Lawmakers in both parties have introduced several bills this session that could affect the Arizona Corporation Commission, utility companies and ratepayers. 

The commission is the state’s utility regulation body and recently swore in a 5 to 0 Republican majority. The outgoing commission voted on a few different legislative priorities that it asked lawmakers to consider in 2025, but so far no bills related to those priorities have been introduced. 

One lawmaker, Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, comes to the Legislature with a unique perspective as a former ACC commissioner. He has proposed two bills that would restrict the “revolving door” between the commission and utility companies and another that would aim to ensure stability for the state’s electrical grid. 

House Bill 2518 would prevent utilities that are regulated by the Corporation Commission — like Arizona Public Service and Tucson Electric Power — from employing individuals who have worked for the commission in the last four years. The Commission conversely may not employ individuals who worked for a utility company it regulates in the past two years. 

Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon chapter and a longtime environmental lobbyist, said she was “pleasantly surprised” to see Olson’s bill. 

“I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t support that kind of an anti-revolving door measure – it’s certainly of concern when it comes to both the commission and utilities.” Bahr said. 

Olson’s other piece of legislation, House Bill 2527, would prohibit the ACC from authorizing the retirement of an electrical generation facility unless there is a new facility with equal or greater power generation on the grid. It would also task the commission with increasing dispatchable, or on demand, energy by at least 5% between 2025 and 2030. 

Those provisions are aimed at increasing the reliability of the state’s energy grid to avoid outages, especially during hot summer months. However, Bahr said the bill would make it harder to close fossil fuel plants in favor of building renewable energy plants. 

Olson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Olson’s Republican colleagues have also introduced legislation related to the ACC, with Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, attempting to increase fees for applications to the commission’s line siting committee, and Sen. Tim Dunn, R-Yuma, proposing a clarified definition for the purpose of the Residential Utility Consumer Office, or RUCO. 

Bahr said the Sierra Club is less sure about the impact of those bills, but she is leaning toward opposing them. She said Blackman’s bill has potential but might need a bit more workshopping, while Dunn’s bill might pull RUCO’s focus away from consumer advocacy.

RUCO represents utility customers in rate cases before the commission, but Dunn’s bill would define “represents the interests of” in statute as “advocating for the safest and most reliable utility service achievable at the lowest retail electric rate possible.” 

Democrats have also gotten in on the Corporation Commission bills. Rep. Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear, is proposing prohibiting utility companies from using money collected from customers in lobbying efforts, charitable giving, advertising or marketing, or litigation of rate cases, among other prohibited activities.

Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, D-Laveen, introduced a bill that would reduce the threshold for the definition of a power plant. Currently, power plants are defined as generating units with a name plate rating of 100 megawatts, while De Los Santos is proposing lowering the rating to 25 megawatts.

That bill is likely inspired by a controversial decision made by the commission in 2024, when it voted to exempt UniSource Energy Services from receiving a certificate of environmental compatibility to expand a power generating station in northern Arizona. The commission said the expansion did not need environmental review because it was adding four generators of 50 megawatts, while statute only requires review for generators with 100 megawatts or more. 

Three separate lawsuits were filed over the decisions, arguing that the four generators of 50 megawatts should receive environmental review given their total wattage of 200 megawatts. That legal battle is pending, but the ACC said it based its decision on state statute and could vote differently in the future if the statute was changed. 

Bahr said she thinks De Los Santos’ bill is unnecessary because she thinks the interpretation of the statute was wrong — not the statute itself. 

“It is contrary to how things have been interpreted for decades, and so we don’t think it’s necessary,” Bahr said. 

Overall, Bahr said she supports any legislation that would provide more accountability to the commission and utility companies. But, she said she’s not holding her breath.

“It’s not something that we have seen come from the Republican legislators, just because they’re usually pretty friendly with the utilities,” Bahr said.