A nuclear option?
A conversation on power and data ... Somebody's feeling triggered ... And neat bus!
Wondering how the Arizona Corporation Commission feels about Project Blue or Tucson Electric Power’s 14% rate increase?
We spoke to one of the commissioners, Lea Márquez Peterson, as she sat down with radio host Bill Buckmaster for more than half an hour on Friday.
The long-running radio host invited Joe to be part of the conversation, giving us a chance to pose a few specific questions about Project Blue (and Project Red, White and Blue), TEP and the future of nuclear power in Arizona.
We started with data centers, which Márquez Peterson says are a leading industry pushing for increased overall energy generation in Arizona. The state is second in the nation for data center development interest, thanks to our population growth, lack of natural disasters and our ability to generate solar energy, Márquez Peterson said.
But she said that the increased strain on the power grid that they’ll create shouldn’t mean higher rates for the general public.
“We’ve all been very vocal that growth must pay for growth. So we’d want to make sure that a technology company, whatever it may be, would be responsible financially and so it’s not on the backs of residential ratepayers,” she said.
As for the push by the Trump administration to allow AI data centers to be built on excess land at U.S. Air Force bases, including Davis-Monthan, Márquez Peterson has questions — including how a privately run company would work on a military base.
She noted that the Marana data centers — which are still in the planning stages — will still have to come before the Corporation Commission, albeit indirectly, since any electric company serving the data center would likely need to build a new power generation plant.
“(The developer of the Marana date centers) would have to probably build generation in order to serve that Marana data center facility, whether that’s TEP or TRICO, because we actually regulate the electric retail co-ops in the state and there’s seven of them,” Márquez Peterson said.
Electric generation is going to be a big issue moving forward, and Márquez Peterson noted that the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Phoenix is already producing at essentially its maximum capacity.
While TEP has voluntarily committed to using green energy sources by 2050, that doesn’t rule out, well, nuclear options.
In February, TEP signed a letter along with Arizona Public Service (APS) and Salt River Project (SRP) saying they were exploring options to add more nuclear power in Arizona.
It’s unclear what that might look like. While Tucson is unlikely to see a traditional nuclear reactor anytime soon, alternatives could include expanding Palo Verde or investing in small modular reactors.
The latter could help solve the energy crunch caused by the growing number of data centers in Arizona, she said.
“Hypothetically, looking at data centers and other semiconductor industry or manufacturing, if they were to fund a small modular nuclear on their facilities that also serve our grid, especially during peak time, which is 4 to 7 p.m., that seems like a great win,” she said.
A decision on nuclear power in Arizona — at least on modular reactors — may come after Márquez Peterson leaves the commission. She is term-limited and will step down in 2028, and it’s unclear whether that technology will be ready to deploy by then.
“There are 10 different types of technologies that are being studied and analyzed. So I think as we narrow that down with time,” she said, adding there’s no commercial application yet for modular reactors.
TEP’s rate increase
We asked Márquez Peterson about TEP’s upcoming 14% rate increase request, which will come before the commission in the next few months.
Her main point was to clarify that the requested rate increase covers previously incurred costs — repairs and new infrastructure since the last case — not future spending.
”I try to explain to folks when any utility puts the rate application in front of us, what they’re asking for, they’re looking for a return on their investment because they’ve already spent the money. So $100 million, or whatever they’ve spent on their infrastructure, on substations, on repair, maintenance and operations, they spent that money taking the risk,” she said.
The City of Tucson, Pima County, and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes have filed to be intervenors in the rate case, which Márquez Peterson said is fairly typical in major cases.
Investments made by TEP in infrastructure over the last few years provide stability, but those investments have to be tempered with keeping rates affordable, she said.
“We’ve got to keep the utility financially healthy to continue to support the infrastructure because the most important thing for the five of us is reliable energy. We can’t have rolling blackouts like you’ve seen in California and other places. But we’ve got to do it at the most affordable rates. So it’s a constant balance,” she said.
She encourages everyone in TEP’s service area to write in about the rate increase, whether they support it or are opposed to the request.
“They are welcome to send an email directly to me or any of the commissioners and we’ll put it in a docket, which is like an online legal folder so the public and all the commissioners can see that,” Márquez Peterson said.
While Márquez Peterson didn’t weigh in on the merits of TEP’s rate case, she did say she is opposed to the City of Tucson trying to take over TEP and turn it into a municipal-owned and operated electric utility.
“From my perspective, I think the city of Tucson mayor and council have a lot on their plate. There are a lot of things we need to support and invest in in terms of the roads and infrastructure and transportation and so on. I’d rather they focus there than taking on such a complex issue like TEP,” she said.
Want to weigh in on TEP’s request? You can read the 1,605-page request here and email the commission here.
One of the first tweets came from former state senator and fake elector Anthony Kern criticizing Vail School District math teachers for wearing bloody T-shirts on Halloween.
Without any context other than a photo of the teachers, Kern concluded it appears that they “mock the death of (Charlie Kirk) and promote violence against MAGA?!”
