By Kris Mayes, former chairwoman of the Arizona Corporation
(Editor’s note: Opinion pieces are published for discussions purposes only.)
Two weeks ago, the Arizona Corporation Commission released a proposal that would eliminate the state’s hugely successful energy efficiency standards, a move that would deprive consumers of billions of dollars in energy savings and kill thousands of jobs.
The proposal would decimate the Arizona Energy Efficiency and Resource Standard, which requires electric utilities to reduce their overall energy usage by 22 percent by the year 2020 through the implementation of energy efficiency measures at homes and businesses across the state. The commission proposal would also destroy the Natural Gas Energy Efficiency Standard, which tells gas utilities they must do more with efficiency.
By eliminating energy efficiency, the commission would be giving a green light to big utilities to build expensive power plants rather than implement less costly energy efficiency measures.
