has to say. Nope. Peterson approved the Mojave 200 MW gas plant by agreeing that the 4 50 MW turbines count as 50 MW not 200. No EIS required. Pretzel logic in the extreme; Mojave community upset be damned.

Peterson is aligned in lockstep with ACC candidates Rene Lopez and Rachel Walden. They are together in all this and will bring more of the same. They’ve said so in the recent debates. We cannot elect them either.

During Peterson’s ACC tenure, Arizona utilities achieved record profits. How about a future with record consumer savings, record electricity efficiency and record water savings? Now that’s a future we can all enjoy. Vote Hill, Aguilar and Polacheck into the ACC.