Republican Rep. Rachel Keshel, a Tucson-area Republican, and Arizona Freedom Caucus leader Sen. Jake Hoffman doubled down, with the latter writing in all caps “BLOODTHIRSTY TEACHERS CELEBRATE CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION ON CAMPUS.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis weighed in, getting an audience at last count of 1.8 million with his hot take from, again, Florida. TPUSA Spokesman Andrew Kolvet has 9.3 million views for a similar post saying “They deserve to be famous, and fired.”
Vail School District Governing Board member Chris King responded directly to his fellow Republicans telling them that they were wrong, showing that the teachers wore the same matching shirts a year earlier.
It’s just a math joke, King explained.
Hoffman responded that King was protecting the teachers, whom he called “psychopaths.”
Keshel also questioned the photo, saying her daughter — who attended a Vail school last year — didn’t remember the teachers wearing the shirts. She then asked people on Twitter to send her “proof” of the photo, with specific timestamps, to her state email address.
Others in the Twitter comments threads also doubted the 2024 photo, suggesting it was AI-generated.
We spoke with Vail Superintendent John Carruth, who confirmed the teachers wore the same shirt last year and that teachers are referencing a math joke, not making a political statement.
“We want to clarify that these shirts were part of a math-themed Halloween costume meant to represent solving tough math problems. The shirts were never intended to target any person, event, or political issue,” Carruth wrote in a public statement intended for Vail School District parents.
He then offered to email the 2024 photo of the teachers wearing the same shirt to anyone who asked.
On Sunday, Hoffman deleted his original tweet but not others related to the post. Including one calling the T-shirts “beyond inappropriate” before pivoting to the need for universal school vouchers.
Keshel hadn’t deleted her tweets, but stated on Twitter she “may even apologize” but only if the story checks out.
At this point, the teachers have already been publicly doxxed and while we wait to see if she apologizes, we’re guessing not everyone is going to take down their inflammatory posts.
King is running for a state Senate seat to represent Legislative District 17 next year. Something tells us he won’t get the Freedom Caucus endorsement.
We aren’t sure what is going to happen with SNAP or how the federal shutdown is impacting individual families in southern Arizona.
With no negotiations planned to end the federal shutdown this week, we want to hear from you.
Send an email to Joe and let us know your concerns. All e-mails will be kept confidential.
Gov. Katie Hobbs shared the stage with former Rep. Gabby Giffords and Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva on Saturday here in Tucson, kicking off her re-election campaign.
We aren’t the first to say it, but using the slogan “Arizona First” for her statewide tour makes our brains itchy.
It’s almost like we’ve seen it before somewhere…
Also, we admire the Hobbs campaign’s decision to say yes to all of the fonts for their new rolling headquarters.
Really rich Jake Hoffman calling public school teachers "psychopaths." After all, Jake Hoffman is the one who called Vice President, Mike Pence, on January 5, 2021 and told him not to accept Arizona's certified electoral votes for Joe Biden.
This is cross posted with my Facebook, but figured it could live here as well. Thank you for your reporting!
*When Facts No Longer Matter*
What’s happening in the Vail School District is turning into something ugly and it has become a true Halloween horror show.
Teachers wore “Problem Solved” shirts at a spirit event, which were the same shirts they wore last year. The 2024 photos were shared by well-known local Republican board member Chris King.
There’s no mystery here and no conspiracy. As it usually is, the facts are boring. At worst, someone might say fake blood is inappropriate at school. But these shirts have nothing to do with Charlie Kirk; it’s just a group of educators now being targeted and doxxed by people who refuse to believe what’s right in front of them.
And when the proof appeared soon after the first postings? Some said they didn’t believe it, that it was photoshop or AI. Others twisted themselves into knots to make it fit the story they’d already chosen. So few of those people waited to form an opinion before all of the facts were laid out. So many of them went for the rage bait.
This isn’t just a local scandal, it’s epistemic rot. When truth becomes optional, democracy itself starts to decay. Communities fracture, trust dissolves and divided we fall.
Like Macbeth grasping at the prophecy that confirmed his ambition, people cling to the story that flatters their fears, even as it leads them toward ruin. The tragedy isn’t that the truth is hidden, it’s that they no longer wish to see it. Refuse to, even. It has become a mark of pride to double down, and increasingly difficult to either pause and wait for more information or to admit you’ve changed your mind.
The cost here isn’t abstract. Teachers are being harassed, and a school community is under threat. Right here. These are OUR kids and OUR teachers. The national rage machine has infiltrated OUR community.
But here is what’s even more terrifying: If we can’t tell the difference between a dated photo and a convenient fantasy, how will we handle what’s coming? Deepfakes. Propaganda. Fabricated wars and targeted algorithms.
If people can’t believe this proof, how will they believe any proof? Will they even care about truth?
The defense of truth doesn’t begin in Washington or on a debate stage. It begins right here in Vail, in Tucson, in Pima County. It is in whether we can still recognize what’s real when it costs us our favorite story. If we want to preserve our democracy, we must first protect our capacity to pause, to see what’s true, and have the grace to change our minds if need be. And above all, invoking the power to love another.