In late spring of 2025, a consultant hired by the City of Tucson said it would cost more than $1 billion to wrest control of Tucson Electric Power from its Canadian owners, Fortis Inc.
TEP said it believed the actual cost was much higher, and it told city leaders it would consider an attempt to acquire the local electric utility a hostile takeover that would lead to a protracted legal battle.
And the conversation over bringing a publicly owned power company to Tucson ground to a halt.
How a city takeover of Tucson Electric Power might look. (Image courtesy of the City of Tucson.)
Politics inside and outside of City Hall ended up overshadowing the endeavor, including three Council Ward elections, the failure of Proposition 414 and a prolonged, very ugly fight over Project Blue.
But TEP was unable to stay off the Tucson City Council’s radar. There were public fights with the council over the renewal of TEP’s Franchise Agreement and a proposed 14% rate hike, as well as complex legal threats over requiring the privately owned utility to underground some of its transmission lines.
And earlier this month, the parent company of TEP announced $422 million in profit in its last quarter of 2025. This makes shareholders happy, but locals wonder how much their bill would be if it wasn’t run by a for-profit business.
Several councilmembers groused publicly that owning the utility would be in the public interest, but the city was far from having a concrete plan how — or if — to move forward.
TEP’s newest ally
A group of TEP supporters calling themselves Southern Arizona Energy Alliance (SAEA) registered the website southernazenergy.org last December, a signal that the fight for public power was still ahead — not just rumors among City Hall policy wonks.
SAEA formally launched less than two weeks ago. The principals include retired TEP executive Larry Lucero, as well as some heavy hitters in Democratic circles, like former Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson and an international representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union, Frank Grijalva.
The website says SAEA is “dedicated in part to preserving access to affordable, reliable electric service for all local residents and businesses” through collaboration between “electric service providers and local jurisdictions.”
As of this weekend, the South Arizona Energy Alliance could use a little more love on social media.
We’ll give you one guess as to which jurisdiction and electric utility that SAEA was referencing.
Lucero’s quote on their website was a little more critical about whether city officials are ready to handle approximately 9,207 Gigawatts.
“Energy reliability is the backbone of our economy. Replacing proven expertise with political uncertainty puts every resident and business in Southern Arizona at risk,” Lucero said.
TEP has joined the chat
The timing is a bit curious, as TEP also recently released its own commissioned study on the costs of a hostile takeover of the electric utility.
The price tag is now $4 billion, according to the Boston-based Brattle Group, whose study also predicts a city takeover would lead to at least a $5.8 billion increase in utility bills over 20 years.
Consultant Brattle Group argues rate-payers would be on the hook for costs associated not only with energy production, but costs associated with the acquisition of TEP’s assets and hiring new staff. (Image courtesy of Brattle Group.)
TEP CEO Susan Gray said last week that the study largely echoes what the utility has been privately telling the City of Tucson for the last two years.
“These latest findings reaffirm what we have consistently stated: A government takeover of our system would be an unrealistic, unaffordable, and unnecessary distraction,” said Gray said.
Critics are quick to say they trust the numbers coming from the third party hired by the city over the hand-picked consultants working directly for TEP.
Another Council discussion
The “public power” discussion is coming back to the Tucson City Council on Tuesday, one of the first items on its study session agenda.
While the council has discussed the idea of purchasing TEP several times in the last year, we think the formation of the SAEA is a pretty noteworthy development. TEP is launching a public campaign long before the council would have the chance to put it on the ballot.
Regardless of the price tag, City Hall insiders say that asking voters to foot a ballot initiative worth well over $1 billion could still be more than a year away — and would require a deeper analysis into the true costs of trying to put TEP under new management.
In the meantime, the council will be asked to look at small, regional solutions that could be adopted at a lower cost, including the idea of the city launching a much smaller municipal-run electric utility, possibly solely serving a single city property.
You can tune in to tomorrow’s study session meeting at 12:30 p.m. here.
The Democrats of Greater Tucson will meet virtually at noon today over Zoom. The guest speaker will be the Democratic nominee for state mine inspector, Brian Matlock. You must pre-register here to attend.
Pima County Republican Club meets today at 11:30 a.m. at The Kettle just west of I-10 on 22nd St.
The Pima County Supervisors and the Tucson City Council will hold a joint meeting at 12:30 inside the Pima Association of Governments (PAG) building. An agenda can be found here. Both governmental agencies will stream the meeting on YouTube.
