Lea Márquez Peterson is a Republican candidate looking to keep her seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission. She is the only incumbent running to fill one of three seats up for grabs this election year.
Márquez Peterson was appointed to the ACC by former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey in 2019, then won her seat for a full term in 2020 elections.
In a wide-ranging conversation with KAWC's Lou Gum for the Arizona Edition Friday program, Marquez Peterson spoke about her background in Tucson, how her personal and business experiences inform her priorities, and her previous unsuccessful run for Congress.
"We also hear about 40 to 50 rate cases a year. Though most people know us for APS, which is the largest company or utility that we regulate. We're really doing a lot of rate cases every month." Lea Márquez Peterson
Márquez Peterson also talks at length about the role of the ACC. She says the Commission hears 40 to 50 rates cases per year, but she says that is not the only work of the organization, noting it also goes after securities fraud and regulates hundreds of utilities, most of them small water companies.
But Márquez Peterson knows that the cases that get the most attention are the ones involving the state's largest utilities companies, like Arizona Public Service Company.
She says she weighs her votes on rate increase requests very carefully, attempting to balance the need to maintain a reliable power grid with a desire to protect rate payers from big hits to their monthly bills.
A survey of Arizona Latinos this summer showed a lack of trust for the Commission, however, with results indicating respondents did not think the ACC had their best interests at heart.
"When we see a rate case now, it's because the utility has historically spent money on their infrastructure. A lot of people think we're pre-approving dollars. No, in fact, we're actually looking historically at the investments that they've made." Lea Márquez Peterson
Márquez Peterson says it is a tough challenge to meet the energy demands of a growing state and thinks the public should be more aware of all of the work of the Commission, including efforts to mitigate higher costs. She says she'd like to hear more from the public, and from small business owners in particular, on issues that come before the Commission.
The attached interview (above) originally aired on August 30, 2024, on KAWC's Arizona Edition Friday program.
