AI-assisted summaryArizona Public Service (APS) is pushing for legislation that would significantly change how they charge customers.House Bill 2679 would allow utilities to bypass regulatory oversight from the Arizona Corporation Commission.The bill undermines consumer protections and grants unchecked power to utility monopolies.Arizona Public Service has spent the last decade reshaping Arizona’s energy policies in its favor.This legislative session, APS and other utilities are making one of their boldest moves yet — pushing lawmakers to approve sweeping changes in how and what they can charge their captive electricity ratepayers.All of Arizona’s electric utilities, including APS, are monopolies. That means that you and I have no choice but to pay a particular utility for our electricity based on where we live.The trade-off with monopoly utilities is they don’t have competitors for their services, and in turn, they are only regulated to ensure that they don’t take advantage of captive customers — that is, you, the ratepayer.The state constitution established the Arizona Corporation Commission and entrusted its elected commissioners to regulate and set rates for APS, Tucson Electric Power, UNS Electric and the electric cooperatives. Bill would let APS circumvent regulatorsThat process for regulating utilities began to break down in 2014 when APS spent millions of dollars to influence elections and buy the commissioners that they believed would be most favorable to their interests.Their spending continues to this day.APS and other utilities also provide funding to legislators and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry to curry favor for their preferred policies.This all leads to House Bill 2679, a proposed law allowing securitization — a method to move debt from a utility’s balance sheet into mandatory ratepayer charges by creating bonds.Opinion: Hate sudden rate hikes? Then give utilities more power to stop themHB 2679 is long, complicated and not well understood. If passed, it will upend 100 years of ratemaking precedent and eliminate the delicate balance of monopoly power and consumer protection.HB 2679 would allow APS and other utilities to effectively bypass the corporation commission’s regulatory oversight and approval of what can be charged to ratepayers.They want unfettered access to Arizona walletsThe commission has told the Legislature that this bill “eviscerates the commission’s constitutional rate-making authority” and is a “tectonic shift in the manner in which utilities finance their operations.”Rather than listening to the regulators, the legislators are apparently being duped by APS lobbyists, as the bill has passed the House and is now poised to pass in the Senate.Additionally, this bill would also shift liability away from the utilities and onto customers who would be on the hook for payouts — including to families and others who reach settlements with the utilities for various misdoings.I’ve served for almost three decades as an elected official in this state, including as a former regulator and lawmaker, fighting back against utility greed.APS’s behavior is egregious, and the bill is unconstitutional.If legislators pass this, they will hand APS exactly what it has been working toward for a decade — unfettered access to the wallets of captive ratepayers.Sandra D. Kennedy is a Democrat who previously served in the Arizona Legislature and as a corporation commissioner. She is a Salt River Project board member, but her views do not reflect those of the board or the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District. Reach her on X at @SandraDKennedy. …
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