by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Aug 26, 2021 | Opinion
By the Free Enterprise Club |
It turns out that upending Utility energy production and mandating “clean” energy by an arbitrary date costs money. A lot of money actually—to the tune of over $6 billion according to a new study commissioned by the Corporation Commission.
This study comes over a year after the Commission first announced its Green New Deal Energy Rules. Many votes have taken place since then, votes that would impact ratepayers, yet no independent cost analysis had been done until now.
The green energy lobby repeatedly told the Commission that the mandates (which were rejected by a margin of two to one on the ballot in 2018), would actually save ratepayers money and have an economic benefit of $2 billion. Seemingly everyone in the Corp Comm echo chamber and the media actually believed these suspicious figures. Everyone except Commissioner Justin Olson. He introduced an amendment last April to ensure that costs incurred by Utilities to comply with the mandates aren’t passed onto ratepayers. The amendment failed. It turned out that the same people claiming that energy mandates save people money didn’t believe their own hype and fought to kill this ratepayer protection.
We already know that previous mandates have led to higher utility bills and boondoggle projects. The Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff adopted by the Commission in 2006 (requiring 15% renewable energy by 2025) resulted in APS signing a 30-year contract for solar energy costing 400% above market rates. All passed onto the ratepayer.
Thankfully prior to leaping before they looked, the Commission agreed to conduct a study with an independent firm to identify the potential cost of additional mandates. The firm they hired—Ascend—compares 3 different portfolios of energy production: “Least Cost” which relies on utilities pursuing the lowest cost option for consumers, an 80% clean energy mandate by 2050, and a 100% clean energy mandate by 2050. In order to hit the 80% or 100% mandate requirements, utilities would need to phase out all fossil fuels, purchase more solar and wind generation, expand lithium-ion battery storage and convert natural gas generation to green hydrogen…
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by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Aug 22, 2021 | Opinion
By the Free Enterprise Club |
It needed to be done. At the end of June, Governor Ducey signed HB2898, which included a provision prohibiting a city, town, county, school board, or charter school governing body from requiring students or teachers to wear masks.
Bear in mind that this law doesn’t mean students and teachers can’t wear masks. They certainly can if they want to. But it keeps the heavy hand of government from enforcing unnecessary restrictions—especially on students who should be focused on learning.
Predictably, the liberal left has had a meltdown. The board president at Northland Preparatory Academy in Flagstaff went on a tirade in a now-removed Facebook post, referring to parents and students who disagree with mask mandates as “the worst of humanity.”
And some schools have decided that their first lesson for the year is to teach kids it’s ok to violate the law. A growing number of Arizona school districts are openly defying Governor Ducey by requiring students and staff to wear masks if they want to set foot on campus.
Our children have become pawns in a game of COVID chess—all at the mercy of the kings and queens on school boards throughout the state.
While parents are speaking up, they need help. Thankfully, Arizona’s House and Senate Republicans heard their cries. Last week, a group led by state representative Jake Hoffman called for Governor Ducey to do something…
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by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Aug 15, 2021 | Opinion
By the Free Enterprise Club |
They went from denying Critical Race Theory exists, to denying it is taught in schools and universities, then claiming it is exclusively researched in law schools, suing parents requesting access to their child’s curriculum, to now just openly defying new laws prohibiting CRT to continue indoctrinating and propagandizing students with anti-white bigotry.
But around the country, citizens have stepped up to push against schools, school boards, universities, and government agencies pushing CRT. State legislatures have stepped up too. In Arizona, Republicans successfully passed, and the Governor signed, two bills prohibiting this ideology.
HB2906, sponsored by Representative Jake Hoffman, prohibits any government agency or political subdivision of the state from expending public monies for or requiring as training anything that presents any blame or judgement on the basis of race, sex or ethnicity. Additionally, in the K-12 budget, HB2898, are provisions to prohibit the same CRT tenets in K-12 schools and comes with teeth for enforcement: $5,000 fines for schools in violation and up to the suspension or revocation of teaching licenses.
Nevertheless, Maricopa Community Colleges has decided to openly defy these new laws and push forward with “Cultural Humility and Equity Office Hours” that reportedly run through the end of 2022. While advertised as optional, board member Kathleen Winn expressed that it is essentially a requirement…
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by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Aug 12, 2021 | Opinion
By the Free Enterprise Club |
Rules for thee, but not for me. Apparently, that’s the lesson a growing number of Arizona public schools want to teach students in the coming year. (Perhaps they’re looking to replace science, since it appears they’re not interested in following that anymore.)
At the end of June, Governor Ducey signed HB2898, which included a provision prohibiting a city, town, county, school board, or charter school governing body from requiring students or teachers to wear masks.
That should be simple enough to follow. But it sent teachers’ unions and the establishment media into a tailspin. After all, the left LOVES mask mandates for kids, even though they may cause psychological harm and no study can back them up.
So, instead of teaching students a proper civics lesson about what it means to follow the law, various K-12 school districts have chosen to violate it…
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by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Aug 5, 2021 | Opinion
By the Free Enterprise Club |
Who doesn’t want more money in their pocket? After a brutal year that featured COVID lockdowns, small businesses and families trying to make ends meet could certainly use some.
And Arizona Republicans delivered.
At the end of June, the state legislature passed a $1.8 billion tax cut, the single largest tax cut in Arizona history. And Governor Ducey didn’t waste any time before signing the budget, which shouldn’t come as a big surprise. As Senator Mesnard explained while voting in favor of the budget:
At the end of the day, when this passes, every single taxpayer in Arizona will get a cut. Every single one.
It was certainly a day worth celebrating. But not everyone joined the party.
Apparently, Invest in Arizona, a political committee sponsored by Arizona Education Association and Stand for Children, isn’t happy with the idea of every Arizona taxpayer receiving a cut. In an effort to block the historic tax cuts, the group filed three referendums that include components from three bills passed this legislative session:
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