Clara Pratte Will Bring a Forward Vision and Commitment to Transparency as a Member of the Arizona Corporation Commission

A government organization that prioritizes fossil fuels over clean, renewable energy and energy-efficiency standards.

A government organization whose members feel they do not have to be transparent to the people they serve regarding policies that raise utility rates. 

A government organization whose members are openly supported by corporate lobbyists and the fringe and reactionary White Nationalist and anti-Science Turning Point. 

Are we talking about the Trump Administration?

We could, but in this case, the organization is the Grand Canyon State’s fourth branch of government, the Arizona Corporation Commission. 

Over the last two years, the Corporation Commission, with its Republican majority, has made headlines for all the wrong reasons, steering its energy portfolio away from clean energy and doing away with energy efficiency standards, and being non-transparent in how it decided to allow utility companies APS and TEP to raise their rates on Arizonans. 

The two Republican Nominees for the Corporation Commission, Kevin Thompson and Ralph Heap, are embroiled in controversy for the support they are receiving from corporate lobbyists and Turning Point. 

The Democrats have two alternatives voters should consider supporting. 

They are their Corporation Commission nominees, Clara Pratte and Jonathon Hill. 

Not beholden to corporate or anti-science interests, Pratte and Hill, if elected, would bring a forward vision to the Commission, investing in clean renewable energy sources, working to hold and, if possible, reduce utility rates, and, unlike their opponents, embracing transparency with regard to process and their decision-making. 

Ms. Pratte graciously interviewed with Blog for Arizona to discuss her candidacy for the Corporation Commission. 

Please read the questions and her responses below. 

Please tell the readers, with the primaries over and the nominees chosen, at least two reasons why they should choose the Pratte-Hill ticket for the Arizona Corporation Commission. 

“For me, my biggest priority is to lower utility bills for all Arizona families. I often say that since I’ve moved home in 2018, my bill for my home has gone up nearly 50%. And you know, it’s a hardship. It’s a hardship for our families. So lowering bills is the priority, along with, I think it’s really important that we end corruption within the commission itself.”

“So when we think about lowering the cost of utilities, we really need to invest in affordable, reliable energy and protect Arizona families’ budgets and our future. Right now, we have been doubling down on extractive energy, not investing in cleaner sources of energy that we could produce domestically, which are proven to be cheaper than extractive at this point. And we have to elect Democrats to the Corporation Commission because under the watch and the leadership of the Republican Corporation Commission, utility costs have skyrocketed.”

“We were on a panel recently with Commissioner Thompson, who’s running for re-election. And you know, he was previously chair, and he kept on this talking point about Arizona having some of the lowest prices per kilowatt hour in the country. And that’s a phrase that we hear often, but it’s easily debunked. Anybody with a Google search can simply look up what the price has been over the last several years. So, it feels a little disingenuous to make some of those claims that we all know are just patently false. And right now, we know that Arizona is the number one in the country when it comes to utility bill increases in recorded history in the last four years. Since Commissioner Thompson took office in 2023, Arizona families have been hit with the largest rate spike in electricity in 35 years. And we know that’s a fact. And we know that right now we have the highest summer bills in the United States. So when you compare us to other jurisdictions, we are, if not the hottest, we were like one of the hottest states in the union consistently. And Arizonians are suffering. Our utility bills are out of control. Abatement programs have been put in place to try to help people so they don’t have these large bills to pay off in the summer. But it’s just kind of insane to me that you have to budget in that sort of way. And they have shut-off moratoriums and all of those things because of how dangerous it is to get as hot as we get in Arizona and not have access to electricity.”

“When we think about the other Republican nominee, Mr. Heap, we know that he wants us to use the most expensive source of energy, coal, an unreliable form of energy and a polluting form of energy available in our country right now. And he’s even doubled down on saying he wants coal to be back. Even our own utilities don’t agree that that’s the best course of action for the state. He’s got no experience in utilities or energy or water or any of those types of things. So yeah, I think we must elect both Jonathon Hill and myself to the Corporation Commission if we want a correct course for the path we’ve been going down.”

To what extent should voters be concerned that the Republican Corporation Commission ticket is endorsed by the Turning Point organization? Please explain.

“I think any candidate running for any office, if they depend on an outside group to get them elected, which we know Mr. Heap has, there’s currently the ongoing discussion about campaign finance going on right now with his campaign. You know, you’re beholden to those entities. If you’ve taken their money and they’ve bankrolled you, you’re going to be beholden to them instead of the people of Arizona. I think that’s a big difference between Jonathon Hill and myself and Mr. Heap is that we’re not beholden to special interests. Neither of us has taken any donations from corporations, utilities, or PACs. And I want to be elected, and I know Jonathon wants to be elected because we’ve earned the people’s vote and we’ve earned their trust and we’re not going to work for anybody but the voters.”

