by Matthew Holloway | Jun 20, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Only weeks after refusing to comply with an Executive Order to reactivate the Cholla Power Plant in Northern Arizona, Arizona Public Service (APS) has filed documents with the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) requesting an increase in the state-regulated electrical utility’s revenue of $579.5 million. That equates to a jump in residential electrical rates of approximately 14.5%. The hike would represent a 30% increase in residential rates since 2023.
The utility is also seeking permission from the Commission to unilaterally adjust prices annually using “rate design schedules.” APS justified this request to the ACC in the 2,323-page application docket claiming, “The costs to ensure reliable service to customers have rapidly increased due to high rates of inflation, persistently high interest rates, and continued supply chain and trade policy volatility.”
The utility alleged that a “significant revenue deficiency … based on the 12-month period that ended on December 31, 2024 (Test Year), demonstrates that APS’s current rates do not recover sufficient revenue to ensure reliable service.”
Notably, APS and its parent company, Pinnacle West Capital Corp., did have enough revenue to give Governor Katie Hobbs $250,000 for her inauguration and even bankrolled her legal battle with Kari Lake to the tune of $100,000.
“The tremendous growth across APS’s service territory shows no sign of letting up, with the Company’s infrastructure and reliable energy supply providing the backbone of this historic expansion,” APS said. “And yet, with high rates of inflation, persistently high interest rates, and continued supply chain volatility, the costs to serve current APS customers (let alone prepare for growth) are substantially higher than when the test year concluded in the Company’s last rate case.”
Just one year ago, the ACC approved a rate increase for residential customers of approximately 8 percent. That was followed by significant turnover in the commission with Republican newcomers Rachel Walden and Rene Lopez joining incumbent Lea Márquez Peterson to defeat the Democrat nominees and lock down all five seats for the GOP.
In the upcoming 2026 election, Arizona Reps. David Marshall and Ralph Heap are challenging incumbent commissioners Chairman Kevin Thompson and Vice Chairman Nick Myers. During a Tuesday presser, Marshall and Heap accused the commissioners of excessive price hikes and blocking President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.
“We have some families now who have to make a decision. Do I buy less groceries so I can pay my power bills? Or just deal with it or go without power,” Marshall told reporters.
“The Corporation Commission may not always make the headlines,” he added. “But the decisions made there affect every one of us every single day.”
In a statement responding to the primary challenge from Reps. Marshall and Heap, Commissioners Thompson and Myers defended their record saying, “We’ve taken steps to ensure our utilities are planning responsibly and not chasing costly, agenda-driven energy mandates. That’s why we required APS to prove in its 2023 Integrated Resource Plan that it has enough reliable and dispatchable generation to replace retiring plants. And it’s why we initiated the termination of Kris Mayes’ Renewable Energy Standard, which was an outdated mandate that artificially inflated utility costs by forcing ratepayers to subsidize unreliable, high-cost sources like wind and solar.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 18, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona Corporation Commissioners Nick Myers and Kevin Thompson responded to reports of an upcoming primary challenge from State Representative Dr. Ralph Heap and running mate Rep. David Marshall with a surprising attack against both candidates and two of the most prominent conservative organizations in the state. After Heap confirmed his 2026 candidacy for the Commission in a call with the Arizona Republic, incumbents Thompson and Myers reportedly blasted Heap and Marshall as “special interest proxies who have been recruited to return politics into ratemaking.”
Myers would even go as far as to claim that the two GOP challengers are in the service of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AZFEC) and Turning Point USA (TPUSA), telling the Republic that both want “good puppets” on the Corporation Commission.
Responding to the remarks, Arizona Free Enterprise Club President Scot Mussi told the Republic that Myers and Thompason were “pretty on brand,” and added, “They always resort to attacks and attacking whoever they can to avoid having to address the substance of what’s being brought to them.”
Turning Point Action spokesman Andrew Kolvet told the outlet, “We have no idea what the commissioner means by ‘puppet,’ as we have had zero contact with any current commissioners since they have taken office.” He stated that TPUSA considers AZFEC to be “an ally.”
Although the Corporation Commission came fully under Republican control in January, the stakes for Arizona voters are high given that APS has requested yet another rate increase on top of the 8% increase it was given in 2024.
