By Troy Rule |The Arizona Republic
(Editor’s note: Opinion pieces are published for discussions purposes only.)
Salt River Project proudly advertised for weeks its partnership to supply free, wind-generated electricity to the Super Bowl in Glendale.
SRP’s donation of wind power for the game was part of a controversial $1 million gift of cash and in-kind services to the Super Bowl Host Committee. In the official press release announcing the gift, an SRP spokesperson hailed it as a “perfect opportunity to showcase SRP’s commitment to renewable energy.”
SRP’s donation of renewable power for the Super Bowl is the utility’s latest move in an ongoing public relations effort to cast itself as a utility that favors renewable energy. Ironically, while SRP flaunts itself as the Super Bowl’s progressive, sustainability-minded partner, the utility’s board of directors is preparing to vote on policy changes that would make SRP more unfriendly to rooftop solar energy than any other utility in the nation.
