Two Arizona Republican legislators are raising concerns over a draft of the new Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) from Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
On July 18, Representatives Jacqueline Parker, the Chairwoman of the Arizona House Committee on Municipal Oversight & Elections, and Alexander Kolodin, the Committee’s Vice Chair, transmitted a letter to Secretary Fontes, highlighting certain issues with the initial copy of the EPM that they had seen from his office.
MOE Committee is also pouring through the EPM with a fine toothed comb. There are many violations of statute so far. pic.twitter.com/ktD9F9mSNe
— Rep. Jacqueline Parker (@electjacqparker) July 19, 2023
The lawmakers were grateful that Fontes allowed them to see his draft, and they expressed optimism that “with legislative guidance, the 2023 EPM will not meet the same fate as the 2021 EPM, and that Arizonans will be assured that all drafts, including the final draft presented to the Governor and Attorney General, are legally consistent with Arizona election law.” They called the 2021 saga “both unprecedented and unacceptable,” writing, “Your predecessor’s failure to issue a lawful EPM ultimately led a court to decide that the 2019 EPM was in effect for Arizona’s 2022 elections, rather than an updated, legally compliant 2021 EPM.”
— Rep. Alexander Kolodin (@realAlexKolodin) July 19, 2023
In their letter to Secretary Fontes, Parker and Kolodin identified eight possible violations of Arizona statutes in four chapters of the draft EPM:
– Chapter 1: Early Voting
o “Part I, page 5 moves ‘date of birth’ from required information to additional information that may be provided by a voter to receive an early ballot.”
o “Part I, page 3 allows the County Recorder to send a requested early ballot ‘after 5:00pm the 11th day preceding the election if the County Recorder has sufficient time to do so.”
o “Part I, page 16 requires the County Recorder or officer in charge of elections to supply printed instructions that ‘provide the voter instructions on how to make their intent clear if they inadvertently mark the target area for a candidate or ballot measure.’”
o “Part I, page 18 includes the exclusion of an established Ballot Replacement Center.”
– Chapter 2: Ballot-by-Mail Elections
o “Part I, page 31 refers to ‘precinct with 300 or less registered voters.’”
– Chapter 7: Pre-Election Procedures
o “Part II, page 34 allows the officer in charge of elections to allocate specified duties to any board member as deemed appropriate, including ‘taking appropriate measures to preserve order, prevent voter intimidation, and manage voter lines.’”
– Chapter 8: Election Day Operations
o “Part III, page 8 adds additional examples ‘potentially intimidating conduct’ that supersedes statutory law.”
o “Part III, page 19 adds language that prohibits a challenger from speaking to a challenged voter to ‘prevent harassment and intimidation of the challenger voter.’”
The two Representatives also requested that “future drafts of the EPM contain statutory references for each provision to provide county officials with the statutory source of each EPM provision.” Parker and Kolodin pointed out two sections in the draft EPM where there were no statutory references – as examples to illustrate their issue.
As they concluded their letter to the state’s elections chief, the legislators commented that they “are looking forward to seeing these provisions addressed prior to the EPM’s submittal to the Governor and the Attorney General on October 1, 2023.” They promised to communicate in a timely manner with the Secretary’s Office “about any other concerns that might arise,” and they asked for a written response to their letter by July 25.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The Arizona desert’s classic dry heat should now qualify as an “extreme heat,” according to Democratic lawmakers and leadership.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) is lobbying for more federal funding to counter the desert heat. Democrats at all levels have recharacterized summer temperatures as “extreme heat” in an attempt to pull more funding for a variety of progressive initiatives ranging from climate change to social justice. Trending usage of the word “extreme heat” has increased dramatically over the past 20 years, spiking with increased regularity every summer.
In a press release, Gallego commended President Joe Biden for increasing heat-related worker protections on Thursday. As part of the changes, Biden met with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, the congressman’s ex-wife, and San Antonio, Texas Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Yet, those changes fell short of Rep. Gallego’s ultimate goal: he urged the Biden administration to go one step further by classifying heat as an emergency.
“Far too many people are dying or falling ill from these extreme temperatures,” said Rep. Gallego. “[M]ore must be done. We need a swift, immediate deployment of resources, and that requires FEMA declaring extreme heat as an emergency. I will continue pushing the administration and Congress to get that done.”
