By Doran Arik Miller, Guest Opinion
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 current standard, set by the Arizona Corporation Commission back in 2006, only requires regulated electric utilities in Arizona to generate 15% of their energy from renewable sources by 2025. While Arizona’s standards may have been competitive when adopted, Arizona has since fallen behind neighboring states. Falling behind on this metric has real world consequences that make Arizona less competitive than other states at attracting key investments and jobs. More and more, the marketplace requires that a state provide access to robust clean energy options, or it will be left off the list for economic development projects and will be out of the running in the heated competition to attract the businesses of the future. That is why major corporations like Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, PayPal and others support updated clean energy standards.