Commissioners Thompson and Myers have also drawn the ire of many Republicans by echoing the talking points of APS and Tucson Electric Power (TEP), when both utilities refused to comply with President Trump’s Executive Order to reactivate the Cholla and Springerville coal-fired power plants. As previously reported by AZ Free News, Thompson claimed that doing so would “jeopardize the grid and burden ratepayers with millions of dollars in short-sighted costs.” He also criticized the President’s intervention saying, “The Commission must hold utilities accountable and ensure that we have reliable and dispatchable generation to meet the load demands of the future. We also have to make sure we accomplish that goal in a manner that doesn’t jeopardize the grid and burden ratepayers with millions of dollars in short-sighted costs that fail to meaningfully address our long-term energy needs.”
He added, “Managing highly intricate systems like our electrical grid is far more complicated than a slogan on a bumper sticker. Continued calls from certain elected officials to reopen Cholla does nothing more than promote financially reckless solutions.”
The Commission’s refusal to follow the Trump administration’s energy agenda and pushback toward efforts to eliminate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies has placed it at odds with the Republican-controlled state legislature—along with the Arizona Freedom Caucus, AZFEC, and the Goldwater Institute.
Speaking to reporters, Myers accused AZFEC and TPUSA of “making things up,” claiming, “They’ve basically been trying to run us through the mud for every little thing they can drum up.”
However, Mussi explained that the Free Enterprise Club has had “a multitude of issues,” with the Commission. “There’s been a multitude of issues that they have shown no interest in working on,” he said. “And when these issues are brought up, rather than engaging on them, they have usually gone and attacked not just us, but whoever is bringing the policies that they disagree with addressing.” In particular he pointed to APS and TEP’s integrated resource plans, which lean heavily on wind and solar generation as opposed to coal, natural gas and nuclear, and AZFEC’s drive to terminate “California-style, Green New Deal policies.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jun 14, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Earlier this year, President Trump signed a trio of executive orders aimed at keeping our nation’s vital coal power plants online. In fact, at the signing ceremony, the President explicitly called out one of Arizona’s coal plants by name. He directed Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to keep the Cholla Power Plant online and told the workers to remain calm because they are going to have that plant “opening and burning…coal in a very short period of time.”
The Cholla Power Plant is one of many Arizona coal plants that have either been mothballed or slated for retirement in the near future. In 2019, SRP and the other utilities shut down the Navajo Generating Station, resulting in a loss of 2,250 MW of reliable capacity. Earlier this year, an additional 425 MW of generating capacity was taken offline at Cholla. And over the next 6 years, Arizona’s public utilities, as outlined in Integrated Resource Plans recently approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission, plan to shutter every last bit of coal generation in Arizona by 2032. Most alarming is that according to those same Resource Plans, the replacement fuel for this reliable source of energy will be solar, wind, and battery storage, all to meet carbon free “Net Zero” goals that will cost Arizona ratepayers billions and destabilize the grid.
On the same day President Trump signed the coal orders, the Arizona legislature, led by Representative David Marshall, sent a letter to the Department of the Interior urging the Administration to help keep Cholla, and every other coal plant in the state, online. Last month, every Republican in the legislature voted to send HCM2014 to the Corporation Commission, urging them to protect our grid, fight to keep these plants online, and support the Trump Energy Agenda.
What Arizona ratepayers got instead was a late Friday afternoon news dump from Kevin Thompson, Chairman of the Corporation Commission, blasting the idea of reopening Cholla…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by Staff Reporter | May 17, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Governor Katie Hobbs has another secretive fund, this one used to cover legal expenses.
Hobbs has never disclosed the existence of this fund, which covered the costs of a lawsuit filed against her by former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. AZ Capitol Times uncovered and first reported on its existence after discovering a financial report from the parent company of the state’s electric utility giant, Arizona Public Service (APS), disclosing a gift of $100,000 in 2024 to cover Hobbs’ legal expenses.
State law enables Hobbs to maintain this secretive fund; it has for nearly a decade.
APS parent company, Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (PWCC), also gave to Hobbs’ other secretive fund for her inauguration.
Although Hobbs’ legal fund was discovered, the governor says she won’t be publicizing any other details about the donors or total amount collected.
Hobbs also attempted to keep her inaugural fund secret, but relented to public disclosure after receiving threats of litigation. Records revealed that Hobbs’ inaugural fund collected nearly $2 million, but the event cost less than $210,000. Government transparency watchdogs attempted to determine whether Hobbs’ inauguration team continued to collect donations in excess of a pre-event budget, to no avail.
PWCC’s singular donation of $250,000 to the fund covered the inauguration in its entirety — but Hobbs pocketed the excess of well over a million for her reelection bid next year. Other large donors to that fund issued $100,000 each: Blue Cross Blue Shield, the National Association of Realtors, and Sunshine Residential Homes.
