Thompson, O’Connor Offer Amendments To APS EV Charging Plan

Thompson, O’Connor Offer Amendments To APS EV Charging Plan

By Daniel Stefanski |

Last week, Commissioner Kevin Thompson announced that he and Chairman Jim O’Connor had “successfully offered amendments in the APS Transportation Electrification Implementation Plan and Budget (TEIP) agenda item.” The actions from the two commissioners took place in the panel’s meeting on December 5.

According to Thompson’s press release, he “authored an amendment that rejected the utility’s request to use up to $5M in ratepayer funds to develop and install EV charging infrastructure as part of the utility’s proposed ‘Take Charge AZ’ program.” O’Connor’s amendment ensured “that any EV rebates offered by the utility must be provided at shareholder expense, and not at the expense of ratepayers or ratepayer subsidization.”

“We can’t continue to financially burden the majority of ratepayers who don’t own an EV or who utilize charging stations,” said Commissioner Thompson. “Infrastructure for EV charging is an opportunity for the market and private enterprise to innovate and thrive, not utilities at the expense of their ratepayers.”

O’Connor added, “Our decision on Trico’s EV program in September of this year set the model we would like to see for all future EV charging; namely, no cost shift to ratepayers.”

The communication from Thompson’s Office shared that Commissioner Nick Myers also “provided an amendment that discontinued the Take Charge AZ program moving forward, allowing APS to complete the installation of charging stations currently underway.”

In his first year on the job, Thompson has taken several actions to improve efficiencies at the commission and to stand up for ratepayers. This summer, Thompson fulfilled a priority of his when he helped to secure increased funding for Corporation Commission staff without adding any more dollars to the state’s general fund. He said, “One of the significant consequences of being understaffed and under-resourced is that Arizona has consistently ranked in the bottom tier nationally in processing utility rate cases—it takes fifty percent longer to process a rate case in Arizona – resulting in delays to build new generation and replace critical infrastructure, driving up ratepayer costs and further destabilizing our regulatory and investment climate.”

Thompson also announced that he had “amended several provisions in a recent proposal for UniSource Energy’s (“UNS”) Demand Side Management (“DSM”) Energy Efficiency (“EE”) program.” The release explained that these amendments “eliminated or revised several proposals” and “reigned in ratepayer-funded incentives to contractors and sales consultants and focused on prioritizing programs that provided greater value to residential customers and target low-income customers.”

The Republican Commissioner also led a letter to Governor Katie Hobbs in October, asking the state’s chief executive to address the overwhelming price increases for electricity customers of the San Carlos Irrigation Project. The letter was co-signed by three of his colleagues – Lea Marquez Peterson, Myers, and O’Connor.

Commissioner Anna Tovar, the lone Democrat on the panel, did not add her name to the letter. Thompson told AZ Free News that he and his fellow Republicans “are willing to do whatever we can in our individual capacities to encourage our delegation and state government to put aside partisanship and get the federal government out of the business that private enterprise should be providing.”

Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.

Rep. Lesko’s Bills To Improve Nuclear Energy, Limit Energy Conservation Regulations Advance

Rep. Lesko’s Bills To Improve Nuclear Energy, Limit Energy Conservation Regulations Advance

By Corinne Murdock |

Two bills improving nuclear energy production and limiting energy efficiency regulations on home appliances from Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) are set to be voted on by the whole House. 

Both bills passed out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Tuesday. In a press release, Lesko said that the bills represented commonsense protections of two critical aspects of everyday American living. 

“I am thrilled that these two commonsense bills have passed out of committee,” said Lesko. “I am working every day to leave our state and nation in a better place than when we found it, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that these proposals are approved by the full House of Representatives.”

One of the bills, the Advancing Nuclear Regulatory Oversight Act, would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to give reports to Congress on all procedural changes implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report would also have to outline proposed efficiency improvements for the future. 

The bill passed out of committee through another bill, H.R. 6544.

The report would also include an examination of the costs associated with the commission’s headquarters, regional offices, and technical training center. Specifically, the report would include costs not supportive of the commission’s mission, such as rent subsidies for other federal agencies, and proposals for cost reductions such as shedding or consolidating office spaces.

