Republicans sweep key utility regulator races in Arizona and Louisiana

The nation veered in a more conservative direction on Election Day, and the few contested races for state-level utility regulators were no exception.

Public utility commissioners vote on crucial decisions for each state’s energy system, like what power plants and gas infrastructure utilities can build, and how much they can charge their customers. In energy-rich Louisiana and sun-drenched Arizona, Democratic candidates with professed commitments to clean energy had a nominal shot at shifting the balance of power on their commissions. In both places, that did not come to pass.

Louisiana’s second district got to vote for a new regulator to replace Craig Greene, a Republican who ultimately championed energy-efficiency measures for electricity customers and supported more renewable energy in the state. ​“The seat he is in has historically been considered a​‘swing’ vote between the two red and two blue districts,” Logan Burke, executive director of the Louisiana consumer advocacy nonprofit Alliance for Affordable Energy, previously told Canary Media.​

On Tuesday, voters in District 2 elected Republican Jean-Paul Coussan, a lawyer and state legislator who chairs the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee. Coussan has publicly supported oil and gas as a legislator. His campaign messaging focused on being a ​“true conservative watch dog” to ensure ​“affordable and reliable energy.” He’s viewed as more moderate than Republican candidate Julie Quinn, who said she would ​“oppose liberal-thinking Green New Deal initiatives,” but less predisposed toward a clean energy buildout than Democrat Nick Laborde.

Over in Arizona, voters got to pick from a roster of eight candidates to fill three of five seats on the state’s utility regulatory body, called the Arizona Corporation Commission. As of Thursday afternoon, the three Republicans were boxing out their rivals, with two-thirds of the vote tallied.

In theory, the trio of open seats in politically contested Arizona made room for at least one Democrat to break through. In practice, Arizona voters cast more votes for Donald Trump than Kamala Harris, and many of them voted Republican on down-ballot races too, including for the three Republican ACC candidates — Rachel Walden, Rene Lopez, and Lea Márquez Peterson. The leading Democrat, Ylenia Aguilar, is trailing the third-place Republican by 1.3 percent of the vote — and the gap has been widening.

“The ACC has an enormous amount of power for determining the trajectory of Arizona’s energy future,” said Nick Arnold, Arizona state director for advocacy group Climate Cabinet. ​“It seems clear that the incoming GOP supermajority would like to see Arizona’s weak clean energy and efficiency standards repealed, expand approval of methane gas plants, and continue to disregard not only climate considerations but also fairness for ratepayers.”

Just a few years ago, the Republican-led commission was drafting its own 100 percent clean electricity standard. But the political winds have shifted: The commissioners eventually blocked that proposal, and in February launched a proceeding to remove the much less ambitious renewable target that has been on the books for 15 years. Márquez Peterson, for her part, affirms the utilities’ voluntary company-level pledges to decarbonize their power sources — she just doesn’t want to use the power of the regulatory commission to influence the pace of the clean energy transition.

Elsewhere, Montana also elected only Republican candidates for the three open seats on its Public Service Commission. They will weigh issues such as what to do with aging coal plants and proposed renewable power plants.

Only 10 states elect PUC commissioners; in most states, they get appointed by governors, leaving voters less of a pathway to influence their selection. With the incoming Trump administration slated to unravel many Biden-era clean energy policies, the handful of utility regulators in each state could take on new influence as the arbiters of the pace of the energy transition.