Monarch Casino & Resort, owner of Atlantis Casino Resort in Reno, said in a surprise announcement that Chief Operating David Farahi was leaving the company on Sept. 3.

“We haven’t had a Christmas tree since my son was killed,” Gold Star Mother Sharon Zaehringer said through tears. “Last year was the first year we had a tree and it was here at the Atlantis. So I will come down here and sit and look at the pictures and honor our children that are on the tree.”

Commission members have scheduled an agenda item for Tuesday’s meeting to discuss and possibly adopt the proposed contract, which would see it become at least the fourth government agency to receive direct cash payments from NV Energy in return for a promise not to consider leaving NV Energy for another electric provider.

The PUC’s quick discussion and 2-1 vote on Wednesday to deny NV Energy’s request to reconsider an earlier PUC order granting the casino’s request to depart the utility is perhaps the last nail in an effort by NV Energy to coax, delay or dispute efforts by nearly a dozen large companies to leave utility service.

Members of the Clark County School District’s Board of Trustees have scheduled an agenda item and possible vote during their upcoming Thursday meeting on a contract that would lock the district into an agreement to remain an NV Energy customer for the next five years, in return for annual $1.5 million in either direct cash payments or through a special rate program for large customers.

The two contracts offer a unique view into just how far NV Energy — which is owned by the Warren Buffet-run Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate — is willing to go to entice large Nevada power users to remain utility customers, as many of the largest businesses in the state have openly weighed or taken proactive steps to buy power from other electric providers.

In a filing last week, NV Energy attorneys withdrew the utility’s pending application for its Optional Pricing Program Rate (OPPR), stopping regulatory approval on an alternative pricing mechanism proposed by the utility last year as a way to keep multiple large businesses from filing or continuing with applications to leave the utility.

In a joint statement sent Tuesday, NV Energy and Station Casinos announced they had reached an agreement on fully bundled electric service and that the casino company — which owns multiple properties in the Las Vegas area including Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa, Palace Station and Green Valley Ranch — would withdraw its application before the state’s Public Utilities Commission to depart from utility electric service and purchase power from another provider.

According to filings made with the Public Utilities Commission over the last month, attorneys for the Raiders have requested and received permission to suspend compliance with the terms of the under-construction stadium’s departure from its planned exit from NV Energy in order to assess an alternative offer by NV Energy.

The two companies have agreed to a fully bundled energy service, leading South Point to withdraw its application with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada that would have allowed the casino company to buy electric power from another provider.

The two entities made the announcement in a joint press release sent Wednesday, ending the LVCVA’s flirtation with leaving the utility to purchase power from another electric provider and keeping another large customer within the utility’s folds.

Introduced by Democratic Sen. Chris Brooks on Wednesday, SB5XX would substantially alter the state’s so-called 704B law for the first time since it was created in 2001, adding numerous new restrictions and requirements — including a new licensing structure, additional payments and more requirements for a departure — for businesses that already have or are in the process of departing NV Energy’s electric service.

In a joint press release sent late Monday, the two companies announced they had reached a “long-term energy supply agreement” and have “recommitted” to a partnership — signaling an end to the constant sniping and internecine warfare between the two corporate giants that had in many ways defined the state’s energy landscape for the last five years.

The 3,027-room Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas hotel and casino filed an application with state energy regulators last week to leave NV Energy’s electric service and to purchase power on the open market; the third such business or entity to do so in 2019.

Applications filed this month show that both the LVCVA and a planned hydrogen fuel plant built by Air Liquide are seeking to leave the state’s primary electric utility, the first two of 2019 and the latest in a growing line of businesses that have filed to leave the utility as a full-service customer.

Potential competition coming from more than $1 billion of Indian casino development in Northern California isn’t causing Reno gaming operator David Farahi to lose any sleep. If he ran a casino in Sacramento, however, Farahi says he would have concerns.

Two additional major Nevada casinos have filed applications with state regulators to leave NV Energy as electric customers, joining the double-digit parade of companies filing to leave the utility and further clouding the state’s energy future.

Another major Nevada gaming property has filed an application to leave NV Energy and purchase electricity from another provider, the eighth company to do so in 2018. The South Point Hotel and Casino on Dec. 6 filed an application with the state’s Public Utility Commission seeking to leave NV Energy and purchase power from a new provider starting on July 1, 2019.

Boyd Gaming, which operates eight casinos in Las Vegas and several others throughout the country, filed an application with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada on Nov. 28 kickstarting the process that would allow the company to purchase electricity from a company other than NV Energy.