The other bill, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act, would limit the Department of Energy (DOE) from issuing new or amended energy efficiency standards that wouldn’t be technologically feasible or economically justified.

The act would allow for the amendment or revocation of energy efficiency standards that result in additional costs to consumers, don’t result in a significant conservation of energy or water, aren’t technologically feasible, and result in the affected product to not be commercially available to all consumers. 

It would also require the DOE to conduct a quantitative economic impact analysis prior to prescribing any new or amended energy conservation standards. Included within this analysis would be the costs to low-income households, the variation in costs to consumers based on regional differences, effects of the standards on employment, and the lifecycle costs for the affected appliances: purchase, installation, maintenance, disposal, and replacement. 

The act would restrict the DOE from declaring economic justification of any energy conservation standard unless the standard wouldn’t result in additional net costs to the consumer (purchase, installation, maintenance, disposal, and replacement of the affected products), and would result in a monetary value of energy savings.

In order to qualify as significant energy or water savings, the conservation standard would have to result in a reduction of at least .3 quads of site energy over three years or at least a 10 percent reduction in energy or water use of the affected product. 

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Maricopa County GOP Committee Urges Lawmakers To Impeach Attorney General

Maricopa County GOP Committee Urges Lawmakers To Impeach Attorney General

By Corinne Murdock |

The Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) called on the Arizona House to bring impeachment charges against Attorney General Kris Mayes.

In a resolution approved on Tuesday, MCRC accused Mayes of abuse of office and violation of constitutional oaths by prosecuting Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby. The committee’s resolution likened Mayes’ actions to those that occur under dictatorships or communist rule. 

“Kris Mayes is using her prosecutorial powers as the Arizona Attorney General to interfere with the County Board of Supervisors’ responsibility and authority to ensure the Peoples’ right to a secure election that is accurate and free from abuse or manipulation,” stated the resolution. “Kris Mayes’ prosecution of Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby is an act of political prosecution common in dictatorships or communist countries.”

State Sen. Wendy Rogers (R-LD07) applauded the move and echoed the call to action.

Last week, Mayes announced felony charges of interference with an election officer and conspiracy against Judd and Crosby. Together, the charges carry a punishment of up to five years’ imprisonment and fines of up to $300,000.

“The repeated attempts to undermine our democracy are unacceptable,” said Mayes. “I took an oath to uphold the rule of law, and my office will continue to enforce Arizona’s elections laws and support our election officials as they carry out the duties and responsibilities of their offices.”

Gov. Katie Hobbs announced her approval of the charges, echoing Mayes’ sentiment that Judd and Crosby had undermined democracy.

“To give Arizonans the free & fair elections they deserve, we must hold those who seek to undermine our democracy accountable,” said Hobbs.

In Tuesday’s resolution, MCRC defended Judd and Crosby as having the lawful authority to take the time they needed beyond the certification deadline to canvass the 2022 election. MCRC cited the widespread voting tabulation equipment malfunctions in Maricopa and Pinal counties, as well as the imbalance in the Pinal County canvass report, as justification for Judd and Crosby’s delayed certification.

MCRC accused Mayes of prosecuting Judd and Crosby as a means of intimidating other local elected officials from doing their due diligence to ensure the security and fairness of elections.

The MCRC executive board consists of Craig Berland, Shelby Busch, Tatiana Pena, Lawrence Hudson, Dan Grimm, Jeff Greenspan, Joanie Colson, Joe Neglia, former lawmaker Liz Harris, and Brian Ference.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Gov. Hobbs Reverses Course, Plans To Send National Guard To Border

Gov. Hobbs Reverses Course, Plans To Send National Guard To Border

By Corinne Murdock |

Gov. Katie Hobbs has reversed course on her decision to send the National Guard to the border.

On Friday, Hobbs announced the plans to deploy the National Guard through Operation Safety, Enforcement, Coordination, & Uniform Response (SECURE): a new mobilization effort of additional state resources to mitigate the burgeoning border crisis. Operation SECURE will house a new Department of Homeland Security division, the Border Security Office, using $2 million from the state’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funding. 

