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.
Mr. Hill graciously interviewed with Blog for Arizona to discuss his candidacy for the Corporation Commission.
Please read the questions and his responses below.
With the primaries over and the nominees chosen, please tell the readers at least two reasons why they should choose the Pratte/Hill ticket for the Arizona Corporation Commission.
“I think the main reason that Clara and I are running is about affordability. Customers across the state are seeing their utility bills skyrocket by double digits, in some cases, triple-digit increases in others. And we think that we need to have voices on the Corporation Commission that are going to protect consumers from excessive and unnecessary rate increases, and so, I think if people are feeling that their bills are out of control, then we need to elect different people to the commission.”
“I’d say the second reason that I would hope voters would choose us is that we really want to bring some ethics back into the commission. I think the current commission has shown that they’ve crossed the line of being too friendly with the utility companies, being too friendly with the investors of the utility companies. And so, I think that there needs to be an ethics code involved. The commission needs to follow those ethics codes and really give consumers the trust, the verification that they’re actually making non-partial decisions and deciding what’s best for everybody in Arizona and that they’re not favoring one side or another inappropriately.”
To what extent should voters be concerned that the Republican Corporation Commission ticket is endorsed by the Turning Point organization? Please explain.
“I think the biggest concern with Turning Point getting involved in the commission race is that they’re trying to politicize utilities in a way that we never have before. These aren’t the issues that we typically argue about in a partisan manner.We’re talking about affordability; we’re talking about fairness and rates. That shouldn’t be a Republican versus Democrat thing. But unfortunately, we saw Turning Point try to get involved in the SRP elections for the same reason, politicizing basic utilities that should be fairly non-partisan.”
“I think it’s unfortunate that they’ve gotten involved the way they have. And it’s still sort of a very in motion, but in their preferred candidate Ralph Heap, we’re seeing a lot of concerns about campaign finance violations. And so that’s still working its way out with people trying to verify that. I think it is concerning because Clara and I specifically ran as clean elections candidates so that the voters would have confidence in the fact that we’re not taking money from utilities, we’re not taking money from special interests. And so I would hope that both of the people on the Republican side would follow that lead and do so as well, but that may not be happening. And hopefully we have more clarity on that in the next week or two.”
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 Pratte/Hill ticket is elected to the commission, please tell the readers how you will conduct yourselves differently with regard to process than the current members. Please explain.
“It was just about two weeks ago that the courts ruled that the Commission violated their own due process rules in approving the grid access fee or whatever other term it goes under, depending on your utility, basically penalizing solar customers who don’t use any electricity, still charging them just for being connected to the grid. The courts found that the commission sort of violated their own process because the utilities didn’t formally ask for it.
No evidence or testimony was officially given that it was necessary or prudent, but it was approved anyway. And so if Clara and I are elected to the Commission, we’ll certainly do everything possible in our capacity as commissioners to end that, make sure that the Commission goes through the full process, the legal process, when looking at any changes that the utilities are asking for, especially when it comes to rates.”
“I think this gets back to our argument that the Commission has become way too friendly with the utilities. They’re there constitutionally established to do a very delicate balance between the needs of the utilities who need to stay financially healthy. We need them to be successful. We don’t want failed utilities because we have seen other places in Arizona what happens when that occurs. We don’t want that. But we also need all the customers to be treated fairly. That’s a very delicate balance, and I think over the last decade, we’ve seen them increasingly favor one side over the other. And so we need to rebalance things in favor of regular consumers.”
Since we last spoke, are there any new policy issues the Pratte/ Hill team will champion? Please explain.
“Since we last talked, we’ve really been focusing more on the data center issue because so many people are concerned and rightfully so with how data centers are going to affect their lives, how it’s going to impact their prices. And so Clara and I have been very clear that if we want the data centers to pay their own way, we certainly don’t want average customers subsidizing data center development. We certainly don’t want customers being left with the bill. If this whole data center kind of bubble ends up popping, we don’t want anyone being inappropriately left with all these bills on their hands because that’s a typical way the utilities deal with infrastructure: by spreading out infrastructure costs among all the users. But that simply isn’t fair when you’re talking about dedicated infrastructure for a single large load user.”