I'm thankful the admin is heeding our call with these meaningful steps to protect Arizonans from extreme heat. But more must be done. We need FEMA to declare extreme heat an emergency. I'll keep pushing the administration and Congress to get that done.https://t.co/kKlpEHn8Wy
Both Gallegos have worked together to lobby the federal government to declare summer heat as an emergency.
During her annual state of the city address in April, Mayor Gallego petitioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to qualify extreme heat as a disaster by adding the regular seasonal occurrence to its national emergency declarations categorization.
A FEMA recognition would bring in more federal funding. The city has a number of heat mitigation projects that would likely benefit from such funding, like the manufactured shade and drinking water access areas known as “cool corridors,” which are determined on an equity basis, and the special sunlight reflective streets known as “cool pavement.” (Which, as AZ Free News reported, actually makes people hotter). Those initiatives were unique creations under Mayor Gallego’s administration.
Mayor Gallego was also responsible for the creation of one of the first heat mitigation offices within city government: the Office of Heat Response and Mitigation (OHRM). The city established the office with $2.8 million in 2021, with the explicit attempt to combat urban heat: the theory that urbanization causes higher temperatures.
Presently, the OHRM doles out COVID-19 relief federal funding provided by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for annual heat relief grants. These grants are earmarked for nonprofit, charitable, small business, and faith-based organizations existing within the city-recognized Maricopa Association of Governments Heat Relief Network that claim negative impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. OHRM will give out a maximum of $450,000 total, with each recipient receiving anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000.
A major focus of the OHRM is providing heat respite for the homeless. The latest update from OHRM, issued last summer, announced initiatives costing millions to increase the comfort of the homeless residing within the infamous mass homeless encampment known as the Zone: the creation of seven new shade structures; distribution of insulated and reusable water bottles, hats, sunscreen, personal misters, towels, ice chests with water; and 475 shelter beds for 24/7 heat respite.
The first and current OHRM director is Arizona State University (ASU) professor David Hondula, who teaches within the Global Institute of Sustainability. ASU worked with the city of Phoenix on the trial run and report ahead of the full launch of the cool pavement program.
After the mayor, Rep. Gallego introduced the Extreme Heat Emergency Act last month. Rep. Gallego said that extreme cold weather warrants federal disaster relief and contended that the same should be the case for the opposite of extreme heat.
“If you’re in Chicago and you have two weeks of extreme cold weather and snow and 400 people die, and Chicago calls the federal government, they will get money from the federal government,” said Gallego.
When it gets dangerously hot in Arizona, our leaders should have the ability to call on FEMA to deploy the necessary resources to save lives.
As AZ Free News reported this week, a majority of heat deaths in Maricopa County last year were due to meth.
Rep. Gallego also introduced similar legislation last year alongside Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ-12). Last year’s version, the Excess Urban Heat Mitigation Act of 2022, would establish a grant program through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It never made it past introduction.
In this latest announcement from Biden on Thursday, the president directed the Department of Labor (DOL) to issue a Hazard Alert for heat and ramp up workplace heat-safety violation enforcement, allocated $7 million in Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for weather prediction improvements, and allocated $152 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding to expand water storage and equity-based climate resilience efforts in California, Colorado, and Washington.
The Biden administration has invested over $50 billion so far to address climate issues like heat waves. They have also established a website providing information on federal funding opportunities to mitigate health risks from heat, the #SummerReady awareness campaign, established the new Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, funded 10 community groups and localities for equitable heat relief, and launched heat mapping campaigns in 154 communities across 14 states.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced other heat mitigation initiatives: $5 million to NOAA for two virtual research centers providing technical assistance and information to historically marginalized and underserved communities, a National Heat Strategy focused on equity and environmental justice developed by the White House Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Extreme Heat, meetings with local and tribal leadership to offer federal support for summer heat, and affordable housing opportunities using IRA and BIL funding.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Plans by state and local leadership to establish Arizona as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing have stalled due to a lack of skilled workers.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced last week that it will delay production until 2025: a full year after their initially planned launch. TSMC produces 90 percent of the world’s microchips, supplying major products like Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers.
TSMC Chair Mark Liu indicated in last week’s second quarter earnings call that efforts on their end to gin up an adequate workforce couldn’t counter the limited talent pool in the country.
