Republican candidates have taken an early lead for three seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission, the state’s power and utility regulator.
So far, the results from late Tuesday night showed Republican Rachel Walden in the lead with 858,186 votes, followed by Republican candidate Rene Lopez with 830,387 votes and Republican incumbent, Lea Marquez-Peterson, with 816,492 votes.
“The globe, much less the state of Arizona, is in a clean energy transition so as we see companies and individuals and families wanting to see more clean energy we have to balance that need with also the incredible energy demands facing the state right now,” Marquez-Peterson said. “Arizona is one of the fastest growing states in the country and Maricopa County is actually one of the fastest growing counties and we as commissioners need to ensure that we’re working closely with the utilities to have the right energy generation in place, that it’s reliable, it’s a sustainable source of energy and again, at the most affordable rates.”
Marquez-Peterson, who said she was cautiously optimistic on Election Night, is followed by Democratic challengers Ylenia Aguliar who has 796,636 votes, Jonathan Hill with 791,490 votes and Joshua Polacheck with 753,037.
Arizona will be looking at new energy demands in the coming years, due to a continuously growing population which is why Joshua Polacheck emphasized a need for a change from Republican leadership.
“We’re expecting a 25% to 40% demand increase in our grid over the next 10 to 15 years and we have to be prepared for that. Our current infrastructure will not be able to handle that. You can either build a large expensive, centralized gas power plant, where you’re going to have to keep importing hundreds of millions of dollars a year of gas from the global gas supply chain or, we can build the same generation capacity with the combination of wind of solar, of storage– make sure that we’re using our hydro-electricity more effectively,” Polacheck said.
Polacheck noted the abundance of sunshine in Arizona and how it’s cheaper to build clean energy.
