House Bill 2679 is being sold as a financing mechanism that is a win-win for utilities and their ratepayers. And yet, there is overwhelming opposition to the bill from both sides of the aisle. The Arizona Corporation Commission (a 5-0 Republican body), the Arizona attorney general, and former Republican legislator and chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission, Bob Burns, have all sent letters to the Legislature highlighting serious concerns with the bill.

Yet the bill has received bipartisan support, even from legislators who are typically very concerned about writing a blank check to monopoly utilities.  Arizona Public Service (APS) has been playing both sides. They have led Democrats to believe this bill is actually about tribal sovereignty even though nothing in the bill applies to tribes at all. The bill applies to public power entities, public service corporations and municipal utilities. How could the bill be about tribal sovereignty? 

In 2021, the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) attempted to “sell” their share of Four Corners power plant to the Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) for $1. In addition, the utility was going to pay NTEC an additional $75 million to take the plant off its hands. Even with paying NTEC to take the plant off its hands, the utility still argued to New Mexico regulators that offloading the plant would save its ratepayers $30 million to 300 million dollars; that’s how uneconomic the plant is. 

The elephant in the room is that APS wants to do the same. They want to offload their share of this wildly uneconomic plant and then securitize the loss from that “sale” on the backs of ratepayers. Ironically, this arrangement has Democrats in the curious position of supporting a bill that will almost certainly keep uneconomic coal plants online even longer; plants that use more water than their alternatives and emit significant amounts of air pollution. Governor Hobbs has said she is “analyzing how various proposals may deliver on lowering energy bills while advancing a clean energy economy in Arizona.” Unfortunately, that is the opposite of what HB2679 does.

APS simultaneously has convinced Republican lawmakers that the bill is good because it does the very thing Democrats would normally oppose. But it does that by subsidizing the “sale” of uneconomic power plants, resulting in a massive cost shift from NTEC on to the backs of ratepayers. We would all be paying for APS to pay NTEC to take Four Corners off its hands. As someone who spends a very significant amount of time at the Arizona Corporation Commission, I was under the impression that subsidies were antithetical to Republican principles.

Securitization can be an important tool in the toolbox when it comes to innovation in the electric grid. However, this bill is not that. This bill will keep coal online longer on the backs of Arizona ratepayers via a huge subsidy to the Navajo Transitional Energy Company. Lawmakers should vote no on HB2679 or the bill should be amended to remove the option to sell AND securitize an asset. The bill, as drafted, solely benefits the APS parent company’s shareholders.

Autumn Johnson is a public interest policy advocate and CEO of Tierra Strategy.

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Arizona should be a national leader in solar energy. With more than 300 days of sunshine per year, our state is primed to benefit from clean, affordable and decentralized power. But instead of making it easier for homeowners to adopt solar, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) is actively working against them.

For years, the ACC has been slashing solar export rates under the Resource Comparison Proxy (RCP), allowing monopoly utilities like Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and APS to buy homeowners’ excess energy at artificially low prices and resell it at full market value. This practice discourages solar adoption, limits energy independence and forces more Arizonans to remain reliant on high-priced utility power.

Regulators should protect consumers, not utilities.

The ACC’s constitutional mandate is to regulate utilities in the public interest, yet its recent policies benefit corporate profits over Arizona homeowners. Every year, the ACC lowers the amount utilities are required to pay for customer-generated solar power, effectively allowing utilities to pocket the difference.

This isn’t about consumer protection; it’s about corporate favoritism. Why should homeowners be paid pennies per kilowatt-hour for the same electricity that utilities turn around and sell for a premium? If utilities claim to support a free market, they should be required to pay fair market value for the energy they purchase, not exploit homeowners who invested in solar.

What needs to change?

Arizona residents deserve better! The ACC must:

Restore fair solar compensation 

Revaluate the RCP ensuring homeowners receive a just market rate for the power they generate. Utilities should not be allowed to profit off private solar production while underpaying customers.

End unnecessary fees and penalties on solar customers

Fix rate structures designed to make solar financially unviable. Arizona should make it easier, not harder, for working people to save money by producing energy.

Increase transparency 

Require utilities to disclose how much solar energy they buy from customers and resell at a markup. The public has a right to know how much utilities are profiting from solar customers’ contributions.

Arizona has the natural resources and demand to be a clean energy leader, but if the ACC continues its anti-solar policies, working people will continue to pay too much for energy. The Commission should be working for Arizona consumers and local independent energy producers, not the huge corporations lobbying against them.

It’s time for action

Arizona’s energy future shouldn’t be dictated by utilities whose primary concern is maximizing shareholder profits. It should be shaped by policies that encourage energy independence, sustainability and fair treatment of consumers.

The ACC has the power to correct course, restore fair compensation, and ensure that Arizona remains at the forefront of the clean energy movement. But if they continue to prioritize monopoly utilities over homeowners, lawmakers and voters must step in to demand real accountability.

The choice is clear: Stand with solar customers, or continue letting corporations rig the system against them.

Sylvia French is an entrepreneur, advocate for sustainable energy, and founder of Sollara Carbon, an Arizona-based company developing carbon nanosheets from biochar for clean energy applications.

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