“We are encountering certain challenges, as there is an insufficient amount of skilled workers with those specialized expertise required for equipment installation in a semiconductor-grade facility,” said Liu. “While we are working to improve the situation, including sending experienced technicians from Taiwan to train the local skilled workers for a short period of time, we expect the production schedule of N4 process technology to be pushed out to 2025.”
Maricopa County Community Colleges (MCCC) partnered with Intel to launch a program last year to supplement the burgeoning semiconductor industry’s workforce, estimated to be around 3,000 workers between Intel and TSMC. Students who pass certification receive a $270 stipend to cover the tuition cost.
TSMC raised their investment in the state from $12 billion to $40 billion ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to tour the Phoenix facility last year.
Biden’s TSMC appearance marked his first and only trip to the state during his entire presidency — even with the ongoing border crisis. Biden justified prioritization of a manufacturing facility over the border crisis by claiming the border wasn’t important.
Biden’s first and, so far, only interest in visiting Arizona may align with his consistent desire to prioritize business and personal interests over national interests (as reflected by his alleged involvement in the laptop debacle revealing corrupt foreign business dealings by his son, Hunter Biden). Biden said during his TSMC speech that he “owe[s] an awful lot” to TSMC because the wife of its founder, Morris Chang, worked his first Senate campaign.
NOW in Arizona: @POTUS said he "owes an awful lot" to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company because founder Morris Chang's wife, Sophie, worked Biden's first Senate campaign. Perhaps that's why Biden told @pdoocy today that the border isn't important. Scratching backs! pic.twitter.com/wFFYncZIMV
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego also has ties to TSMC. Gallego’s former senior policy advisor and campaign donor, Laura Franco French, serves as TSMC’s director of state government relations. Franco French joined TSMC in 2021 immediately after departing Gallego’s office, where she’d served since Gallego became mayor in 2019.
Gallego’s TSMC connection may explain her apparent lack of concern with TSMC’s delay. When asked about the TSMC issue with obtaining skilled workers during an interview on Sunday, Gallego responded with a non-answer.
“We are very excited to be the future of semiconductors. It’s so important that we’re onshoring manufacturing of these essential devices in the United States and we’re going to take an all-hands-on deck approach to make sure it is successful,” said Gallego. “President Biden has picked Phoenix as one of the innovation job hubs and will be able to partner with the US Department of Commerce in particular, but across his administration to do training for our residents. We have a very successful project with our community college where people can get a six-week certificate in semiconductors that’s produced hundreds of graduates so far, but we know we have to turn it up so that we can deliver not just for Arizona but for the world.”
In addition to the shortage of skilled workers, TSMC’s development in Arizona may be delayed due to other concerns with health and environmental impact.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — dubbed “forever chemicals” for their resistance to breaking down — are integral to microchip production. PFAS have been linked to a host of serious health issues concerning fertility, fetal development, bone variations, behavioral changes, accelerated puberty, high blood pressure, liver disease, cancer, lowered immunity, hormone disruption, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, and obesity. Chemical waste from factory production has led to PFAS contaminating water and, consequently, humans and the environment.
The Biden administration has progressively focused on PFAS with increasing pressure. Last June, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued four drinking water health advisories for PFAS. Last August, the EPA proposed designating two of the most widely used PFAS as hazardous substances. Last December, the EPA required facilities to report on all PFAS usage. In March, the EPA issued its first-ever proposal to regulate PFAS in drinking water.
The Biden administration has offered $3 billion in grants to states and territories to clean up PFAS in drinking water; it also launched an analytics tool for the public to track PFAS contamination.
3M announced in December that it would halt PFAs production by 2025, a move which set off alarm bells for TSMC and other chipmakers. The announcement came ahead of the company’s $10.5 to $12.5 billion settlement for drinking water contamination.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
More of Arizona’s municipalities are increasing their water conservation efforts, leading taxpayers to pay more for less.
Preexisting sustainability goals and the burgeoning Colorado River drought have offered justification for these municipalities’ efforts, which have now resulted in lawn bans, increased water rates, and restricted water usage over the last few years.
