By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- Two Republicans on the Arizona Corporation Commission are facing primary challenges from state lawmakers who contend they are spurning the demand by President Trump for more coal-fired power plants.
"I will support President Trump's energy policy,'' proclaimed Rep. David Marshall at press conference Tuesday in front of the state Capitol.
"I support the Trump energy policy completely which prioritizes fossil fuel as the backbone of our power grid,'' added Rep. Ralph Heap. He also backed elimination of various subsidies and credits that "incentivize unreliable and higher cost solar and wind projects and puts at risk lower cost natural gas and coal options.''
What's behind much of this was the refusal of the commission, which regulates the rates charged by investor-owned utilities, to comply with the president's order to reopen shuttered power plants.
In the case of Arizona, that is the Cholla facility near Joseph City in Navajo County.
Kevin Thompson, who chairs the commission -- and is one of the Republicans up for reelection who is being targeted -- acknowledged that Trump's order allows certain plant to comply with less-stringent versions of air quality standards. But he said the Clean Air Act still prohibits non-complaint coal-fired operations like Cholla.
Thompson said the only way to legally reinstate full operation would be with a $1.9 billion project.
"There is no free money,'' he said, saying that cost would be borne by Arizona Public Service ratepayers. And he rejected the claim that he and Nick Myers, the other GOP commissioner being challenged, are ignoring Trump and his agenda.
"I've had conversations with the White House and they understand Cholla is a lost cause,'' he told Capitol Media Services. "Instead, we are focused on the future and what can be done to protect generational assets that will keep Arizona thriving well into the future.''
Heap brushed aside the cost of reopening Cholla.
"Some of these numbers are from APS and the utilities,'' he said.
"I think that's overblown,'' Heap said. "That really could have been maintained and continue to run at least until we have a better idea of exactly what's going to happen with energy in the near future.''
Heap said it's a matter of recognizing that the state cannot rely on renewable energy.
"We need a major course correction,'' he said. And it's not just a question of providing power on a 24/7 basis.
"China produces all the solar panels,'' Heap said. "And if recent reports are true, these come with 'kill switches' so they can turn them off whenever the want,'' a reference by reports by Reuters that "rogue communication devices'' were found in some Chinese-manufactured solar panels.
It is true that prior commissions have set hard-and-fast goals for renewable energy that utilities were told to meet.
Even the regulators conceded at the time that these alternatives had some additional costs that were being passed on to rate payers. But they said it was justified by reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
As it turned out, the current commissioners -- including Thompson and Myers -- voted last year to scrap those standards, saying utilities should use market forces to decide how to produce power.
By that point, however, the debate was largely a moot point: Thompson said all the utilities already had adopted and were meeting their own renewable energy goals.
Anyway, Thompson said, it makes no sense to declare that only fossil fuels make sense. He said that prior subsidies under the Biden administration lowered the cost of solar.
"Natural gas and coal just can't compete,'' Thompson said.
The bottom line, he said, is maintaining the electrical grid in the most reliable and cost-effective method.
"Whether that's coming from coal, natural gas or renewables, we're all in,'' Thompson said. "Whatever's going to keep the lights on.''
APS itself agreed with the decision to shutter the plant in March, saying it was "uneconomical to operate.'' Spokesman Mike Philipsen said the company is preserving the site for possible future use, either generating power through natural gas or potentially as the location for a nuclear generator.
That issue of renewable energy is just one of the subjects in the upcoming race.
Right now companies must come before the commission, open their books, and justify changes in what they charge customers. And it is up to regulators to approve price hikes.
But the current commission adopted a policy of allowing utilities to impose annual rate adjustments, in between regular rake hikes.
Heap and Marshall said that is ignoring the requirement that the commission set rates.
Myers, however, said there would still be full-blown rate hearings. The formulas, he said, would allow for interim increases, something he said would smooth out the eventual price hikes.
All that assumes the commission decision to allow formula increases survives: It is being challenged in court by the Residential Utility Consumer Office which contends that what the commission calls a "policy'' actually is a change in rules, something that requires going through a full-blown process including public hearings.
Thompson also took a swat at Jake Hoffman, a Republican senator from Queen Creek. He also is the chair of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, And he acknowledged that he went out and recruited Heap and Marshall to try to oust their fellow Republicans.
"My personal opinion, based on what I have been told and observed, is that Hoffman wants a Freedom Caucus member -- or members -- to control every statewide office in Arizona,'' Thompson said.
Hoffman, however, said it's his job, as Republican National Committee committeeman for Arizona, to go out and recruit candidates who "match the Republican Party platform,'' even if there are other Republicans in the race.
He already has advanced Kimberly Yee as the Freedom Caucus candidate for state schools chief and Alexander Kolodin for secretary of state. And Hoffman is a vocal backer of Andy Biggs in his bid to be the GOP nominee for governor.
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