Some of the votes Americans cast Tuesday that may have mattered most for the climate were a little less of the presidential ticket: A handful of states held elections for the commissions that regulate utilitiesand thereby exert direct control over what kind of energy mix will fuel the coming years’ expected growth in electricity demand. In three close races across the country — the utility commissions in Arizona, Montana and Louisiana — Republican candidates have either won or are in the lead. While they generally presented themselves as market-friendly to voters, favoring an all-from-the-above approach to energy, clean energy advocates interviewed by Grist viewed these candidates as deferential to the power companies they set out to regulate.
Arizona is, in a word, sunny. Its geography makes it “the famously obvious place to build solar,” said Caroline Spears, executive director of Climate Cabinet, a nonprofit that works to get clean energy advocates elected. But its utilities have built only a fraction of the potential solar energy there is room for in the state — and the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates the state’s investor-owned utilities, is partly to blame. The commission’s most recent renewable energy target, set in 2007, was an unambitious 15 percent to be reached by 2025. “Their goals are worse than where Texas is right now and where Iowa is right now on clean energy,” Spears said. What’s more, the current slate of commissioners is in the process of considering whether to abandon that goal altogether.
Those commissioners have had a 4-1 Republican majority on the commission since 2022, during which time they have approved the construction of new gas plants, imposed new fees on rooftop solar and raised electricity rates. Tuesday’s election, in which three of the commission’s five seats were on the ballot, gave voters a chance to reverse course. The race has not yet been officially called, but three Republican candidates are in the lead, ahead of three Democratic candidates, two Green candidates and a write-in independent. (The election is structured so that candidates do not run for individual seats or in districts; instead, the seats go to the top three vote-getters.)
So far, the Republican candidate with the most votes is Rachel Walden, a Mesa school board member who has made a name for herself in Arizona politics with transphobic comments and a failed lawsuit against the Mesa School District over its policy on student bathroom use. “She’s a candidate who doesn’t have a lot of specific energy experience, but seems to be very hard on the kind of MAGA movement more broadly,” said Stephanie Chase, a researcher at the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog nonprofit organization.
In Montana, three seats were open on the Public Service Commission, but one in particular — District 4 — caught the attention of clean energy advocates because it was the only one in which a non-Republican candidate was running. Elena Evans, an independent, began her campaign after learning that the incumbent commissioner in her district, Jennifer Fielder, was running unopposed. The race focused less on clean energy than affordability: Evans said in interviews that she decided to run because of the 28 percent rate increase the all-Republican commission approved. In the closest of the commission’s three elections, Fielder beat Evans with 55 percent of the vote.
As in Arizona, the Montana PSC has neglected to take advantage of its state’s untapped potential for renewable energy – wind. A Montana commissioner was captured on a hot mic openly admit in 2019 that the purpose of a tariff reduction for renewable energy suppliers was to kill solar development in the state.
While one independent on the commission would likely not have changed the course of its decisions, Evans would have had the opportunity “to be a consumer voice,” in Chase’s words, as the commission deliberates not only on future renewable energy decisions didn’t, but also the looming question of the future of a coal plant in eastern Montana. The Colstrip power plant is co-owned by utilities in nearby states, which, in anticipation of those states’ renewable energy targets kicking in sell their shares of its energy to Montana utility NorthWestern Energy. These deals could saddle Montana taxpayers with new costs, both for the purchase and for compliance with environmental regulations.
In Louisiana, the largest utility regulated by the Public Service Commission is Entergy, which Daniel Tait, a researcher at the Energy and Policy Institute, described as “one of the most maligned utilities in the country by its customers.” Louisiana’s utilities are legally allowed to donate directly to the campaign funds for commissioners they regulate — and they do so in large volume.
The race to replace Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Craig Greene, who is retiring at the end of his term, commanded attention because although a Republican representing a deep red part of the state, Greene is considered the swing vote among the five commissioners, two of whom are Democrats. In his eight years in office, he became known for “his willingness to hold Entergy accountable,” according to Tait — agree with the progressive commissioner Davante Lewis on issues such as energy efficiency programs and limiting utilities’ political spending.
Greene’s seat was won Tuesday by Jean-Paul Coussan, a state senator from Lafayette who has accepted donations to utilities, supported an expansion of gas infrastructure, and criticized renewable energy for “drive[ing] oil and gas jobs.” Tait described Coussan as less hostile to clean energy than his Republican opponent in the race, Julie Quinn, but further to the right than the Democrat he defeated, Nick Laborde.
In a maintenance with the Louisiana Illuminator, Coussan based his energy policies on free markets. “It is critical that we look at the most affordable options. I think renewable energy is currently part of the matrix and will be in the future,” he said. “We also need to address the reality that we have an abundant supply of natural gas.”
Coussan also spoke about the needs of Louisianans suffering from repeated hurricanes and rising rates. “The things he’s said since he was elected are contradictory in nature,” Tait said of Coussan. “He says he wants affordable and reliable energy, and that he cares about storm protection because there are so many problems in Louisiana, but the very thing that’s causing these storms is climate change — which is caused by carbon emissions.”
“You can’t make the problem worse and say you want to work hard to solve the problem,” added Tait.