Multiple cities recently traded in their Colorado River water rights in exchange for federal funding: Tucson, Phoenix, Peoria, Glendale, Scottsdale, Gilbert, Mesa, Surprise, Queen Creek, along with the state, Apache Junction Domestic Water Improvement District, Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District, Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District in Tucson, Salt River Project, and EPCOR.
Last month, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) ban on the construction of new Phoenix homes that would rely on groundwater.
These progressive restrictions and charges also continue despite noted successes in conservation in comparison to past years with smaller populations.
The answer may lie with other developments in the state over the years. Big Tech’s data centers may be one of the major drains on water supply outweighing the net savings of residents’ water conservation efforts.
Mesa
In comparison to the other cities, Mesa doesn’t impose major water conservation restrictions. It does offer $1,000 in rebates for grass removal, with an additional $100 maximum for planting native trees.
However, the city may be contributing to the water burdens faced by its neighbors. In 2019, it approved the development of a data center for Google that could use one to four million gallons of water daily. Arizona residents average about 146 gallons daily currently.
Yet, as Time pointed out, Arizona Municipal Water Users Association (AMUA) — an organization that Mesa helped found — chastised Arizona residents several weeks after the deal between Mesa and Google for using 120 gallons on average daily.
Meta (formerly Facebook, which also owns Instagram) is now building a data center there as well. The year they broke ground in Arizona, they promised to be “water positive” — meaning, restoring more water than they consume — by 2030.
Like Google centers, data centers could use around one to five million gallons of water a day according to Texas Tech University’s Water Resources Center director, Venkatesh Uddameri.
Microsoft also operates data centers out of El Mirage and Goodyear. They made the same promise to be water positive by 2030.
Over 30 percent of the world’s data centers are located in the U.S.
Scottsdale
Scottsdale banned lawns on new builds earlier this month.
The city also offers to pay residents up to $5,000 for lawn removals, and up to $1 per square foot of water surface area plus $400 for pool or spa removals. For multifamily properties, homeowner associations (HOAs), and commercial businesses, the city offered up to $40,000 to remove their lawns, with an additional $10,000 bonus for grass strips adjacent to streets.
Since Scottsdale launched its rebate program in 1992, total rebates amounted to over $4.7 million; about half of which came from grass removals. The city has removed 94 acres of grass since the program’s launch. This fiscal year’s rebate budget sits at $450,000.
Last September, Scottsdale banned HOAs from requiring overseeding lawns.
Residents surpassed the city’s goal of 10 percent water conservation, achieving 12 percent over the last two years.
Tucson
Last month, Tucson banned lawns and reduced water flow in new constructions. The city also required all new residential dwelling units to include piping for a separate discharge of gray water for direct irrigation: the untreated, leftover water from washing machines, bathtubs, and sinks.
In 2008, Tucson required all commercial development and site plans to include a rainwater harvesting plan that provided for 50 percent of the annual landscape water supply.
In 2014, Tucson passed a water waste ordinance fining individuals $250 on the first offense and $500 on subsequent offenses up to $2,500 for allowing water to escape or pool onto public property; washing driveways, sidewalks, parking areas with a hose (unless a residential customer); operating a misting system in unoccupied non-residential areas; having an irrigation head or emitter that’s broken or spraying more than 10 percent onto a street, parking lot, or sidewalk; failing to control a leak; and failing to meet the 50 percent rainwater harvesting requirement for landscape irrigation.
Tucson also offers multiple rebates: $100 per residential, multi-family, or commercial premium high-efficiency toilet; $150 for a flushometer valve/bowl combination; $200 for high-efficiency or water-free urinal installation; $100 or $200 for a residential high-efficiency clothes washer; up to $2,000 for a residential rainwater harvesting system; and up to $1,000 for a gray water system. The city also offers special incentives for low-income residents: free high-efficiency toilets, grants up to $1,000 and loans up to $2,000 for a rainwater harvesting system, grants and loans up to $500 for a gray water harvesting system, discounted high-efficiency clothes washers, and free plumbing repairs.
Each year, Tucson makes available up to $250,000 in grant money to establish stormwater harvesting in neighborhoods.