Should the Biden administration continue the closure of the Lukeville Port of Entry, the governor directed the state to spend up to $5 million to mobilize the National Guard. In the corresponding press release, Hobbs criticized the Biden administration’s closure of the port of entry as the direct cause of “an unmitigated crisis” that endangered the state’s communities and commerce. 

Hobbs warned that the Biden administration has placed Arizona at a “breaking point.”

“Our ports of entry are vital for security and trade, and insufficient resources hinder our ability to properly manage the influx of migrants who have continued to come to Lukeville,” said Hobbs. “We need the federal government to step up, do its job, and bring security and order to our border.”

Hobbs also submitted a letter to President Joe Biden on Friday requesting the reassignment of just over 200 Tucson Sector National Guard members to the Lukeville Port of Entry as well as the assignment of National Guard members elsewhere in the nation to reopen the port of entry. 

“For far too long, Arizona has continued to bear the burden of federal inaction in managing our southern border,” said Hobbs. 

Hobbs also requested the reimbursement of the over $512.5 million the state has spent under Biden on migrant transportation, drug interdiction, and law enforcement. In her press release announcing Operation SECURE, Hobbs promised to seek reimbursements of border crisis mitigation on a regular basis.

“The federal government must act immediately to solve the unmitigated crisis caused by the Lukeville Port of Entry closure,” said Hobbs. 

The governor also disclosed to reporters earlier this week that she would visit the area on Saturday to assess the situation. Hobbs is scheduled to travel with Arizona National Guard Adjutant General Kerry Muehlenbeck.

Hobbs’ decision to deploy the National Guard marks a turnaround from her perspective on Monday, when she felt that the troops weren’t warranted since the border communities hadn’t asked for them. 

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the closure of the Lukeville Port of Entry last Friday. CBP attributed the closure to the need for more personnel due to the ever-worsening state of the border crisis.

“In response to increased levels of migrant encounters at the Southwest Border, fueled by smugglers peddling disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals, CBP is surging all available resources to expeditiously and safely process migrants,” said CBP. 

Scenes from the border reveal that around 1,000 illegal immigrants on any given day — mostly single, military-age men — await alongside the border for processing and transportation after illegally crossing into the U.S.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to CBP as Customs and Border Patrol. The story has been corrected and now refers to CBP as Customs and Border Protection.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

University Of Arizona Reinstates Professors Initially Suspended For Defending Hamas

University Of Arizona Reinstates Professors Initially Suspended For Defending Hamas

By Corinne Murdock |

The University of Arizona (UArizona) reinstated two professors last week after they were suspended for defending Hamas to their students.

In audio clips published by Israel War Room last month, College of Education professors Rebecca Lopez and Rebecca Zapien made a number of refutable claims about Hamas in explaining the conflict to their students. Zapien ran an unsuccessful campaign to join the Tucson Unified School District last year. 

The professors’ comments included the claim that Hamas isn’t a terrorist organization, but rather a resistance group comparable to the Black Panther Party. The U.S. has recognized Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization for well over 20 years. The FBI designated the Black Panther Party as a domestic extremist organization noted for employing violent and guerilla tactics in their attempts to overthrow the government. 

The audio clips didn’t distinguish which professor issued the remarks, which occurred in the “Cultural Pluralism For Young Children” class. 

One of the professors indicated that she would have engaged in actions similar to those undertaken by Hamas against Israel, in response to what she described as mistreatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli government. 

“Hamas is a group within Palestine, they’re a group of people who are responding to that thing that’s going on, so they’re responding, much like I would, enough, they’re not the same, I wanna separate, but for me, I can understand things in a U.S. context, and then it helps me understand them in other countries,” stated one professor.

The professor went on to claim that Hamas doesn’t represent the Palestinian people and aren’t elected officials. The terrorist organization has been the de facto governing body for the area since the early 2000s. 

One of the professors also claimed that Israeli forces were targeting civilians, and that Hamas wasn’t antisemitic but anti-Zionist. 

The Israel War Room called on UArizona President Robert Robbins to address the professors’ speech.

“[President Robbins], your professors are gaslighting Jewish students, endorsing terrorism, and spreading blatantly false information. We DEMAND you do something about it,” said the Israel War Room.

