Electric Deregulation

Following the disastrous California energy crisis of 2000-2001, Arizona wisely put the brakes on efforts to completely deregulate its electric industry. Instead, the Corporation Commission instituted what is now know as “Track B”, a process by which the state’s electric utilities are required to purchase power on the open market during a specified time of the year.

However, Arizona’s electric competition rules remain in place, and I believe it is time to begin thinking about rewriting those rules and re-instituting a form of real electric competition in Arizona that will ultimately result in lower prices for ratepayers. Competition especially works in the aggregate and for large purchasers of power (such as mines and companies like Intel).