Phoenix
Last month, the Phoenix City Council approved the Sustainable Desert Development Policy, requiring rezoning cases on new developments to satisfy city-approved standards on EPA WaterSense efficiency certifications; drought tolerant and/or native landscaping; restrictions on turf usage; outdoor irrigation efficiency standards; green infrastructure or low-impact development provisions for surface parking areas, streets, and sidewalks; participation in the city’s Efficiency Checkup program; new swimming pool standards; new wet-cooling system standards; and preservation of natural open spaces.
Additionally, the policy will require any entities that use over 250,000 gallons of water per day to submit a water conservation plan, approved by city staff. Any entities that use over 500,000 gallons of water per day must derive 30 percent of their water consumption from a recycled or conserved water source.
Entities dubbed “large water users,” may be denied operation even if their conservation plan is acceptable to the city. The policy stated that the city may reject the large water user if there’s inadequate water resource availability in their proposed location, inconsistency with the city’s planning documents; undesirable economic value and impact of their proposed water use; undesirable impact to water rates; or incompatibility with the city’s definition of a key industry beneficial to the economy.
The city doesn’t offer any rebate programs, though last December city officials expressed a desire to launch one to incentivize lawn removals. The city signed a joint pledge between locales in California and Nevada to remove ornamental turf.
The city also imposes an ordinance onto new developers, the Water Resources Acquisition Fee (WRAF) ordinance, which may be mitigated via credit if the developer provides a permanent reduction in annual water demand on the city.
The city has promised that it won’t institute mandatory water use restrictions in the near future, though it warned that severe or worsening drought conditions within the next 10-15 years may warrant such restrictions. Policy changes could include water waste punishments similar to Tucson’s, requiring child safe pool covers to reduce evaporation, banning turf irrigation, and banning car washing.
Flagstaff
Flagstaff has stricter water use requirements than some of the other Arizona cities.
The city has a watering allowance schedule during which residents may water their landscape: even-numbered addresses on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and odd-numbered addresses on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Nobody may water on Mondays, and the city prohibits watering between 9 am and 5 pm. Gardeners wishing to water by hand — “incidental hand watering” — may do so on any day, except from 9 am to 5 pm. However, vehicle washing is not subject to the water schedule restrictions.
The schedule is only permitted to be used when the city is at the first stages of burdened water demand. At level two, the city bans irrigation; car washing at home; driveway, sidewalk, and tennis court washing; filling of fountains, ponds, streams, or pools over 100 gallons. The city also increases water rates for those using over 6,400 gallons, and potable standpipe rates increase by 130 percent. At level three, potable water use is banned outside.
Those who violate the rules within any of the three levels are subject to fines starting at $25, doubling with each violation.
The city implements a diverse set of rebate programs. Commercial properties may receive free high-efficiency sink aerators, free high-efficiency shower heads, free pre-rinse spray valves, $86 rebate or 50 percent of project cost for commercial toilets, $158 or 50 percent of project cost for hotel toilets; and $157 or 50 percent of the project cost for commercial urinals.
Both residential and commercial properties may receive a rebate at 25 cents per square foot for converting to low-water landscaping. They may also receive a $100 rebate on installation of a rainwater harvesting system with 1000-gallon minimum capacity, and free 55-gallon rainwater harvesting barrels.
The city reported that their conservation efforts, beginning in 1988, have yielded a 50 percent water use reduction.
Gilbert
The town of Gilbert is offering up to $800 to residents and up to $3,000 to non-residential customers who swap their lawns for desert landscaping that uses less water. The city set aside $60,000 for the residential program, and $15,000 for the non-residential program.
A Gilbert spokesperson told AZ Free News that they have a total of $120,000 per year to issue on their rebate programs, and that the allocated funding within that budget may change from year to year based on the popularity of each program.
Anyone who receives $600 or more in water bill credits must complete a W9 for the Gilbert Water Conservation, as per the Biden administration IRS reporting requirement enacted last year.
Those aren’t the only water conservation financial incentives that Gilbert has offered. The town introduced rebates up to $250 for residential, $400 for non-residential properties to install smart irrigation controllers.
In May, the town applied for a $3 million grant from the Water Conservation Fund to replace grass on government property with desert-tolerant landscaping. The grant money ultimately comes from federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Gilbert announced that it saved 254 million gallons due to its conservation efforts in 2019, and 375 million in 2018.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A dark money, globalist climate group poised to obtain power over U.S. defense contracts has Arizona roots.
