If APS has its way, electricity bills in the Phoenix metro area and beyond will soon skyrocket. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is trying to do something about it.
Arizona’s largest energy company — which serves about 1.4 million homes — is asking the Arizona Corporation Commission to let it increase the rates it charges customers by 14%. That’s on top of two 8% increases in both 2023 and 2024.
The corporation commission, a little-known but extremely powerful body sometimes referred to as Arizona’s “fourth branch of government,” is charged with balancing the interests of utility companies and people who use energy. But the commission, which is now completely controlled by Republicans, has green-lit rate increases for the last few years and made electricity far costlier for the average person…