Attorney General Mayes Challenges Corporation Commission's Repeal of Energy Efficiency Rules

PHOENIX —Attorney General Kris Mayes earlier this week filed an Application for Rehearing challenging the Arizona Corporation Commission's Decision No. 82007, which repealed the state's Electric Energy Efficiency Standards Rules (EEE Rules).

In the filing, submitted under A.R.S. § 40-253(A), the Attorney General's Office argues that the Commission's repeal rests on a legal error — mistakenly treating the EEE Standard's 2020 savings-target deadline as an expiration of the rule itself, when no such sunset provision exists. The application also contends the Commission violated its own Rule Review Procedures by finalizing the repeal before completing a required Final Economic, Small Business and Consumer Impact Statement, and that the impact statement ultimately relied upon contains numerous factual inaccuracies unsupported by the record — including claims about small business impacts, cost-shifting, program oversight, federal funding availability, and utility investment incentives.

"The Commission got this one wrong both on the law and on the facts," said Attorney General Mayes. "Arizonans have relied on these energy efficiency standards for years, and the Commission cannot repeal them based on a misreading of its own rules and a rushed, inaccurate impact statement.”

The Attorney General's Office is asking the Commission to reverse Decision No. 82007 and rehear the matter.

A copy of the filing is available.