Nevada Resort Association backs Energy Choice Initiative, Question 3
CARSON CITY — Nevada’s largest casino industry trade group is throwing its support behind the effort to break up NV Energy’s electricity monopoly.
The Nevada Resort Association announced Friday that is endorsing the Yes on 3 campaign for Question 3, also called the Energy Choice Initiative, group President Virginia Valentine said.
“We support a yes vote on Question 3 because we believe that our employees and residents should have the same opportunity for choice that we had,” Valentine said in a statement.
Several gaming companies in Nevada, including Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and the Peppermill in Reno paid multimillion dollar fees to leave NV Energy and purchase electricity from other sources, while others have applied to the Public Utilities Commission to do so.
Resort operator Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Switch have donated more than $10 million to the Yes on 3 campaign, the majority of the group’s funding. Meanwhile, NV Energy is funding the No on 3 campaign, donating nearly $12 million to the effort to defeat the measure.
Question 3, a proposed amendment to the Nevada Constitution on the November ballot, would shift Nevada from a monopoly-based utility to an energy-choice model in which customers would choose their electricity providers in a competitive market.
The question passed with more than 70 percent of the vote in 2016. Because it is a constitutional amendment, it must be approved by voters in consecutive elections to take effect.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. President and CEO Sheldon Adelson.
Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.
