‘Dirty’ APS won, but war isn’t over
When NextGen America decided to get involved in Arizona’s energy politics, a lot of people asked me why.
Surely, there are easier places to win. Arizona has been a Republican stronghold as long as anyone can remember.
And you would be hard pressed to find a utility company more hostile to clean energy, more politically connected, or more brazen in wielding those connections than Arizona Public Service, known as APS.
Well, that’s exactly why we chose Arizona.
Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. Our health, our wealth and our planet all depend on our ability to confront and limit it.
From worsening droughts and wildfires to record-breaking heat, it’s already hitting Arizona hard.
According to the recent Fourth National Climate Assessment, not only is this putting lives at risk, but states in the Southwest, like Arizona, will not be able to depend on fossil fuels to meet growing energy demand for long.
We won’t be able to turn the tide until we force corporate polluters to stop emitting so much greenhouse gas for the sake of their bottom line.
Of course, the polluters won’t quit without a fight.
The fossil fuel industry reportedly spent more than $100 million fighting clean energy around the country this year, and Arizona was ground zero.
For years, APS has bent the state’s politics to its will. Last year alone, they made more than $488 million in profit — and paid their CEO more than $10 million.
Yet this out-of-date and self-seeking monopoly continues to raise rates and eschew clean energy in favor of more expensive fossil fuels.
Their latest long-term plan calls for building huge new fossil fuels infrastructure but no new utility-scale solar.
Why? To pad their profit margins. And they will no doubt continue in-
vesting some of their extra millions in politicians who will allow the cycle of pollution and profits to continue.
Despite an ongoing FBI investigation into APS’s political spending, plenty of Arizona politicians have been happy to take the company’s money and do its bidding — largely without consequence. Until now.
While Proposition 127, the clean energy ballot measure we supported, didn’t pass on Nov. 6, our coalition’s impact is undeniable.
Politicians who once would have rushed to APS’s side are practically tripping over each other running the other way. Take the elections for the Arizona Corporation Commission — a fivemember board that has been dominated by APS lapdogs. Sandra Kennedy ran on a promise to serve as a watchdog for consumers and climate.
The message caught fire among voters, sending her Republican opponents scrambling to demonstrate that they, too, would stand up to the utility monopoly. Kennedy went on to receive the most votes out of all the candidates running.
Meanwhile, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, whose choice of misleading ballot language intentionally sunk Prop. 127, spent the final days of his unexpectedly close campaign solely focused on disputing charges of APS corruption.
Even APS itself issued a statement after the election acknowledging that Arizona families want and deserve a “conversation” about clean energy.
Of course, APS’s kind words about clean energy are meaningless until they are backed by real action — like the recent announcement from another Arizona utility of a massive increase in solar power.
But our more than 50 coalition partners in Arizona are primed to continue exposing APS’s corruption, and Arizona politicians are beginning to see that fealty to a monopolistic and inefficient political boss can be a massive liability with voters.
That’s a seismic shift in the political landscape from where we started this campaign a year ago. And it’s exactly the kind of change that was only possible by taking the fight to the fossil fuel industry on its own turf.
They won the battle by openly employing the dirtiest of tactics. But in a democracy, that should mean they lose the war.
Corruption needs darkness and secrecy to thrive. As Justice Brandeis noted, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Arizonans will eventually demand it for more than just their energy needs.