Local opinion: ACC elections are important — please vote responsibly

Our November ballots are going to be long this year. In addition to the elections for President, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and the state legislative positions, there will be 13 statewide ballot measures to consider. Among the other choices to make will be the contests for three positions on the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC). These ACC elections might seem obscure, but they are very important.

Our state’s constitution, in Article XV, establishes the ACC, whose job is to set just and reasonable rates for our state’s utilities and to set and enforce reasonable regulations affecting them. The utilities, including TEP and Southwest Gas, among others, are for-profit corporations that provide Arizonans with electricity, gas and water. By their nature, utilities are monopolies. For the most part, they don’t have to compete with anyone for our business. If we don’t like the way they operate or the prices they charge, there is little we can do about it. That is why the ACC exists. Its job is to make sure that the utilities’ prices are reasonable and that their business practices are acceptable for both their customers and the communities in which they operate.

There are three open positions on the ACC this year and six candidates for those positions. Three are Republicans and three are Democrats. Typically, Republicans represent the supply side in our economy, i.e., businesses and corporations. Just as typically, Democrats represent the demand side, i.e., consumers. We need both supply and demand for our economy to work. In normal times, that can make choosing between the two political parties a difficult thing. But as we know, we are not in normal times. For one thing, the Republican party has allowed itself to be captured by an extremism we haven’t seen in our lifetimes. Equally distressing, our world is facing an existential crisis, as ongoing emissions from fossil fuels are heating our planet, causing repeated forest fires, severe storms, shrinking of the polar ice caps and extinctions of many animal and plant species.

Utilities in Arizona and throughout the country are worsening climate change by continuing to rely mainly on fossil fuels. The ACC has a major role to play in steering our state’s utilities toward generating clean energy and helping to solve the climate crisis. Our need for a carbon-free energy future should move us to vote for the Democratic candidates for the ACC.

In their public statements, Democratic candidates Ylenia Aguilar, Jonathon Hill and Joshua Polacheck have pledged support for clean, renewable energy. On the other hand, the incumbent Republican candidate, Lea Marquez-Peterson, has repeatedly voted to weaken clean energy requirements for utilities. Republican candidate Rachel Walden has stated her opposition to climate goals. Republican candidate Rene Lopez’s criticism of federal policy for increasing the cost of coal ignores the fact that coal is the dirtiest form of energy.

Our state constitution says that the ACC should promote rates and practices that are just and reasonable. With everything that is known about the reality and the causes of climate change, to ignore the destructive impact that utilities’ fossil fuel reliance has on our planet is neither just nor reasonable. For that reason, I urge you to vote for the three Democratic candidates for the Arizona Corporation Commission. Your vote will make a difference not just for Arizona, but for every inhabitant of our Earth.