State regulators decry Goldwater suit

It did not take long for the Arizona Corporation Commission to defend itself against the Goldwater Institutes‘ lawsuit challenging the state’s renewable energy standard and tariff.

Despite the fact that all five state commissioners are Republicans, the conservative Goldwater Institute claimed that the ACC had over-stepped its boundaries by requiring Arizona Public Service Co. to charge customers additional fees to support the renewable energy procurement. Commissioner Mike Gleason was the only commissioner to oppose the renewable energy standard, but he was still named in the suit along with Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who approved the decision.

“At a time when Arizonans are struggling to make ends meet, it’s important to prevent government from overstepping its bounds in ways that add costs to every family’s budget,” said Clint Bolick, director of the Goldwater Institute Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation.

The first tariff to be applied was by Arizona Public Service Co., the state’s largest energy provider. The company said the tariff was necessary because it needed additional funds to purchase renewable energy from other companies and develop its own renewable energy technology.

According to the landmark 2006 renewable energy, publicly regulated Arizona utilities must attain 15 percent of its energy portfolio from renewable energy sources.

APS estimates that its Arizona customers will pay $48.2 million this year and $100 million by 2012 in increased utility rates because of the rules, Bollick said.

Commissioner Gary Piece, who along with Kris Mayes are the two commissioners not leaving at the end of the year, said the Goldwater Institute’s suit was “ill-founded” and that the ACC had the constitutional right to enact the renewable energy standard for regulated utilities.

Pierce has changed his mind on the issue since being elected to the commission in 2007. Although he said he supports renewable energy usage, he at first thought the required 15 percent portfolio figure was “arbitrary” and needed more research. But he supports the measure, but like all things, believes there is room for adaptation when applied in the future.

In his statement about the Goldwater lawsuit, he said the following:

 ”As the pristine skies of Arizona progressively succumb to a brown cloud, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) is addressing the question of how we produce electricity in Arizona and working to level the playing field between traditional power sources that produce harmful air emissions and renewable power sources that do not,” he said. “Candidly, I question whether the ACC has chosen the optimal method of leveling that playing field, but there is no question that the rules are a serious effort to combat a looming threat to the ‘convenience, comfort, safety, and health’ of Arizona’s ratepayers.”

While Pierce and other commissioners do not believe the lawsuit has merits, a group of prospective commissioners fully support the Goldwater Institute. Using Gleason’s negative vote as a launching point, Joseph Hobbs, one of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats running for the three open positions, said repealing the renewable energy standard is a main point of his platform.

“Commissioner Gleason was a very knowledgeable and courageous protector of the public good, but he was out voted by well intended commissioners caught up in a trend towards social engineering,” Hobbs said. “They overstepped their authority and he knew it.”

Hobbs, along with Rick Fowlkes and Keith Swapp, are running a team to fill the three positions.

Ty Young can be reached at ty@aztechnews.net.