Jerry Brooks laid out the ground rules for the forum in the interest of time. Marcella Peters was the time keeper. Each candidate was given 2 minutes in which to introduce themselves.

Candidates: John Allen, Rick Fowlkes, Joe Hobbs, Marian McClure, Bob Robson, Bob Stump, Keith Swapp, and Barry Wong [only Joe Hobbs was absent]. Three seats will be open on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Keith Swapp said he is a Conservative Republican with an electronics and power background. He has worked at the Bureau of Reclamation, the Central Arizona Project and worked on dam modification.

Rep. Bob Stump has been the elected representative of District 9 for 6 years and has been on 7 legislative committees there. He has dealt with multimillion dollar budgets, health care, and been on the water and agriculture committee. He has been rated a Champion of Taxpayers and has been endorsed by all of the sitting members of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC).

Rep. Bob Robson is the current House Speaker Pro Tem; has a criminal justice education and is from New York. He has served as the representative from District 20 for 6 years.

Rep. Marian McClure is from Pima County and has been a representative since 2001. She wants to be a consumer watchdog.

Rick Fowlkes has a structural engineering background and experience in industries which the ACC oversees: electrical power, oil piping, and railroads. He has an MBA and Civil Engineering degrees. Emphasized the technical expertise of his team of Swapp, Hobbs and Fowlkes.

Barry Wong is an Arizona native, got his degree at ASU, has a law degree from UA, served 4 terms in the state legislature and was appointed for 6 months in the ACC in 2006. He is interested in energy, water, and stopping scammers in investments.

[John Allen came later but will insert his introduction here] He is a fiscal conservative and has received all the conservative awards possible regarding his handling of taxpayer funds and social issues. He served 4 years as a representative in Arizona. His son just got married this past weekend and they had a big group of folks in for the wedding.

Questions:

1. What would be your first priority as a commissioner?

Stump: Need more nuclear power; would lobby on the Federal level if necessary to get it.

Robson: Concerned about the cost to produce energy; need to petition Fed. Gov’t to go forward on nuclear; need to integrate solar power into Arizona’s future; need reliable sources of energy and water.

McClure: Would look toward putting a refinery in Yuma; would work with all factions; need more nuclear and solar power.

Fowlkes: The ACC needs to end the monopoly system for energy in this state; need to expand the boundaries of the 18 utility companies; need to encourage competition to hold down electrical rates.

Wong: Energy is the priority (renewable); he would maintain the renewable energy standards now in place (15% by 2025).

Swapp: Wants to get rid of the mandate for renewables although he thinks some renewable sources of energy are good; he also wants to reduce the amount of review time involved in corporation applications.

2. Do you approve of solar, wind and/or nuclear power?

Wong: Renewable and nuclear.

Swapp: Cheapest energy source.

Robson: nuclear and solar.

Fowlkes: Nuclear; need to rethink the 15% mandate for renewables.

Stump: Nuclear.

3. Do you support the mandate for renewable resources?

Robson: Renewable are a goal; need to get new resources for energy.

McClure: This should be a goal rather than a mandate; small rural utilities can’t meet the mandate and it will be more costly in small communities.

Fowlkes: The mandate of 15% is a one size fits all and will cost the rate payers. Power costs too much under this mandate.

Wong: He was the deciding vote for this mandate in 2006 and stands by this; people can find creative ways to finance renewable sources of power.

Swapp: Agrees with Fowlkes that the mandate will raise rates; but is for renewables.

Allen: Not for mandates; solar is extremely expensive; can’t afford to subsidize individual’s personal solar installations.

Stump: opposes government mandates; favors flexible goals; review on a frequent basis; need to drill for more oil!

4. Will you support an oil refinery in Arizona?

McClure: Biggest obstacle we have are groups that are more concerned about killing a bug than they are people. We need to get Federal permission to build a refinery; she has Fed contacts.

Fowlkes: Favors the Yuma refinery (or wherever it might be built); would do whatever necessary to support this.

Wong: Supports refinery; also need natural gas storage facilities to be built to store gas for emergencies.

Swapp: Favors refinery; need to work with environmentalists to put in gas storage. Allen: Petroleum based refineries are needed; gas storage is a problem. Privately funded solutions to be utilized.

Stump: New refinery; was critical of wind power—needs too much land space for less power production. But need diverse portfolio of energy sources: hydrocarbons, solar, nuclear.

Robson: Yes!

5. Explain coal gasification as an energy source.

Fowlkes: Arizona has vast resources of coal—a viable possibility; private investors.

Wong: If it can be developed as a clean source of energy—non-polluting; however, solar and wind is the way to go. Wants to keep to the mandate deadline of 2025.

Swapp: Would need investors to make it happen. The US has an abundance of coal and scrubber technology cleans the air from the coal but may possibly not remove sulphur, etc.

Allen: Mexico has such a plant and he had wanted to visit it but was unable to. A good commissioner needs to be on top of new technologies; need to see if this is affordable; take a long term view of the needs of the state.

