Turning the legal tables on Bob Burns, the state's largest electric utility is accusing him of an improper and illegal power grab.

Attorneys for Arizona Public Service are deriding efforts by Bob Burns to have the state Supreme Court overturn a 3.3 percent rate hike just approved by the other utility regulators.

Calling the process illegal, a utility regulator is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to void last week's vote giving the state's largest electric utility permission to immediately charge its customers an extra $7 a month.

The 4-1 vote by the Arizona Corporation Commission came after the majority rejected a bid by Bob Burns to delay the rate case until his lawsuit with APS and his fellow commissioners is resolved.

In an extensive ruling Monday, Judge Daniel Kiley rejected arguments by Arizona Public Service that he is legally powerless to intercede in what the company contends is a dispute among Arizona Corporation Commissioners.

Defense attorneys for Pierce and his wife, Sherry, filed a motion saying the government wants the court to order that FBI reports, transcripts and recordings of witness interviews, and financial records and tax records of third parties be protected from the eyes of the public.

Bob Burns is headed back to court -- and not just in his bid to get financial disclosure records from the state's largest electric utility.

A judge is refusing to force the state's largest electric company to turn over its records of political spending to a utility regulator, at least not yet.

The attorney for the state's largest electric utility said the fact that Bob Burns may think the other members of the Arizona Corporation Commission are "scoundrels'' does not give him the right to issue his own subpoena for the company's records.

States that generate large amounts of renewable energy, such as California with its abundant supply of solar power, have to “sell” power to neighboring states at negative prices, meaning California is effectively paying Arizona to take energy from their systems.