Arizona voters increasingly recognize climate change as a crisis and strongly support actions to shift the state’s investments away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy sources and technologies, according to a new poll released today by the American Lung Association.
On Wednesday, the Arizona Corporation Commission is scheduled to vote on a package of updated clean energy rules that is years in the making. The package now under consideration, which benefits from several recent amendments, is the product of an extensive and bipartisan stakeholder process with significant support from individuals and businesses large and small from across Arizona. Most importantly, these rules allow Arizona to remain competitive with other states by providing the type of robust clean energy commitment that businesses demand before bringing jobs and substantial investment into a state while at the same time providing key protections to make sure the public does not pay more for clean energy.
The US House passed President Biden’s Build Back Better Act (BBBA), heavily supported by the Arizona Technology Council, sending the jobs and climate measures to the U.S. Senate. The BBBA is the most significant investment in clean energy and remedies to counteract climate change in U.S. history.
There’s been a lot of activity in the electric vehicle industry recently — and much of it could have an impact for both EV producers and consumers in the region. Last month, Tesla announced a partnership with Hertz that would put 100,000 electric vehicles in the rental agency’s fleet by the end of next year. Half of those EVs would then be available for Uber drivers to rent by 2023.
Congress is now debating legislation that could unleash $115 billion in new investments for Arizona, securing our state’s position as a national leader in clean energy innovation and ensuring a growing economy for generations of Arizonans to come. But none of this will happen if Sen. Kyrsten Sinema doesn’t support strong clean energy investments in the Build Back Better Act.
SRP announced a new program for residential and small business customers interested in supporting large-scale solar energy growth, called “Solar Choice.” Customers enrolled in SRP Solar Choice can choose to offset half or all their energy use with clean, solar power energy by paying as little as a half a cent per kilowatt-hour (kWh) on top of their current monthly price plan with SRP.
Environmental advocates across Arizona were encouraged recently when Senator Kyrsten Sinema spoke powerfully about the challenges facing Arizona due to the climate crisis. As she told The Arizona Republic, “We know that a changing climate costs Arizonans. And right now, we have the opportunity to pass smart policies to address it.” Sinema particularly emphasized the dire costs of “[the] increasing wildfires to the severe droughts, to shrinking water levels at Lake Mead, [to] damage to critical infrastructure.”
Houston-based Green Mountain Energy applies to enter Arizona’s electricity market; Nikola Corporation awarded nearly $2M U.S. Department of Energy grant; the city of Phoenix comes in at No. 7 for being the best-prepared metro area for electric cars; Social-media giant Facebook announces its new $800M solar-powered data center in Mesa; regional airline Mesa Air Group is looking to make more electric aircraft investments; NextEra Energy Resources plans 3,000-acre solar energy project in Buckeye; and more.
We are in the middle of one of the biggest revolutions in motoring, with electric vehicles rapidly gaining significant ground. And for good reason too.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego today joined business leaders to call for modernizing the transportation sector by investing in advanced vehicles and transportation infrastructure, as well as expanding electric vehicle (EV) tax incentives.