Leadership did take action — Lopez and Zapien were suspended while the university reviewed the remarks. The pair’s suspension didn’t bode well for students and local groups. The United Campus Workers Arizona launched a petition for their reinstatement and organized multiple sit-ins at the College of Education administration building.

In a statement announcing Lopez and Zapien’s return to the classroom last week, College of Education Dean Robert Berry said UArizona was committed to an inclusive respect of all viewpoints.

“We reaffirm our commitment to an academic instructional setting that respects all viewpoints and is within the scope and educational purposes of our discipline in terms of materials provided in the classroom,” said Berry.

Berry also announced a new faculty-led workshop series, “Educational Dialogues,” to review potentially contentious topics. The first in the series was scheduled for last Friday. 

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Legislators Call On Mayor Gallego To Reject Any Proposed DOJ Consent Decree

Legislators Call On Mayor Gallego To Reject Any Proposed DOJ Consent Decree

By Daniel Stefanski |

Arizona Legislative Republicans have joined the crescendo of voices pushing back against an impending consent decree from the federal government.

This week, Arizona State Representative David Marshall and 20 of his colleagues in the chamber sent a letter to City of Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and members of the council, asking them to “swiftly reject any consent decree proposed by the DOJ and challenge the findings in the forthcoming DOJ report.”

The coalition of lawmakers warned that “the DOJ has used consent decrees to remove local control from police departments in metropolitan cities across the United States,” and that “relinquishing local control of these critical agencies to the federal government has been disastrous for both the public safety of the residents in those cities and for taxpayers.” They pointed to the experience of the state’s largest county, Maricopa, writing, “Arizonans have already suffered the drastic consequences of the DOJ consent decree over the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department for the past decade.”

In their letter to City of Phoenix officials, the lawmakers also appealed to both the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions about how an enacted consent decree would violate both documents. The legislators stated, “The Arizona Constitution prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from ‘using any personnel or financial resources to enforce, administer or cooperate’ with any federal action or program that does not protect the checks and balances of the United States Constitution… To preserve Arizona’s sovereignty consistent with our state constitution, you must reject the DOJ’s coercive consent decree.”

The request from these representatives follows other petitions from Arizona officials who oppose the imposition of a consent decree upon the city’s police department. Earlier this fall, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell posted her displeasure with the principle of federal monitoring of law enforcement departments, writing, “Look no further than MCSO to see what ‘federal monitoring’ does to agencies. Monitors (people paid to determine whether an agency is in compliance) have ZERO incentive to find compliance. It will cost the taxpayers MILLIONS and crime will increase.”

City of Phoenix Councilmember Ann O’Brien also wrote an op-ed for the Arizona Republic, voicing her sentiments regarding any arrangement handed down from the DOJ. In her piece, O’Brien wrote, “I have no intention of signing anything given to us by the Department of Justice without getting to read their findings first. That’s the thing: the DOJ gets agencies to sign an agreement in principle before ever releasing their findings, which essentially means that agency will negotiate a consent decree in good faith. Not Phoenix.”

On August 5, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a “pattern or practice investigation into the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department (PhxPD)” to “assess all types of use of force by PhxPD officers, including deadly force.” The DOJ highlighted that its investigation would “include a comprehensive review of PhxPD’s systems of accountability, including misconduct complaint intake, investigation, review, disposition, and discipline.”

At the time of the announcement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “When we conduct pattern or practice investigations to determine whether the Constitution or federal law has been violated, our aim is to promote transparency and accountability. This increases public trust, which in turn increases public safety. We know that law enforcement shares these goals.”

The City of Phoenix and Phoenix Police Department have updated people on the progress of the investigation, alerting readers that “city and police leaders have provided the DOJ with documents, videos, interviews, ride-a-longs, and access to training sessions with the department.” The City’s bulletin revealed that the DOJ investigation “has come with challenges, as it took several months to negotiate a method for sharing sensitive law enforcement information which complied with FBI standards.”

Per the City of Phoenix’s information, the DOJ’s Civil Pattern or Practice investigation into the Phoenix Police Department “is the 71st investigation of its kind since the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.” If DOJ finds “patterns or practices of misconduct,” then Phoenix will likely find itself with a federal monitor.

Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.