GOP utility regulators back low rates, not mandates

In the race for corporation commissioner, voters have a clear choice. Two Republican nominees who work in the business community and support policies to keep your rates as low as possible, while ensuring safe and reliable public services and ethical conduct by commissioners. Or two liberal Democrats who support mandates that will dramatically increase your utility rates.

As your Republican nominees, we ask for your vote to ensure that commonsense policies prevail at the Corporation Commission. A key difference between us and our Democrat counterparts is our opposition to the costly mandates included in Proposition 127. We support empowering Arizonans to choose to install solar energy generation, energy storage and any other method of meeting their energy demands. We also support requiring utilities to invest in the most cost-effective energy production available to keep rates as a low as possible for all ratepayers. Expert analysis shows the mandates included in Proposition 127 will double utility rates for average Arizona households. This is a burden that we cannot support placing on hardworking Arizona families, retirees, veterans, school districts and businesses.

The mandates included in Proposition 127 have already been tried by California, and the resulting increase to utility rates was astonishing. California utility rates have increased by more than three times the national average. California ratepayers currently pay 50 percent more than ratepayers in Arizona, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. These mandates have even created the need for California to pay Arizona utilities to take California’s surplus solar generation off the grid during several months of the year. These failed policies have burdened the California economy and harmed its residents. We should learn from California’s mistakes instead of replicating their failed policies.

Rather than advocating for social engineering that drives up the cost of utilities, we support keeping rates as low as possible while ensuring safe and reliable public services. We support requiring utilities to reduce their rates and pass savings on to ratepayers, as well as prohibiting utility owners from recovering their individual income tax expense from ratepayers. As a current commissioner and a former city councilman with expertise in tax and water policy, we come to the commission with the experience and education necessary to provide much-needed oversight of Arizona’s public service corporations.

We have also proposed a clear plan for restoring the public confidence in the Corporation Commission with the adoption of the commission’s version of the Arizona Code of Judicial Conduct. Our plan would prohibit all commission candidates from accepting campaign contributions from the entities the commission regulates — a policy already adopted by both of our campaigns. With both of us on the commission, we will have the necessary votes to enact this much-needed reform. We are advocating for this reform because we feel strongly that Arizona’s highest regulatory body should hold itself to the same high standards as every other judge in Arizona, and that entities we regulate should not have undue influence.

We have proven records and the highest standards of ethics and integrity, and we will advocate for policies to increase accountability and transparency. For low rates and reliable public services, please vote for Justin Olson and Rodney Glassman as your two corporation commissioners.

Justin Olson and Rodney Glassman are the Republican candidates for the Arizona Corporation Commission. Reach them at jolson2001@gmail.com and rodney@rodneyglassman.com.