The Arizona Corporation Commission has recently been in the news regarding questionable tactics and determinations regarding APS and TEP, getting the attention of Attorney General Kris Mayes. If the Pratt-Hill ticket is elected to the commission, please tell the readers how you would conduct yourselves differently with regard to process than the current members. 

“Well, the current Republican controlled commission has really failed to do its job on behalf of Arizonans. Their job is to protect us as ratepayers, and they have not adequately questioned or interrogated utility companies about the request for rate hikes. And we need to ensure that not $1 that we pay on our monthly bills is wasted. We must ensure that what we’re being asked to pay is being used for the correct reasons if we’re going to be seeing these rate hikes. I want to know, down to the dollar, what is going to infrastructure upgrades? What’s going to the bottom line? What’s going to shareholders? And I think we deserve to know that information. Unfortunately, Commissioner Thompson has approved record-breaking utility hikes and signed off on deals with data center companies. Many of the, much of the information in those data center deals is redacted so that the public has no transparency or information, and that talking point of, well, it’s business proprietary for the company, et cetera, but these utilities, they are our public monopolies and we are the oversight that has to know what we’re paying for. So if I’m elected, I will do everything in my power to bring information from companies to light and hold utility companies accountable and to protect Arizona ratepayers from unnecessary costs.”

Since we last spoke, are there any new policy issues the Pratte/Hill team will champion? Please explain.

“This time last year, data centers were not even a talking point. It was not even on anybody’s radar. So I think the evolution of artificial intelligence and data centers- that topic is continuing to evolve very quickly, and I’m very concerned about the demand that data centers will put on our precious water and our precious energy supply. We know that we don’t have enough to go around for the current needs of people and critical infrastructure right now. And we can’t let our state become the Wild West of data center companies that want to do what they want to do without any regulatory framework.”

“We also have to make sure that we’re protecting our valuable resources, and we can do that while we still enable innovation. But it has to be done smartly, and it has to be done with public input, and it has to be done with a people-first approach, not a data center first approach. I’m concerned about artificial intelligence and voter trust. There’ve been a lot of unfortunate examples of this election of candidates using artificial intelligence to falsely attack their opponents. And Jonathan and I have taken our Real Human campaign pledge, where we promise to never use AI to mislead voters and to ensure our campaign is powered by real people, real data, and not falsely created images or data points or deepfakes. Anything like that really has no place in the public discourse of a campaign, which is really asking for the people’s trust.”

Please explain at least two ways your campaign went over independent and moderate Republican voters in the upcoming election.

“I’ve really prided myself on being able to work across the aisle in many instances to build coalitions of things that are in the best interest of voters. And my message cuts across party lines and everyone pays a utility bill. Everyone has the same desire. They want affordable electricity, affordable water that ensures that our utilities are safe and reliable and are going to take us into the future. I moved home in 2018 because I wanted to raise my family here. And I want them to want to raise their families here. I want them to want to go to school here for college or, you know, what have you. But Arizona is a place that we need to invest in for the future. We can only do that if we’re planning in a hundred-year, 50-year cycles, not for just the next year or the next election cycle, and we can achieve all of these goals. It doesn’t really matter if you’re independent, a Republican, or a Democrat on these particular issues. We all want the same things.”

Many voters do not know what the Arizona Corporation Commission is or how it impacts their lives. Please explain at least two ways your campaign will reach out and appeal to voters who normally do not pay attention to commission politics or current events.

“I think it’s important to speak to every voter. I’m visiting every corner of the state, talking to voters, and I don’t care if it’s a red county, a purple county, a blue county; I’m meeting with voters everywhere across the state. I’ve proudly been to all four corners of the state already, but there’s a lot of road in between as well. I think already I’ve gone to 50 events, and I’ve been in all 15 counties, and I’m not going to stop. I’m going to show up in every community that I can to meet one-on-one with people until election day to educate them about not only who I am as a candidate and why they should trust me as a commissioner, but what the Corporation Commission is and how it impacts their life every single day.”

Is there anything not covered in the first six questions that you would like the readers to know about you and your candidacy for the Corporation Commission? Please explain.

“I think one of the things I just wanted to share with listeners and people tuning in is that I deeply love this state. We often say as tribal people, we go back to time immemorial in this state, before it was a state. I feel really strongly that my roots are here. I’m from here. I’m going to be here. We’re not going anywhere. So we all have a vested interest in protecting the long-term viability of our state and making Arizona a place that families can continue to grow and thrive and not worry about where our water is going to come from. Where is our electricity going to come from? And I think right now people are really feeling that squeeze of understanding that we are in a critical time period crunch of it’s a make it or break it for our state, and a critical piece of that decision-making process is the Corporation Commission. So who better to have on your side as a consumer than someone who’s not going anywhere and is not afraid to shine light on things that need to be known by the public.”

Please click here to find out more about Clara Pratte’s campaign for the Arizona Corporation Commission and here for Mr. Hill. 

Please click here to read Ms. Pratte’s earlier interview with Blog for Arizona and here for Mr. Hill.