A whistleblower at the Corp Comm has accused former Commissioner Gary Pierce of secretly meeting with APS CEO Don Brandt and his predecessor, Don Robinson, while the utility was in the middle of rate cases before the regulatory body, Channel 12’s Brahm Resnik reported yesterday (Feb. 18).

Small businesses could start offering a stake in their companies to investors online through equity crowdfunding if a bill authored by Rep. Jeff Weninger and Sen. David Farnsworth passes.

The Arizona Corporation Commission’s first regular meeting of 2015, complete with two new commissioners, breezed by in about 30 minutes with little discussion and all unanimous votes.

The state’s two newest energy regulators took their oath of office today. And for their first official act, Doug Little and Tom Forese helped to elect incumbent Susan Bitter Smith as the Arizona Corporation Commission’s new chairwoman.

The Corporation Commission today tabled a staff-driven proposal to investigate whether the renewable energy rule that requires utilities to derive an increasing portion of their power from residential solar and other distributed energy sources should be scrapped.

Arizona Public Service will soon start installing solar panels on residential homes after the state’s energy regulators paved the way for it to enter the residential solar market.

At least two energy regulators are highly skeptical of a proposal by the state’s biggest utility to enter the rooftop solar market.

Two weeks ago, the Arizona Corporation Commission released a proposal that would eliminate the state’s hugely successful energy efficiency standards, a move that would deprive consumers of billions of dollars in energy savings and kill thousands of jobs.

The Corp Comm’s hearing yesterday (Nov. 13) into APS’s proposal to install solar rooftop panels brought about passionate defenses of the company’s pitch and the existing rooftop-solar industry, but also attacks and snide remarks. “This is a brawl,” one industry insider told our reporter yesterday (Nov. 13).

If three of the five members of the Arizona Corporation Commission coincidentally attend the same holiday party next month, that could land them in hot water.