Clean energy groups are spending millions to elect Democrats to flip control of Arizona’s utility commission in hopes of speeding up the state’s adoption of renewable energy.
Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for example, has spent more than $6.4 million through his Beyond Carbon Victory Fund to support three Democratic candidates running for seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission, according to state campaign finance records. Some of that sum has also gone to opposing Republican candidates for the open seats, including at least one that has been openly skeptical of climate change.
Chispa Arizona Political Action Committee, a Latino environmental group affiliated with the League of Conservation Voters, has also spent $2.7 million to back Democrats in the race.
“Our Beyond Carbon Victory Fund campaign aims to elect champions of climate action all over the country — at all levels of government where an impact can be made,” Bloomberg said in a statement announcing his investment in the Arizona race earlier this month. He added the candidates “will be leaders on climate action and the urgent work of moving our country more quickly to a 100% clean energy economy.”
This cycle, three seats are up for grabs on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees electric and other utilities in the state, as well as pipeline and railroad systems. If Bloomberg and environmentalists are successful, it could mark the first time Democrats have held majority control of the commission since the 1990s. Arizona is one of just 11 states where utility commissioners are elected rather than appointed.
The Arizona Republican Party has criticized the outside groups funding the Democratic campaigns, calling the candidates the top recipients of “dark money” in the state.
“Millions of Arizonans rely on the Corporation Commission to fairly and independently set rates and energy standards in our state,” said Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward in a statement Monday. “Candidates who are bankrolled by out-of-state groups should be subjected to a high level of scrutiny.”
The three Democratic candidates — former Commissioner Bill Mundell, Tolleson Mayor Anna Tovar, and former teacher Shea Stanfield — are running as the so-called “Solar Team,” with promises to strengthen Arizona’s commitment to renewable energy, battery storage, and distributed energy resources.
Mundell said during a televised debate last month that he aims to make Arizona “the solar capital of the world,” according to local news reports. He helped write Arizona’s first renewable energy standards when he was on the commission, then as a Republican, between 1999 and 2009.
Two of the Republican candidates, former public relations executive Eric Sloan and retired businessman Jim O’Connor, have raised concerns about increasing renewable energy mandates in the state, saying it would cost people money and risk electric reliability.
“You don’t want rolling blackouts, which is what we see in California. And what we’re seeing in California is all about mandating solar,” O’Connor said during last month’s debate, echoing other Republican politicians who have blamed the California blackouts on the increasing use of renewable energy. O’Connor, who advanced from the Republican primary as a write-in candidate, also suggested he wasn’t convinced by mainstream climate science.
Nonetheless, momentum in Arizona is already on the side of clean energy.
Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest electricity provider, set a goal in January to achieve carbon-free power by 2050. By 2030, the utility is aiming to have 45% of its generation coming from renewable power.
In July, two of Arizona’s current commissioners, Republican Chairman Robert Burns and Democrat Sandra Kennedy, proposed to ramp up the state’s renewable energy standards, targeting 50% renewables by 2030 and 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050.
Burns, who is term-limited, is leaving the commission. Kennedy will remain on the commission, along with Republican Commissioner Justin Olson, who has opposed increasing renewable mandates if it will cost utilities money to comply.
Republican Commissioner Lea Marquez Peterson, the only incumbent running to keep her seat, had put forward her own proposal for utilities to reach 100% clean energy by 2050, but she didn’t mandate any specified increase in renewables, instead allowing utilities to chart their own courses.
Late Thursday, in a split 3-2 vote, the current Arizona Corporation Commission voted to approve a clean energy standard, targeting 50% renewables by 2035 and 100% carbon-free power by 2050, the Arizona Republic reported. Burns and Kennedy voted yes, joined by Republican Commissioner Boyd Dunn. Marquez Peterson and Olson voted no.
Whoever is elected to the commission next Tuesday will play a significant role in implementing that standard, which also requires utilities to slash their carbon emissions by 50% by 2032 and by 75% by 2040. Democratic candidates could also advocate for further strengthening the clean energy requirements.
“The question seems to be how you get there and on the timeline in which you get there,” said J.R. Tolbert, managing director at Advanced Energy Economy. “But those are huge stakes, frankly. Those are big stakes, both for the industry, as well as for the electric grid and getting to 100%.”
Environmentalists backing the Democratic candidates are hoping they’ll push Arizona away from fossil fuels, including natural gas, to adopt solar energy, develop battery storage, and advance distributed energy resources more rapidly.
“We need commissioners who see a clean energy future, who recognize the need to address the injustice and the importance of investing in communities where coal plants are retiring, and who are willing to help make it happen,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Arizona chapter.
There are several opportunities for the Arizona Corporation Commission to support clean energy development outside of standard-setting, too, Tolbert said. That includes by ensuring competition among clean energy sources as APS chooses how to meet its goal, bolstering energy efficiency use among utilities, and working with power companies to support electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
The commission also doesn’t have to do as much heavy lifting on building support for 100% clean energy now that the state’s largest utility has set its own standard to achieve it.
“It’s a great place for a commission to be where you are considering cost-effectiveness, reliability, [or] is this a reasonable and prudent investment to be made versus trying to shape-shift the priorities of the utility,” Tolbert said.
