Crews in 2012 installing mirrored parabolic trough collectors, built on site,that will cover 3 square miles at Abengoa’s Solana Plant. Solana is a 280 megawatt utility scale solar power plant in Gila Bend. It was designed to generate 280 MWs of clean energy serving more than 70,000 Arizona homes. /Photo by Dennis Schroeder/ National Renewable Energy Laboratory
By Victoria Steele | Arizona Mirror
The ongoing energy and human disaster following the recent historic freeze in Texas has created an immense nationwide awareness of the importance of safe and effective energy policies.
Here in Arizona, we face critical decisions on our energy future regarding the wellbeing of our citizens and our economic viability. That’s why I stand in strong opposition to legislation that would strip the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) of its ability to set renewable energy standards. In a nutshell, Senate Bill 1175 is an unconstitutional power grab by the Republican-controlled legislature in order to derail the commission’s new, modernized clean energy rules.
This bill targets and threatens the bipartisan clean energy rules now being considered — rules that will save ratepayers money, clean up our air and boost our economy. The ACC’s clean energy rules allow us to benefit from the least expensive sources of electricity as renewables and energy efficiency save ratepayers money, because there are no fuel costs with renewables as there are with fossil fuel sources.
