This week, the Arizona Corporation Commission joined dozens of other state regulators and policymakers to oppose a petition filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) seeking to bring net metering under federal jurisdiction. If granted, the petition, filed in April by a group out of New England, would upend two decades of legal and regulatory precedent, in effect taking away the power of the states to oversee their own tailored net metering policies and limit states’ ability to effectively manage their own energy portfolios.
The Arizona Corporation Commission recognized the importance of this issue, voting unanimously on June 11 to submit a letter in opposition to the petition. As the ACC pointed out in its June 15 letter, Arizona was one of the first states with a net metering policy, which, like programs now adopted across the country, allows retail electric customers to receive credit for self-generated electricity over the amount they use in a given billing cycle. Bringing the authority to regulate net metering under federal jurisdiction would upend these programs in Arizona and dozens of other states.
The proper authority for regulating energy policy lies with the states. As Arizona’s Corporation Commissioners stated in their letter, “States are in the best position to assess local conditions and make the types of determinations on cost allocations and retail rates that are the subject of [the petition].” Hopefully the FERC agrees.