On May 18, I stood outside the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) with small business owners, parents, faith leaders, veterans and everyday Arizonans who had one unified message for our state’s utility regulators: Enough. Only a single speaker that day supported Arizona Public Service’s (APS) proposed rate hike, a hike that could raise electricity bills by hundreds of dollars a year for families already choosing between groceries and keeping the lights on. The hearing room filled to capacity and an overflow room had to be opened. Public comment ran past its allotted time because so many Arizonans showed up to be heard. That evening, more people, many who couldn’t attend during work hours, gathered for a rally outside the commission, refusing to leave until their voices echoed in that building. 

In case you are wondering, here is what comes next.

The May 18 session was not the end of the APS rate case. It was one milestone in a process that began when APS filed its application last June and will not conclude until late 2026 at the earliest. The evidentiary hearing of the formal proceeding where APS, commission staff, and more than 30 intervenors present witnesses and evidence to the Administrative Law Judge is scheduled to run through the end of July. The judge will then draft an opinion, outlining proposed rates and whether APS should be allowed to use a controversial Formula Rate Adjustment Mechanism, or FRAM, that would let the utility raise rates annually without a full rate case. Finally, the commission votes at an open meeting, expected later this year, where commissioners can adopt or amend the judge’s recommendation before their final vote. If approved, new rates would take effect in early 2027.

That is a long runway, and it is also an opportunity.

Every step between now and that vote is a chance for ratepayers to be heard. The commissioners are elected officials. They are supposed to answer to the people of Arizona, the ratepayers, not to APS shareholders. Yet not every commissioner was present to hear the public out on May 18. When hundreds of Arizonans take time away from work and family to show up, the people they elected to regulate their utilities should be in the room to listen. And what happened that day: the overflow room, the extended hearing, the unanimous opposition sends a message commissioners cannot ignore in the months ahead.

What I witnessed was not just opposition to a rate hike. It was a community that has had enough of being treated like an afterthought in decisions that shape their daily lives. It was business owners who understood that unsustainable energy costs threaten their livelihoods.

“Energy affordability isn’t just a utility issue, it’s an economic justice issue. At El Sagrado Galeria, every dollar that goes to an inflated APS bill is a dollar that doesn’t go back into our community. We’re calling on the ACC to protect small businesses and reject this rate hike,” said Sam Gomez, executive director of El Sagrado Galeria.

It was renters and working families who cannot absorb another bill increase when food, housing, and healthcare are already out of reach for too many. It was young people who know they will pay for APS’s expensive gas plant investments for decades if the commission does not demand better. It was veterans, faith leaders and environmental justice advocates standing shoulder to shoulder because they all live under the same Arizona sun and pay the same APS bill.

The ACC now carries the weight of what it heard on May 18. The judge will consider the information and make a recommendation. The commissioners will deliberate and vote on what to give APS. And through every step, we will be watching, speaking out, organizing, and holding the ACC accountable to the people it is supposed to serve.

Si te preguntas si tu voz importa, sí importa. It matters now more than ever.

The fight for affordable, clean energy in Arizona did not end when the hearing room doors closed on May 18. It continues!

Ylenia Aguilar is a Senior Campaign Organizer with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Arizona and an elected member of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board.