PHOENIX – The state Court of Appeals has thrown a hurdle into efforts by the Arizona Corporation Commission to expedite rate hike requests by utilities.

In a unanimous decision, the judges said the Residential Utility Consumer Office should be given the chance to prove that the process to review rate increases that the all-Republican commission adopted last year is a formal rule.

What makes that important is the three-judge panel refused to simply accept arguments from the commissioners that what they had done was simply a change in policy – something they were free to do without the same extensive hearings and public input required for a new rule.

More to the point, the ruling means that pending rate hikes cannot use the commission-adopted truncated process until there is a final decis

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