“We want people to know that if elected to the commission, we will look out for them. We will make sure that their rates don’t go up because of data center development. And that includes transmission lines, substations, but all the way back to having to build new generation. If we have to build new generation capacity just to service data centers, that should be covered completely by those developments as well. The average customer shouldn’t have anything to do with that.”
“The other thing is a related issue, but just the use of AI in campaigns. We’ve seen that happening to a larger and larger degree. And just like we ran as clean elections candidates because we want voters to know we’re not taking industry money. We also want voters to know that it’s actually us speaking. So when they see anything from our campaigns, our social media, stuff that we’re saying, we want them to know that that’s actually coming from us. It’s been approved by us. And we’ll be releasing, probably next week, an official statement on how our campaigns are using AI and the limits that we’re placing on it for all those reasons.”
Please explain at least two ways your campaign will win over independent and moderate Republican voters in the upcoming election.
“Well, the big thing is talking to as many people as possible. Talking to independents, talking to persuadable Republicans, getting out there and engaging with voters. One thing I learned from my 2024 campaign is we can spend a lot of money on texting and signs and advertising. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t really move the needle as much as you would hope.”
“What really moves the needle is engaging with people one-on-one. And so, we’ve been crisscrossing the state. I actually destroyed a car. My car finally just gave out. It didn’t have another statewide campaign in it. So I’m on car number two.We’re going to spend the next three months or so before November just talking to as many people as possible. And I think the other way to bring people over to our side is, again, just talking about the affordability aspect. That’s not a partisan thing. My neighbor might be Republican. My friend might be an independent, but their bills are going up just like mine are. And so I think it’s a cause that we can kind of rally together around, and we’ve seen that in talking one-on-one with voters. They get that. They understand that. It’s just something you need to sell to people in person, one-on-one when possible, but speaking to groups just in person when otherwise possible, and then having people do that for us. We’ve been encouraging everyone we talk to to go and talk to others for us to kind of spread the good word about it. If they want to see different things coming out of the commission, then we need to make different choices.”
“Thankfully, I think it is working. I’ve had lots of Republicans come up and tell me that they’re going to break with their party in November simply because the current Commission is impacting them too much. It’s too much of a negative cost to them in their monthly bills.
So, I think the message is getting out there. We just need to continue making it as hard as we can for the next three months.”
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.
“This is probably the hardest part about running for the Corporation Commission: so many people just don’t know how it affects them. And so, so many voters drop off when they’re voting. They just don’t go all the way down the ballot because they don’t see how it affects them. That’s the other part of us traveling around the state, even talking to our own Democratic voters about the importance of the commission and why they need to help us flip the Commission and choose different commissioners come November, and so, we’ve been talking to people, as many people as will listen, but also we’ve been running a really strong just education campaign. This campaign, this office, you have to kind of run two campaigns at once.”
“You have to run an education campaign on one side just to let voters know what it is. And then a separate campaign of, well, why we’re a good choice for this office. And so with all the discussion about affordability, we’ve really been leaning heavily into that education piece.”
“We feel like the more people who actually know what it is, because it’s a very opaque name, the more people who know what it is, the better we’ll do. Because I think they, even in a voter who doesn’t pay attention to the intricacies and day-to-day evolution of this office, I think they can tell, hey, my bill’s going up. I don’t think it’s fair. We need change at the Commission. I’ve been telling people it’s a really easy sell. You just have to go out and make the sale yourself. You can’t do that through ads or text messages. It has to be in person.”
Is there anything not covered in the first six questions you would like the readers to know about you and your candidacy for the Arizona Corporation Commission? Please explain.
“I would just encourage voters to be as informed as possible about this office. We always like to point out that usually the further down you go on your ballot, the more those offices actually impact your day-to-day lives. You’re talking about school boards and in the Corporation Commission, you’re talking about your utility bills- these things that just pile up and make your everyday life harder if they’re not working correctly. And so Clara and I are really looking forward to talking to voters for these next three months. And if elected, if we’re fortunate enough to be elected, I think we’ll try to actually implement these changes to make things easier for everyday consumers throughout Arizona.”
Please click here to find out more about Jonathon Hill’s campaign for the Arizona Corporation Commission and here for Ms. Pratte.
Please click here to read Mr. Hill’s earlier interview with Blog for Arizona and here for Ms. Pratte.
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