Arizona Republic Editorial

Utility regulator says Arizona can live without AC. Others aren't so delusional | Opinion

It shouldn't have taken a year and public pressure to get the Arizona Corporation Commission to investigate how APS cut off an elderly woman's electricity on a 95-degree day.

Laurie Roberts 8 May 2025

So, apparently, at least some of Arizona’s utility regulators believe Arizona’s utilities have a responsibility to keep their customers alive.

The Arizona Corporation Commission has now decided to investigate how Arizona Public Service came to disconnect an 82-year-old Sun City West woman’s power on a 99-degree day in May 2024.

Kate Korman’s body was found six days later.

12 News’ Joe Dana broke the story on April 22 — how Korman hadn’t paid her bill since January and how APS assured him that it had made numerous attempts to reach her.

So, the utility cut her off without ever actually talking to her or, apparently, investigating the circumstances that led a longtime customer to suddenly fall $500 behind on her bill.

Commissioner says APS went 'above and beyond'

Corporation Commission Vice Chairman Nick Myers sprang quickly to APS’ defense, saying the commission already reviewed the situation and found no problem with APS’ actions.

“We did address it, and trust me, I’m sure the family doesn’t want made public what we found,” he said in an April 24 social media post. “This is another case where the utility did above and beyond what they needed to, and more importantly the shutting off of power for non payment was NOT the cause of death.”

Actually, the medical examiner said she died of chronic alcohol use with heat stress contributing to her death. The cause of her injury was listed as “exposure to elevated temperatures.”

But Myers, a Republican who supposedly regulates utilities, was all-in for APS.

“I don’t feel it is a utilities responsibility to keep everyone alive,” he wrote in an April 29 post. “They are not doctors.”

If the all-Republican commission had disagreed, you’d think one or more of its members might have said so.

Korman's son says notification went to old number

Instead, it would take a two weeks and a public push by Attorney General Kris Mayes to get the commission to take an interest.

That’s not counting the year since her death.

“The commission is in the process of reviewing the events that led up to the termination of service, as we would for any inquiry initiated by a customer,” a commission spokeswoman said on May 7.

APS has said it tried contacting Korman 10 times before disconnecting her electricity — through email, by phone and even with a warning hung on her door.

Adam Korman, who along with his brother lives out of the state, told The Arizona Republic’s Sasha Hupka that his mother was set up for autopay but that it had stopped working.

He said the utility’s emails to his mother went unread and that a phone call from APS went to an outdated number.

He said they found no evidence of a warning left on her door.

“It’s hard to know when (or even if) she was aware that she was behind on her bill and about to have service disconnected,” he told Hupka via email. “She had the money to pay her bill, so the problem was clearly a failure of processes and communication.”

Arizona must revise law to keep power on at 95 degrees

A problem that seems easily remedied.

If you’re going to cut power to somebody’s home on a 95-degree day — transforming the place into a possible death trap — perhaps you could actually knock on the door first and talk to the person. Especially when you know that person is elderly and, quite possibly, alone.

Better yet, how about a new regulation that says you can’t disconnect somebody on a 95-degree day?

Oh, I know that Commissioner Myers would disagree. As he told someone on social media, “I do not agree with the assertion that you absolutely have to have AC to live."

Some of us, however, find it appalling that a for-profit utility — one that raked in $608.8 million in profits in 2024, up from $501.6 million the previous year — could so easily cut someone off on a sweltering day because she owed $500.

That they couldn’t work with her or at least talk with her before leaving her, sadly, to die.