Salt River Project: No Democracy Here
I’m wondering how many of you have a right to vote in the Salt River Project (SRP) board elections and don’t even know it.
It starts with this crazy fact: SRP only allows utility customers who own property to vote in their board elections. You get one vote for every acre you own. It’s a feudal acreage voting system.
We all can vote on who runs the Corporation Commission, which governs the other large utilities, but not SRP.
It’s a hold over from when SRP was first created. It was originally a co-operative of farmers and mines that got together over 100 years ago to irrigate their land and channel water for mining. Over time, they figured out they could dam up the water and generate electricity. The’ve since added the usual array of dirty power plants, like coal and methane gas.
Also over time, that acreage was divided up in to small home parcels, and the voting rights were divided in to portions of a vote.
But, think about that. Some rancher with thousands of acres can out-vote thousands of other customers with a swipe of a pen. They probably don’t use thousands of time the amount of energy. Although they probably do use quite a bit more water than one home.
How do you know if you have the right to vote? Well, you need to go to this web page and find out. If you are unsure, just request a ballot here and you will find out. Request a ballot by Friday, March 25, 2022 at 5 pm MST. Elections take place on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. If you have questions or need additional information, call the SRP elections information line at (602) 236-3048, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, or e-mail election@srpnet.com.
There are three major types of property voting rights:
- You are an SRP customer for power.
- You are an SRP customer for water.
- You live in an area that SRP used to serve, but many decades ago gave over to APS. This covers huge swaths of central Phoenix. So, you might have a right to vote in that election and not even know it. I vote every chance I get and I live in Willo!
That last category is great if you want a rebate from SRP every year. It’s called SRP Shareholder Compensation. They cover the difference between what you would have paid had you stayed under SRP and what you do pay under APS.
But, I digress. Let’s go back to this “back-assward” voting system.
Could SRP get hip to the post-US Constitution times and allow all people to vote? Sure! But that would mean somebody would give up power.
Speaking of giving up power, there is an inspiring group of people who are trying to break SRP’s lock on power. It’s worth a look.
Here’s another reason why this is crucial. SRP is singing a pretty song about cutting carbon emissions, but is still putting highly-polluting methane gas in to service. Read about the planned 840MW power plant that SRP is planning for the already environmentally distressed town of Randolph.
Why does this matter to you? Well, if SRP keeps using methane gas (what the industry misleadingly labels as “natural”), SRP will be paying more for gas to fuel the plant in the future than they would for solar, wind and batteries. This is a reality. Gas is a volatile commodity. The sun is not.
Oh, and speaking of sun, SRP put more extra fees on home owners that install solar that probably any utility in the country. That needs to change, too.
