The Western Way submitted written and oral comments this week supporting the Arizona Corporation Commission’s Energy Rules Package. Highlights include:
The proposed rulemaking package now under consideration is the product of an extensive and bipartisan stakeholder process. The proposed rules will ensure Arizona continues to be a national leader in clean energy by putting us on a path to produce 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050. The package also includes a critical update to Arizona’s energy efficiency standard that will open the door for even greater use of existing energy efficiency measures as well as innovations in home storage, automation and smart grid technology, and provide the kind of long-term market certainty necessary to drive increased innovation in energy efficiency technologies. Finally, the proposed rules package includes battery storage policies that will be important as we continue to improve and implement energy storage technology.
Another important facet of the Energy Rules package that has not received as much attention as the long-term goals are the updates to the Integrated Resource Planning process. The changes include a new, more transparent advisory committee made up of stakeholders, including ratepayers, to approve future load forecasts and a competitive “all-source” bid process which will drive lowest cost resources and benefit consumers. Over time, these modernizing changes will significantly benefit ratepayers by ingraining transparency, competition and market forces in the resource planning process.
Arizonans are also supportive of increasing renewable energy utilization. Recent polling conducted by The Western Way found that 87 percent of Arizona voters believed that government should play a role to accelerate the development and use of clean energy, and 60 percent of Arizona voters would support the creation of proactive low emission solutions to ensure compliance with federal Clean Air Standards—a welcome byproduct of implementing more robust clean and renewable energy rules.
There are also important economic benefits—especially rural economic benefits—to adopting more robust renewable energy goals. A 2019 economic impact study released jointly by The Western Way and Yuma County Chamber of Commerce found that 34 rural renewable projects constructed in Arizona from 2001 to 2017 resulted in significant economic benefits to rural Arizona, including $9.4 billion contributed to the Arizona economy; 17,971 Arizona jobs; $1.2 billion in wages to paid to Arizona employees; and $16.7 million in state and local tax revenues benefiting Arizona. The study also found that that rural renewable facilities continue to contribute to the Arizona economy after construction is complete. Annually these projects contribute an estimated $63 million and sustain over 700 jobs with combined wages of over $33 million. The facilities also contribute nearly $1 million in annual property tax revenue benefiting Arizona schools. The market signal and long-term certainty that would accompany a goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2050 would therefore also support and incentivize important rural economic development efforts in Arizona.