Local opinion: The Un-magnificent Seven responsible for higher utility bills

That’s right, you elected them and now all of us have to pay the supreme price for incompetence, backroom politics and an ideological cult that is anti-anything that could help Arizonans control their energy future and reduce utility bills.

You’ve got your five Republican members of the five-person Arizona Corporation Commission — Kevin Thompson, Nick Myers, Rene Lopez, Rachel Walden and Lea Marquez Peterson; you’ve got your Republican Chairman of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Thomas Shope Jr. (he of the “not on my watch” comment when asked to allow a hearing on a bill to open up energy competition), and you’ve got your Republican Chairman of the House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, 90+ year old Gail Griffin. (Sorry, it’s just me but I don’t want anyone over 90 controlling my utility bills. Give me someone who is raising a family and working their tails off.) These seven have hogtied Arizonans to ever-increasing utility bills, ever accelerating global warming and ever dwindling water resources (fossil fuel burning for electricity depletes water resources at a much faster rate than from renewable energy sources.) Anybody who approaches Shope or Griffin with any energy-related issue has to play nicey-nice, has to tiptoe around the truth and then not trip over a hoard of ideological land mines — and none of that crap has anything to do with helping Arizonans get off the accelerating train wreck that passes for energy strategy in this State.

No bills — none-zero-nada — get even a hearing in those Legislative Committees if they promote renewable energy, energy competition or any incentives for home solar or the solar industry. The ACC, with ever-increasing disregard for the health and welfare of Arizonans, passes rule after rule making both home solar increasingly less affordable and also hammering the solar industry, while pushing fossil fuel burning for electricity and removing consumer protections against clean air and water.

Wake up Arizona! Just because you’re a Republican or an Independent that mostly votes Republican doesn’t mean you can’t think for yourself and see what the heck is happening right here in the state with arguably the most solar natural resources in America.

Yeah the ACC is a down-ballot issue, yeah you don’t really know what they do but hey they’re Republicans and dammit they’ll stand up for fiscal responsibility and keep out the crazies — those on the Left.

Do you really think global warming gives a damn about whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge of energy policy? Do you really think those seven Republicans are going to save a Tucson that is bordering on uninhabitable during summers which now extend deeply into spring and fall? Do you really think those seven have a clue about what is in store for us in the Southwest if we do not immediate take an all-hands-on-deck approach to do something about it? The seven are caught up in ideological tropes and nonsense — and they are umbilically tied to the utility industry or to big business or to protecting the money of a very small number of Arizonans with outsized political clout. Or even worse, protecting an ideology that has zero to do with helping Arizonans deal with the consequences of an Arizona climate that will sooner than later cause business havoc as investments succumb to the drumbeat of climate chaos.

Our Arizona energy world is turned upside down. Bad passes for good and good is nowhere to be found. These seven are almost literally killing the very people they took an oath to protect. Use your brains and get past your fears. When their voting time comes, get them outta here.