The South Tucson City Council will meet at 6 p.m. today inside South Tucson City Hall, located at 1601 South 6th Avenue in South Tucson. Their agenda can be found here.
The deadline to return your mail-in ballot for the RTA Next election is Wednesday. After Wednesday, election officials recommend you drop off your ballot at one of the county’s early voting locations.
And tomorrow, the 22nd Street bridge will close for the next two years.
Arizona Traveling Museum is a mobile exhibition touring all 15 Arizona counties beginning February 14, 2026, in Prescott on Statehood Day.
Designed to make America’s 250th anniversary accessible to every Arizonan, the custom-built mobile museum brings history, storytelling, and civic reflection directly to cities, towns, and rural communities across the state.
The exhibit blends defining moments in American history with Arizona’s unique story through immersive panels, a short looping video experience, and interactive activations for all ages.
Visitors are invited to participate in the Dear America, Love Arizona postcard activity, sharing their reflections on our nation’s past and future.
A centerpiece of the traveling museum is a replica Liberty Bell from the Arizona State Capitol, offering a rare opportunity to experience this powerful symbol of freedom and civic responsibility up close.
Admission is free thanks to generous community support.
Sign of the times: A “Game of Thrones” GIF that a Tucson woman posted on social media had far-reaching consequences, and now she’s suing the City of Tempe for $3 million, the Republic’s Taylor Seely reports. Kathleen Tierney posted an image showing a woman overlooking a Valley engulfed by a green smoke explosion in August, with a reference to that night’s meeting of the Tempe City Council. Tempe officials called it a threat and shut down the council meeting. Police didn’t find any evidence Tierney intended to threaten anyone, but she was still arrested at her Tucson apartment a month later. She lost her job and her reputation was damaged after Tempe officials put out a news release naming her.
Free-ish at last: Federal officials released a 79-year-old woman who has been stuck in immigration detention in Eloy for the past nine months, not long after the Arizona Daily Star’s Emily Bregel shed light on her situation. Family members say Julia Benitez suffers from dementia and her condition was deteriorating, including having to use a wheelchair for the first time. ICE officials haven’t said why they released Benitez, but it likely was humanitarian parole, which officials can grant to vulnerable people while their removal proceedings unfold.
"I feel an immense joy that I cannot express," her daughter wrote in a text message. "I don't want to rush things, I just want to keep praying to our Savior."
Old and new: The City of Tucson’s Safe City initiative is connecting more people on the street to resources, but it still leans heavily on arrests, the Arizona Luminaria’s Carolina Cuellar reports. The initiative brings together police, social services and even a video court appearance via a monitor in a van. That led to 21 out of 35 people accepting assistance on a recent day, compared to just one in 10 before the initiative. Still, police officers made eight arrests while Cuellar was out with police on a recent deployment.
Bait and switch: The enormous student housing project going up on the corner of Speedway and Campbell is exactly what developers promised it wouldn’t be, Star columnist Tim Steller writes. When the project was first pitched to Tucson officials and nearby residents more than a decade ago, it was going to have a Whole Foods Market, office space, a shady breezeway and other amenities. But after years of tweaks, the project is now going to be a mega-dorm that houses 1,200 students.
Our promise is the same as always: Every subscription dollar we get goes right back into reporting local news.
Different takes: The planned ICE detention center in Marana is drawing an array of responses from local elected officials, Angela Gervasi reports for Arizona Public Media. Pima County Supervisor Jen Allen says the county “will watch this facility like a hawk” and look for any way to shut it down, while Marana Town Council members like Patrick Cavanaugh say “they’re a private business” and “they have a right to be here,” although he’s hoping the detention center never actually starts operating in Marana at all.
Our apologies to Canadian Music Hall of Famers Barenaked Ladies. We took a stab at a modern rewrite of “If I had a million dollars” with a Tucson twist.
“If I had a billion dollars,
If I had a billion dollars,
Well, I’d municipalize Tucson Electric Power.
I’d municipalize Tucson Electric Power.
And if I had a billion dollars,
If I had a billion dollars,
I'd buy you transmission stations for your grid,
Maybe some nice solar arrays and put those closed coal plants out to bid,
And if I had a billion dollars,
If I had a billion dollars,
Well, I'd buy you a fleet of bucket trucks,
A nice reliable utility vehicle!
And if I had a billion dollars,
I'd buy your love…”