Stump: Need energy that is cleaner and cheaper and easy to obtain—keep a diverse portfolio.

Robson: need to build a sustainable future for the state; worries about coal. Solar and wind are tested technologies. Need to also be concerned about delivery of energy; need to be careful where plants are built.

McClure: Doesn’t know much about coal gasification; if she learned it was good, she would back it. Must have adequate water, electricity, natural gas; must be mindful of placement of facilities.

Jerry Brooks pointed out that coal gasification is clean and emits no sulphur; he hoped the ACC would look into this for Arizona.

6. Given the limited success of utility deregulation in other states, what would you do about this in Arizona?

Fowlkes: Go to a regulated competitive marketplace; monopolies are rewarded for operating inefficiently and costs go up. Put all utility companies on a level playing field and cap rates based on energy standards. Competition will hold down the rates.

Wong: supports competition; Arizona has limited wholesale deregulated market energy. He asked tough questions when APS tried to raise their rates.

Swapp: Would work for rate payers; fair competition; long-term consistent regulatory policies.

Allen: AZ has good deregulated market; will open to competitive bids to get lowest kwt/h cost.

Stump: promoted deregulation if infrastructure needs require more, have to be careful.

Robson: APS has financial difficulties; might need to join co-op utilities in small communities to help them produce fair rated and reliable power.

McClure: To ensure competitive rates, follow the pattern of ACC: i.e., Tucson needed a rate increase; ACC gave them 6% plus increased cost of fuel. Was unsure she followed Fowlkes point of view on this issue.

7. Is it possible to remove the franchise tax for telecoms?

Wong: All taxes need to be reviewed to see if it is necessary or not.

Swapp: The Corp. Commission doesn’t have anything to do with taxes.

Allen: Like all taxes, it should go away and it never will! ACC should get out of controlling telecoms; get regulators out of this.

Stump: Unnecessary taxation impinges on taxpayer’s liberty.

Robson: Doesn’t want more taxes but legislature is in charge of taxes; it may be necessary for 9/11 requirements.

McClure: As a Republican, she never saw a tax she liked; this isn’t a purview of ACC to regulate taxes; need to see what is being paid for by this tax.

Fowlkes: ACC has no authority but could petition the legislature.

8. What happened in California, where utility rates sky rocketed with deregulation—what to do about that in Arizona?

Wong: We want competition—need to look at right time and place.

Robson: What’s wrong with way it is handled now? Have to be open to change but have responsibility of guarding the state’s future.

Fowlkes: We need to go from monopolies to regulated competitive market. What happened in CA was illegal collusion (Enron). Competitive markets are successful in many states.

9. Address securities and corporate fraud.

Robson: With his criminal justice background, he is interested in this. Cited the Baptist Foundation debacle investigated by the ACC; lots of investment fraud (especially with seniors) in AZ.

Allen: ACC can do a better job; needs better internal organization; needs to invest in faster technologies to investigate; education could be more proactive—PSA announcements of dangers, etc.

McClure: She was most interested in security fraud, even in established companies. Cited a personal experience in this area. Seniors are getting ripped off.

Stump: Also had a personal experience with security scams.

Swapp: Thinks securities should be a law issue not ACC; should be in Attorney General’s office.

Wong: The ACC has top lawyers to investigate. Some fraud is civil; some is criminal;. State makes money on securities division.

Fowlkes: ACC needs to work the Attny. Gen’s office. Caution: move to expand ACCs powers to investigate personal bank accounts, etc. could be an invasion of personal freedoms.

WRAP UP—each candidate spoke for 3 minutes.

Wong: Thanked everyone. Served 6 months at ACC and had experience in all divisions. ACC is essential to the well-being of all lives in AZ.

Swapp: Is a conservative Republican. We need reliable and dedicated commission. He ran a water company, worked at Bureau of Reclamation; will work for rate payers to keep rates low. Need fair competition and consistent regulatory policies.

Allen: In Arizona 25 years; collect antique cars; served 4 years in legislature; loves AZ—need to protect it and its energy policies. Has received numerous prestigious awards as a conservative. When in doubt, vote alphabetically!

Stump: Need a vision to make AZ livable and sustainable; endorsed by Steve Yarbrough, Trent Franks, and all sitting ACC commissioners.

Robson: Has served in Chandler on commissions; then on City Council; then state legislature. Runs insurance and a printing business, so knows about paying utility bills. ACC is next challenge for him. In the legis. ID theft has been his focus; also computer felonies against kids. He knows how to rise to the occasion and understand the role and do the job.

McClure no formal education; has a high IQ and is self-educated; was elected to the legislature in 2000—you want somebody with experience in public policy decisions on the ACC. She is running as a team with Stump and Robson.

Fowlkes: Thanked all. Consider 3 things when you vote for ACC: qualities; character, and commitment. Need men with actual experience in issues covered by ACC. His family is here and he wants to make AZ good for them. Need commissioners who will promote competition with feasible solutions to keep rates down. He shared Joe Hobbs experience of 30 years in IT industry, etc.