This story was originally published by Capital & Head.
When it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and watershed protection, several ballot elections this year in a handful of states could have a major impact on the transition away from fossil fuels.
The media tends to ignore such contests, which attract far fewer voters than major federal and state elections. But public utility board members in Arizona and Nebraska are up for election in the coming months, and the results of those contests could potentially change energy policy for millions of Americans.
The elections come in the midst of growing concern about the role of money in such races and in the wake of headlines corruption scandals at utilities across the country. Utility fraud and corruption — in Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio and South Carolina — cost electricity customers at least $6.6 billion, according to an analysis by news nonprofit Floodlightwhich noted that “some power companies are embracing—or trying to block—the transition away from fossil fuels to wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear power, which produce fewer greenhouse gases.”
On April 2, six clean energy candidates won seats on two boards of the Salt River Project, a non-profit utility that provides water and power to more than 2 million people living in central Arizona. It is one of the largest public power companies in the country. Critics say that it is also one of the largest contributors in the Western US to greenhouse gas emissions, as it relies on coal, oil and natural gas to generate more than two-thirds of its energy. Arizona is the sunniest state in the countryyet the Salt River project just gets 3.4 percent of its energy from solar powergenerally behind the state, which gets 10 percent from solar power.
Although they did not win a majority of the council, the new clean energy members could play a bigger role in shaping the energy future of Phoenix, the fifth largest city in the US with a population of more than 1, 6 million. The election has sparked controversy due to rules limiting voter eligibility to property owners and not all taxpayers in the district – it has also attracted the attention of well-known environmental activists such as Bill McKibben, leader of the climate campaign group 350.org.
Some of the incumbent council members have served for decades as a result of an election system set up in the early 1900s – when the Valley of the Sun was settled by farmers and ranchers – which allows only property owners to vote and divide votes by area. The more land you own, the more votes you get.
As a result, most of the utility’s customers do not have a say in choosing the leadership of a body that sets their energy rates and decides which energy sources they use to generate electricity.
The clean energy advocates promise to accelerate solar deployment, adjust tariffs to encourage the use of rooftop solar, and strengthen watershed protection in a region increasingly suffering from drought and extreme heat. In 2023 saw Phoenix a record 54 days when the temperature reached 110 degrees.
“We call ourselves the Valley of the Sun for a reason,” said Randy Miller, a winning Salt River Project board member who supports the list of clean energy candidates and was motivated to run a few years ago when he was told that his energy rates would nearly triple since he installed rooftop solar on his home. “I couldn’t believe it, the nearby ASP [Arizona Public Service] district has more than triple the amount of rooftop solar. Higher rates are a complete disincentive to go solar. We need new leadership on the board.”
The candidates are particularly motivated in light of a state commission’s recent decision to scrap its renewable energy standard, the only state to take such steps, according to solar industry advocates. That body, the Arizona Corporation Commission, also has an election coming up in August.
Longtime Councilman Stephen H. Williams, who defeated one of the clean-energy candidates, did not return calls from Capital & Main for comment.
The current councilors running for re-election pushed back against the new candidates, sending out flyers citing “40 combined years of providing affordable and reliable power and water” and sustainability as among their concerns. They criticized what they called an attempted “takeover”. by “ideological extremists”, who claim that Salt River Project “has succeeded in reducing carbon intensity by 35 percent since 2005, despite the dramatic growth occurring in our service area.”
The insurgents in the Salt River Project race hoped to emulate Nebraska, where clean energy advocates won three seats in 2016 on the heavily rural Nebraska Public Power District. That helped tip the balance of power and led the board to vote 9-2 in 2021 to aim for net-zero emissions in the utility’s generation by 2050. As a result, with the state’s other two major utilities already make similar promises in recent years Nebraska has the first GOP dominated state to commit to net-zero electricity emissions.
The end result was a long-sought goal of climate activists and environmental groups, such as the Nebraska Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club, which money poured into the 2018 and 2020 races. Before that, such races were sleepy affairs with incumbents running unopposed. The unprecedented level of campaign contributions has sparked debate in this year’s election cycle, with some state lawmakers recently printed to make the elections partisan so that voters have a better idea of each candidate’s agenda.
“Nebraskans support clean energy,” but the utilities didn’t reflect those values — and so it became a matter of organizing and educating voters, said Chelsea Johnson, deputy director of Nebraska Conservation Voters, describing recent election results. has. “You can have a very big impact running for these local offices.”
