Ford would ‘halt’ NV Energy demand charge, battle Trump policies, says campaign energy plan

If elected governor, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford will “halt” NV Energy’s mandatory demand charge to be imposed next year in Southern Nevada. The plan is one of several affordability-based energy initiatives announced by Ford’s campaign on Thursday.

NV Energy’s demand rate will add a charge based on a customer’s highest 15 minutes of usage, beginning Jan. 1.  

Ford’s plan notes that NV Energy’s approved rate renders it “the first investor-owned utility in the country to apply a mandatory demand charge on its residential customers.” The demand charge, the plan says, would “raise costs on Nevadans and disincentivize residential solar installation. As Governor, Ford will put a stop to it.”

NV Energy’s controversial demand charge could prove to be an issue in the election, should Ford, who is challenging the charge in Clark County District Court, prevail in the Democratic primary against Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill. The charge was approved by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s appointees to the Public Utilities Commission. 

Ford’s energy plan says he’ll appoint commissioners “who are tasked with lowering utility costs for working families in Nevada. Ford will also work with legislators to empower the commission to enforce their recommendations and strengthen the functionality of the commission.”

Among the other tenets of Ford’s plan: 

• build the electric grid and develop clean, affordable energy; 
• provide union jobs; 
• and, turn back President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.

Ford, the plan says, will “support the jobs that data centers bring to our state while requiring them to pay their fair share for their increased energy demand and commit to conserving water.” 

His energy plan would require that data centers “commit to paying for the energy they consume and building out the additional electrical grid infrastructure needed to deliver it.”

If elected, Ford would “cut through red tape to fast-track new energy projects and improvements to the electrical grid and put Nevadans to work building them out,” says his plan. “As a champion of unions he will lend his full support to ensuring that new energy projects are union.”\

By facilitating residential solar installation and energy efficiency incentives, Ford “will balance affordability and sustainability to lower costs for all Nevadans.”

Nevadans, Ford plan says, could pay $289 more a year for energy by 2030, as a result of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill and its cuts to solar tax credits. “As Governor, Ford will work with state organizations like the Nevada Clean Energy Fund to implement and encourage uptake of programs that lower upfront costs and reduce monthly electric bills for homeowners and renters.”

The plan targets the Trump administration’s cut to solar funding “ that would have lowered power bills for 50,000 Nevadans and created 1,000 jobs in Nevada.” 

Trump’s  cuts have “had a devastating impact on our tribes,” including the cancellation of a grant that would have weatherized 150 homes for the Walker River Paiute Tribe. 

“Nevada needs a Governor who’s willing to fight back,” says Ford’s plan, in a  thinly-veiled shot at Lombardo’s obsequious relationship with Trump. 

Lombardo, however, says he was able to leverage his relationship with Trump, who agreed to restore subsidies and allow work to restart on three stalled solar plants in the state.