Last November, the Biden administration proposed granting decision-making power on defense contracts to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi): a London, England-based environmentalist group. In mid-February, a key initiative to SBTi called the Advanced and Indirect Mitigation (AIM) Platform launched at GreenBiz 23 in Scottsdale.
According to a press release, the AIM Platform will provide net-zero carbon value chain mitigation for SBTi and the GHG Protocol. Value chain mitigation determines the greenhouse gas emissions of each aspect of a company in an effort to reduce it; SBTi is also advancing a successor of the concept, called “beyond value chain mitigation,” or BVCM.
AIM Governing Committee members are Alexia Kelly, High Tide Foundation; Devon Lake, META; Kelley Kizzier, Bezos Earth Fund (Amazon founder, executive chairman, and former CEO Jeff Bezos); Mandy Rambharos, EDF; Tim Juliani, World Wildlife Fund (WWF); Derik Broekhoff, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI); Graham Winkelman, BHP; Dan Smith, Smart Freight Center; Elena Schmidt, Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB); Lisa Spetz, H&M Group; Meinrad Bürer, Louis Dreyfus Company; Peter Skovly, MAERSK; and Pierre Bloch, Sustaincert.
SBTi funders include the Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, IKEA Foundation, and Laudes Foundation. The initiative is a collaboration by the Carbon Disclosure Project, World Resources Institute, and WWF, an outgrowth of the leftist dark money initiative called “We Mean Business Coalition” fronting the New Venture Fund: an arm of one of the leading leftist dark money networks, Arabella Advisors.
Washington Free Beaconreported that SBTi didn’t officially incorporate until June, though it launched in 2015. SBTi could receive around $1.2 million in annual estimated fees for their services.
The AIM Platform creators were the Gold Standard, a Switzerland-based, climate-focused finance group; Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), a Virginia-based climate policy think tank; and Neoteric Energy & Climate, a D.C.-based climate advisory firm.
The few Americans on Gold Standard’s leadership include Scott Harder, a California native and founder of the Environmental Financial Group; Kerry Constabile, a New Yorker who formerly served as a sustainability executive for Google as well as a senior officer and lead advisor for the United Nations, and also a technical advisor for SBTi; Sue Ellen Johnson, a North Carolina agriculturalist and advisor for a number of climate groups including Gold Standard; and Lawson Henderson, a Vermont-based manager of Wildlife Works Carbon and formerly a coordinator for Rainforest Alliance.
C2ES is the successor of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, led currently by Nathaniel Keohane: former President Barack Obama’s special assistant on energy and environment and formerly a senior vice president for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The former president for C2ES was the deputy administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration. C2ES and its predecessor were founded and presided over initially by Eileen Claussen, the special advisor to the president on global environmental affairs at the National Security Council and assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs to former President Bill Clinton.
Neoteric Energy & Climate was founded in January by Kim Carnahan, the current CEO, who helped lead the State Department under both Obama and Trump on finalizing the Paris Agreement and other major emissions reductions policies with the International Maritime Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization. Carnahan also worked as the senior director for ENGIE Impact, a Washington-based sustainability consultancy company.
GreenBiz 23 was the latest in a series of annual events that have taken place in Arizona since at least 2014. Next year’s event, GreenBiz 24, will take place in Phoenix.
Featured speakers for this year’s event included Arizona State University (ASU) Morrison Institute Kyl Center for Water Policy directors Kathryn Sorensen and Sarah Porter.
Most of the other speakers over the years have represented the biggest companies worldwide. This year included representatives from 3M, Anheuser-Busch, Associated Press (AP News), BASF Chemicals, CEMEX, Coca-Cola, Cox Enterprises, Clif Bar, Deloitte Tax, Delta Airlines, Dollar Tree, eBay, Estée Lauder, Ford, General Mills, General Motors, Henkel, IBM, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss, Mars, McDonald’s, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, National Public Radio (NPR), NCX, NextEra Energy Resources, Nike, Paramount, Procter & Gamble, Salesforce, Seventh Generation, S&P Global, Starbucks, Under Armour, United Airlines, UPS, U.S. Steel, and Wells Fargo.
The Biden administration also sent speakers: Betty Cremmins and Katy Newhouse, directors for sustainable supply chains with the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
