PHOENIX β The parent company of the state's largest electric utility is putting at least $1 million into a campaign to ensure the Arizona Corporation Commission remains an all-Republican panel.
Jim McDonald, spokesman for Pinnacle West Capital Corp., confirmed Monday that his company created the AZ Coalition for Reliable Electricity.Β
For now, Pinnacle West is the sole contributor to the "coalition.'' A spokesman for Tucson Electric Power and UNS Energy said his company has a policy of not getting involved in commission races and does not intend to change its policy this year.
McDonald said his company's spending is a direct reaction to the more than $1.1 million already spent by Save Our AZ Solar on the campaign, all of that coming through SolarCity, which leases, sells and installs rooftop solar units.
Most of the solar money was spent in the Republican primary on behalf of incumbent Commissioner Bob Burns, who has subpoenaed the books of Pinnacle West and its affiliate Arizona Public Service. Now the solar group has turned its attention to reelecting Burns and electing Democrat Bill Mundell.
More commercials are coming from the group, which at last count still had $800,000 unspent. Kris Mayes, who heads the Save our AZ Solar campaign, said TV ads are set to begin Tuesday, Oct. 25.
McDonald said voters are being presented with a flawed message designed to protect the business of solar installers. He contends that the policies favored by Mundell and fellow Democrat Tom Chabin will mean "higher and higher bills (for customers) to subsidize huge profits for solar leasing companies.''
He said no customer funds will be used for his company's support of incumbent Andy Tobin, Republican contender Boyd Dunn and Burns.
That contention was disputed by Mayes, a former commission member, who said there's really only one source of Pinnacle West dollars: The money it gets from APS' customers. She said the only question is whether the campaign funds come from the profits Pinnacle West is entitled to earn for its shareholders.
McDonald's decision to be up-front about the funding is in sharp contrast to the secrecy surrounding $3.2 million spent in 2014 to help elect Republicans Tom Forese and Doug Little to the commission.Β
Those dollars were funneled through Save Our Future Now and the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. Neither would disclose the source of the cash, saying their status as "social welfare'' organizations exempts them from having to reveal their donors. A spokesman for APS and Pinnacle West has refused to deny that the companies provided the money.
It is that question which led Burns to subpoena the books of the two companies, which they are trying to have quashed. Despite that, Pinnacle West CEO Don Brandt has publicly endorsed Burns, along with Dunn and Tobin, saying he believes the three Republicans will give his company fairer treatment than Mundell or Chabin.
"Based on the steady flow of misleading anti-APS rhetoric from the candidates funded by SolarCity, it's difficult to believe they could regulate APS or any utility impartially,'' McDonald said.
What Chabin and Mundell have said during the campaign is they want to know whether the utility and its parent were the source of the funds in the 2014 campaign. As Burns' subpoena shows, they are not alone on that.
They have questioned plans by APS to change the rates charged by utilities to customers who generate some of their own electricity and sell the excess back to the power company.
The makeup of the commission going forward will have a definite impact on how much APS and other utilities get of their plan to change the rates charged to solar customers.
"What Pinnacle West and the AZ Coalition for Reliable ElectricityΒ want to do is make sure voters hear both sides of the issue,'' said coalition spokesman Matt Benson. "Up until this point they've been hearing basically from SolarCity.''
Mayes has a different take. "APS is obviously afraid that candidates like Bill Mundell are going to protect ratepayers and fight their anti-solar proposals at the Corporation Commission,'' she said.
SolarCity has separately spent $6,360 sending a letter to customers urging them to support Burns, Mundell and Chabin.
