This story was originally Guardian is reproduced here as part of the climate desk collaboration.

A handful of weary residents gathered in the windowless Randolph Church to ponder the power company’s latest effort to expand the plant. This is a polluting gas-fired power plant next to a community that state regulators have blocked for environmental and health reasons.

Randolph is a historic black community in central Arizona, with railroads and heavy hazard industries on both sides, a dusty little place where residents are exposed to some of the worst air quality in the state, but no fire hydrants, trash. Basic facilities such as collection, medical care, etc. are not in place.

Last year, when state regulators rejected a proposal by the utility Salt River Project (SRP) to more than double the size of the power plant, determined it would do more harm to Randolph residents, the community Celebrate a historic victory. for the public good.

It was a big win for clean energy and environmental justice in Arizona, according to the Sierra Club, an environmental group that denounced the proposed expansion as: “Textbook of environmental racism”

But the SRP has refused to take no as an answer, and residents fear state regulators will reverse the decision.

“We win, they lose, but they don’t take it and come back. This is not democratic,” says Ron Jordan, 77, whose family has lived in Randolph since the 1930s. I was. “They have good things hanging in front of us, but the community doesn’t want it. We already have too much pollution. This is not right.”

At a recent community meeting held at a modest church, the SRP announced that if residents withdrew their opposition to the plant expansion, they would invest $50,000 in landscaping and signage in addition to a new community center, air quality monitoring, and other projects. Offered to fund.

“Whatever they offer, we won’t give up,” said Guadalupe Felix, 45, whose family has lived in Randolph for three generations. “This plant is trying to kill us. We are already suffocating.”

Communities say they won’t back down, but utilities across the country have a track record of getting what they want. energy and the Policy Institute (EPI). “Refusing to say no is incredibly common.”

Randolph is an unincorporated town in Pinal County, first settled by mostly black families who came to the Gila River Valley to pick cotton from Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in the 1920s and 30s. One of the only places where black families could buy real estate, and by the 1960s, home to Mexicans and Native Americans, the tight-knit farming community was thriving with shops, bars, churches and gas stations. was proud of

The mechanization of the cotton industry led to economic and demographic decline in the community, after which the nearby town of Coolidge began annexing land around Randolph, turning it into an industrial area.

Today, only about 150 people live in an area the size of seven football fields and three widths, some of whom live in homes or plots purchased by their ancestors. No shops, no bars, no gas stations, no parks. Only churches have tall palm trees for shade.

The farmlands and desert plains where children rode bikes to chase roadrunners are long gone, and Randolph now manufactures gas plants, pipelines, hazardous waste dumps, and Donald Trump’s border wall. surrounded by polluted infrastructure, including steel companies that have contracts to

Communities are literally surrounded by cumulative and serious dangers.

Pinal County has the worst air pollution in Arizona, according to the American Lung Association and the Environmental Protection Agency. It also bears the brunt of the climate crisis as drought and water shortages continue, forcing farmers to fallow their farms or sell them to solar power plants. In August 2021, gas pipeline explosion He threw the residents of Randolph out of their beds, lit a giant fireball, and killed farm worker Luis Alvarez and his 14-year-old daughter Valeria.

Part of the problem is the gas-fired power plant, which lights up at night, hums like an airport, and spits toxins and greenhouse gases out of 12 towering chimneys. SRP purchased the plant in 2019 and two years later sought environmental approval from the Arizona Business Commission (ACC) for his nearly $1 billion expansion of 820MW.

ACC is the state utility regulatory agency responsible for approving rate increases and new energy projects for SRP power plants and transmission lines, as well as private energy, water and telecommunications operators. Every state has a version of the ACC, most commonly called the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

As the community, the Sierra Club, and others organized against the factory expansion, the SRP announced plans to help fund road paving, landscaping projects, scholarships and vocational training programs, and recognized Randolph as a National Historic Landmark. We also announced an attempt to

In April 2022, the ACC rejected SRP’s expansion plans after concluding that utilities had not considered viable green energy alternatives such as solar cells and storage batteries before proceeding with plant expansions. Did. (The Commission rejected the recommendation by the Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Commission for the granting of environmental certificates.)

The SRP requested a new hearing, which the ACC refused. The utility then filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court and lost. ” [ACC] We decided that the environmental impact was more important than the needs of the proposed project. The SRP has not shown its decisions to be illegal or unreasonable,” the court ruled in January 2023.

The SRP still refused to say no and has since petitioned the State Supreme Court for a hearing and persuaded the ACC to resume its discussion of the expansion.

“The SRP is used to giving way and is pushing everything. The ACC has a huge impact on people’s lives, but the process exhausts the community. It’s heartbreaking for the people of Randolph who felt their voices were heard.”

The ACC is enshrined in the state constitution and, unlike PUCs in other states, is also responsible for rail and pipeline safety, business incorporation, and securities regulation. In most states, the PUC commissioner is appointed by the governor, but in his quarter of states, including Arizona, the commissioner is directly elected by the voters.

“Utilities usually try to get a new decision from the PUC if they don’t like the original decision on rate hikes or new gas plants. [for new commissioners] Alternatively, if they think the legislative branch is friendly to their claims, they try to avoid the commission altogether.

last year, PUC, Indiana’s Public Utility Regulatory Commissionapproved two new gas plants three years after rejecting the utility’s initial proposal for failing to give sufficient consideration to renewable energy. Virginia state legislator who received a large donation from Dominion Energy Washington also spends a lotrecently tried to pass legislation to boost the company’s authorized profit margins, even as households struggle to pay their bills.

Utilities are spending heavily on state politics, and in the 2020 election cycle, investor-owned energy utilities are likely to be under pressure from influential political organizations such as Republican and Democratic governors and the Association of Attorneys General. Donated approximately $12 million. According to EPI analysisTo get what they want from Congress, power companies $347 million to lobby Washington Over the past three years, including $3.4 million from SRP affiliates, According to public secret.

Utilities are known to have spent significant amounts of money to influence campaigns in states with elected commissioners such as: Georgia, Louisianaand Arizona.

In Arizona, the ACC is the primary government agency working on the climate crisis. In 2006, we established energy standards that require utilities to generate at least 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

ACC is A handful of partisan utility regulatorsfour of the five current commissioners (including two new members elected in January) are Republicans. Kevin Thompson17 years with the state’s largest gas company, Nick Myers Both are outspoken critics of the Clean Energy Directive.

Shortly after a High Court judge upheld the ACC’s original decision to block the expansion of the plant, the reconstituted committee allowed the SRP to retake its claim and unanimously held talks with the utility. decided to restart.

Since then, the SRP has provided Randolph residents with a list of possible investments and concessions to the community should the expansion be approved.

“This is a classic case of systemic racism, where corporations with money and power go to extremes to get what they want,” said Constance Jackson, NAACP Pinal County chapter president. “It’s sad that the community has to go through this again because of the decisions that have been made. It shouldn’t be back on the ACC agenda.”

ACC spokesperson JP Martin said: The Commission’s legal department is working with the SRP’s legal team, and that is all that is currently known. “

A public utility spokesperson said: We have an air quality permit that limits factory emissions to levels that protect human health and the environment. This project also aligns with our commitment to clean energy and grid transformation.

“SRP continues to explore ways to move forward with the Randolph community and is committed to continuing to expand our relationship and partnership with the community.”

In Randolph, the residents are tired, but not defeated. “Even though it doesn’t look like it does now, Randolph was a great place to grow up. “The ACC has made a decision. This should be over.”