Local opinion: Tucson, TEP franchise and climate change

Thank you, Mayor Romero and Councilmembers, for putting the community first.

The discussion and vote to postpone the proposed TEP Franchise election at this week’s study session was a great example of how government is supposed to work. Thank you for making that a reality in Tucson.

In reviewing the history of the past year, city staff (with direction from the mayor) worked hard to get community input on how to deal with TEP and their request to renew a 25-year-old deal, their franchise agreement with the city. And how to make any future agreement helpful in dealing with current realities, not the world of 25 years ago.

The mayor and city staff promised opportunities for community input and continued transparency. In community meetings (attended by TEP representatives), ideas were discussed, hashed out and reported. The focus was always on TEP’s public promises to support the city’s Climate Action Plan through a new Energy Collaboration Agreement. Those community proposals were forwarded to TEP, as the city had promised.

Negotiations continued for over two years between the City and TEP. Some items were accomplished: 100% green energy for city operations and establishing the Donna Liggins Center as a pilot for resiliency center operations with renewable energy and battery storage to deal with utility outages.

But TEP missed the boat on the rest of the initial agreement from 2023: to negotiate in good faith, especially over the terms of the Energy Collaboration Agreement, where the details of TEP’s commitment to the Climate Action Plan were to be articulated.

Community requests for more renewables, energy efficiency upgrades and other help for city residents with high TEP bills came through loud and clear in the city’s ECA proposals, which TEP ignored. Our community spoke; the city kept its end of the bargain to negotiate with transparency and in good faith. TEP didn’t even show up for the Mayor and Council Study session to discuss the ECA and the Franchise Agreement.

This abject failure was apparent as the deadline for approval of a draft ECA approached, and TEP stalled the negotiations and then, incredibly, told the Mayor they “had other priorities” and wouldn’t conclude the Franchise Agreement/ECA negotiations in time for a public vote this year on any new Franchise Agreement.

Luckily, the Mayor and Council saw what this was: corporate indifference or corporate blackmail. No longer the “good partner,” TEP was off to seek more money through a huge rate increase request filed two days before the Council vote and while speculation swirled around discussions for a huge new project which could vastly increase TEP’s size and our bills. The Council said no.

And best of all, several members brought back to the table the recently released GDS study showing that Tucsonans would save money if the city took over TEP! Calls for a study session later this summer to review and possibly advance this proposal were made and hopefully will be followed. Gosh, a public utility run with public interests foremost.

Thanks to Mayor Romero and all the Council members who put community before corporate control of an important community decision: how to best deal with rampant climate change. It looks like our community will need to take this on without a serious financial commitment from TEP. Apparently the hot weather in Tucson has not yet spread to the cool climes of Canada, so climate is our city’s concern, not TEP’s corporate worry.

Time for a change. We should build on this recent history and look for new ways to help our citizens and our city deal with high utility bills, high temperatures and rapid climate change in a way that focuses on what’s best for all of us, not for a company’s bottom line.

Thanks to our elected officials for starting this process. Let’s move ahead with it.