That last major donor, Sunshine Residential Homes, received millions in contracts from the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) after making around half a million in campaign donations to Hobbs and the Arizona Democratic Party — despite DCS denying pay increases to home operators and dropping 16 providers during the contract renewal process.
Michael Beyer, the newly named communications director for Hobbs’ reelection campaign, defended the legal fund and its secrecy in a statement to the AZ Capitol Times.
“Kari Lake baselessly challenged the results of a free and fair election she lost,” said Beyer. “We won eight times in court, and yet Lake fought the results all the way through November 2024 when she finally lost her last appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.”
Beyer recently joined the Hobbs campaign following his stint as the communications director for Virginia Senator Tim Kaine’s re-election campaign. Beyer’s past communications work includes the campaign for Mississippi’s 2023 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley, the Ohio Democratic Party, New Hampshire Democratic Party, and the Democratic Governors Association.
Some question whether the funds are another example of alleged “pay-to-play” occurring within the governor’s office. Hobbs approved legislation permitting public power entities like APS to engage in securitization. APS wrote the legislation.
Hobbs issued a defense of her passage of the bill, saying it would lower energy costs and improve grid resiliency.
“By working with bipartisan legislators I put in safeguards to ensure everyday Arizonans, not utilities, will benefit from securitization. And I made sure this bill will provide a tool to grow our energy economy,” said Hobbs. “Because of this bill, Arizona families will save money and we will help create more jobs in a clean energy economy that, in just the last few years, has brought nearly $18 billion in investments to our state and created over 18,000 quality jobs.”
Hobbs also vetoed legislation from Senate President TJ Shope requiring companies seeking state contracts to list all donations given in the past five years to the governor.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | May 3, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
A commissioner with the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), Nick Myers, denies a power company is to blame for a woman’s death.
82-year-old Kate Korman died last May less than a week after the Arizona Public Service (APS) shut off her power for failure to pay. Per APS, Korman ceased paying in January and owed around $500.
The medical examiner’s report attributed Korman’s cause of death as chronic alcohol use with heart disease listed as a contributing factor and declared the manner of her death to be an accident caused in part by exposure to elevated temperatures.
ACC prohibits power shut offs based on a certain timeline — June 1 through October 15 — not based on temperatures. APS does offer a program allowing family members to oversee their loved one’s bills.
Myers opposed modifying policy to implement temperature-based shutoff restrictions. The commissioner also said the current shutoff restrictions have caused more problems than it aimed to solve.
“We are already at a point where the policies we have in place are causing massive debt within our lower income communities (an unintended consequence of those policies) and therefore I believe, and am attempting to verify, that the mental stress is actually CAUSING more deaths than they are saving (by way of suicides increasing). Furthermore, much of that debt, millions of dollars of it actually, are ultimately being transferred back to the rest of the customers, increasing bills, which is actually exacerbating the underlying problem of people not being able to pay their bills,” said Myers. “In a nutshell, at some point people (and their families, and possibly their communities, like churches) should be responsible, it shouldn’t all fall on utilities and the ratepayers of utilities. It’s ultimately an unsustainable catch-22, and we are possibly seeing that we are at that cusp right now.”
Myers defended APS in response to criticisms made by Jonathan and Adam Korman, the sons of the deceased woman. Korman maintains his mother died due to temperatures inside her home, and that APS bears responsibility for shutting off her power.
Myers asserted there existed no further remedies to mitigate heat exposure due to shutoffs. Myers indicated there were further details about the elder Korman’s death that would have cast her in a negative light.
“Alcoholism killed your mother, heat may have been a contributing factor, but the utility did go above and beyond what we require. There really are no more practical methods that can be implemented at this point,” said Myers. “We did address it and trust me, I’m sure the family doesn’t want made public what we found. This is another case where the utility did above and beyond what they needed to, and more importantly the shutting off of power for non-payment was NOT the cause of death.”
Myers also said the elder Korman’s children bore some of the responsibility for her death, since they were not keeping an eye on her.
“So you are really going to come after us, who have no control over the situation, when you failed to protect your own mother, even though there were multiple tools in place for you to use for that exact purpose?” said Myers. “I’m not just blaming your mom, I’m more blaming you for not looking out for your elderly mom. I refuse to tell utilities that they have to provide power to people that do not pay their bills. To be honest, I’m not even happy about many of the programs that they have in place to help, but I understand the need for them. The only problem is the customer, and their family, have to actually reach out to take advantage of those programs. Again, I am sorry for your loss, but you have to take responsibility here. This is not a problem that the rest of society should shoulder.”
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