Смена ключевого члена совета SRP разрушила большинство «зеленой» коалиции и привела к разделению голосов

A clean-energy slate narrowly won control of SRP’s district board in April. They just lost it. Maricopa County Supervisor Thomas Galvin was sworn in to fill a vacancy on SRP’s governing boards on Thursday. He replaces Nick Brown, a solar advocate and a part of the clean-energy slate that claimed victory in April’s election. With Brown, the clean-energy team held an 8-6 majority on the SRP district board. Those candidates beat out several others who were backed by Turning Point USA’s political arm in a surprisingly high-turnout election. But Brown resigned last month, telling the Arizona Republic it’s time to slow down and spend more time with his family. Galvin was tapped to replace him. ‘I’m not part of any slate’ Galvin is certainly not a Turning Point endorsee, but he’s not on the clean-energy team either. He took a swipe at both Turning Point and the clean-energy slate following the April election. “Complete botch job by Turning Point Action, losing majority of SRP board seats to leftists. This follows TP defeats in PA & WI Supreme Ct races. TP Action, wasting donor money, went to desperate move on ballot harvesting. Losing statewide races & now SRP board seats. Incompetents,” Galvin posted on X. With him on the district board, the membership is split 7-7 with clean-energy team members and others. “I’m not a part of any slate,” Galvin said. Two of the board members, Paul Rovey and Mark Pace, were supported by Turning Point. As are board president Christopher Dobson and Vice President Barry Pacely. SRP is governed by a 14-member Board of Directors and a 30-member council. The seven board members who aren’t a part of the clean-energy board, including Galvin, are not committed to the same pro-renewable energy agenda. What does the clean-energy slate want? Clean-energy board member Ken Clark said the ideological differences have a lot to do with affordability and the cost of data centers in particular. “Clean energy is now the cheapest form of energy in the world. … Over the last seven, 10 years, you have data centers coming in and just forcing all of these utilities across the whole country to scramble and add more gas firming power when we could be asking data centers to carry more of their own weight,” Clark said. Galvin said he’s open-minded about various energy projects. “I would say it’s really good to have an energy mix of uses,” Galvin said. “I am supportive of solar, natural gas — renewables, I should say, not just solar — and nuclear. And obviously there’s some other technologies that people think are around the corner but let’s wait and see on those.” Galvin said he doesn’t want to approach his role on the SRP board with an ideological bent. “You are overseeing a utility, which means it's very important to make sure that the company is running well but also most importantly that you're looking out for ratepayers in terms of affordability,” he said. ‘It felt very engineered’ Clark said Galvin’s appointment to replace Brown “felt very engineered.” The SRP district council ultimately voted on Brown’s replacement. Councilmember Eric Gorsegner was the clean-energy team’s preferred candidate, but Galvin won the seat 15-13. SRP put guidelines in place in 2012 noting that typically a councilmember from the same area as the vacancy would be recommended to fill the position. Gorsegner and Brown are both from the same SRP district, and Galvin was not a sitting senior councilmember. “This was SRP District 7, and the members of District 7 said, ‘we want Eric Gorsegner to move up to the board,' and in fact that precedent was used just a couple months ago for a vacancy replacement on the council, but when it was not convenient, that precedent, those guidelines that were created in 2012, were just ignored. Because it’s about power,” Clark said.