This week, the Arizona Corporation Commission voted to start the process of repealing the state’s Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff Rules, known as the “REST rules.”
Those rules were put in place back in 2006. They required big utilities to get 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Part of that had to come from small-scale sources like rooftop solar on homes and businesses.
The all-Republican ACC said the rules aren’t needed anymore because monopoly utility companies already have their own clean energy plans.
That claim is false. Last week APS announced it’s ditching all its clean energy goals including the pledge to get 45% of its power from renewables by 2030. At least APS’s CEO admitted their earlier ‘goals’ were never really goals at all – just ‘aspirations’.
APS Abandons Clean Energy Goals & While Demanding Yet Another Rate Hike
The rulemaking change will likely take months, but it’s clear the ACC staff will eventually get their REST repeal.
None of this should surprise anyone. Voters put commissioners in office who openly favor fossil fuels over clean energy. This week’s vote is just the latest sign of what happens when pro-carbon politicians run the agency in charge of regulating Arizona’s monopoly utilities.
Note: Because the ACC’s REST repeal rulemaking relates to their constitutional authority to regulate monopoly utilities they’re exempt from Governor’s Regulatory Review Council review, meaning the repeal is a done deal and GRRC won’t be able to stop the repeal.
When the ACC proposes rules related to statutory authority given to them by the Legislature, they are subject to GRRC – but the REST rulemaking will be under their constitutional authority.
