The Arizona Corporation Commission has been working to develop a new policy on clean energy rules for the past several years, but progress has been slow. Arizona’s current renewable energy standard, set by the Arizona Corporation Commission back in 2006, requires regulated electric utilities in Arizona to generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2025. While Arizona’s standards may have been competitive when adopted, Arizona has since fallen behind neighboring western states. And while Arizona consumers want more renewable energy adoption—and Arizona’s largest regulated utilities are already working to voluntarily commit to more robust clean energy goals of their own—the Commission has been unable to come together to adopt updated rules.
Finally, there are signs of positive forward progress. At last week’s Corporation Commission workshop, Chairman Bob Burns called on his fellow commissioners to submit their positions on the state’s energy rules into the docket so they Corporation Commission staff could move forward with new policies. As a result, Commissioner Lea Marquez Peterson issued a letter calling on the Corporation Commission to pass a policy that would require regulated electric utilities to generate 100 percent of their power from clean energy resources by 2050, explaining:
Adopting a 100 percent clean energy policy today will send a clear and unambiguous signal to utilities, and current and future customers, that Arizona is moving forward with a cleaner and more affordable energy future, while allowing data, free-market principles and least-cost energy resources guide our utilities on how to get there.
Commissioner Peterson’s approach is a sound one. By setting a clear clean energy goal as an official policy of the Corporation Commission now and a commitment to working out the details of how Arizona will achieve that goal over the coming months and years, the Arizona Corporation Commission will provide the long-term market certainty necessary to drive technology and innovation in the energy sector. It will also spur critical economic development efforts and reflect what Arizonans want to see from their utilities and regulators.