(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents the Sierra Club.)
By Robert Walton | Utility Drive
Dive Insight:
SRP’s Coolidge plant is located within the city of Coolidge, Arizona, but residents of the nearby historically black community of Randolph live closest to the facility and would be most impacted. And those residents say there has been scant contact from the utility and meager offers of support.
Randolph attorney Diane Post told the commission that SRP offered Randolph residents less support than it did to white communities in similar situations, that the impact on property values would be greater than in neighboring Coolidge, and that noise and light pollution issues had not been sufficiently considered.
“The evidence clearly and unequivocally shows that the need for adequate, economical and reliable power could be met using clean, renewable resources paired with battery storage, and that this can be accomplished with comparable capital,” said Court Rich, senior partner at Rose Law Group, representing the Sierra Club.