by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Aug 15, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Since taking office in January, President Trump has worked hard to restore sanity in America. While the wins have been stacking up in many areas, perhaps his administration’s most notable efforts have been in its pushback against the junk science driving the climate agenda.
Along with executive orders in January and April to unleash American energy, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would be reversing a Biden administration regulation that held Arizona accountable for the eighty percent of emissions in the Maricopa County nonattainment area that emanated from outside of the state—primarily from China and Mexico.
While all that is good news, the Trump administration delivered quite possibly the best news yet for American energy last month when the EPA released its plan on rescinding the Endangerment Finding. And it has the climate cult drowning in their tears.
What is the Endangerment Finding?
Back in 2009, the Obama administration declared carbon dioxide (CO2) as a pollutant that threatens public health and welfare under the Clean Air Act. Of course, this ignored the fact that CO2 is one of the most important ingredients for building and sustaining life on Earth. But the Obama administration was never known for exercising commonsense, so it gave birth to this controversial policy by relying on cherry-picked scientific data to justify a vast expansion of regulatory power at the EPA.
Since its inception, the Endangerment Finding has been used as the basis for many of the green scam regulations impacting Arizona’s economy. During both the Obama administration and the Biden administration, the EPA passed new regulations on vehicles, factories, power plants, and other mobile sources all based on the alleged dangers of CO2. These mandates have cost the U.S. economy over a trillion dollars, and here in Arizona, they have been responsible for higher energy prices and higher utility bills.
But if the climate cult gets its way, it wouldn’t stop there…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by Jonathan Eberle | Aug 9, 2025 | News
By Jonathan Eberle |
Arizona Public Service (APS), the state’s largest electric utility, announced Wednesday it will no longer pursue its previous pledge to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050. The company also scrapped its interim emission reduction targets and removed a commitment to end coal-fired generation by 2031 from its website. The utility now aims to be “carbon neutral” by 2050 — a less stringent target that allows for continued fossil fuel use if emissions are offset through technology such as carbon capture.
“Our aspiration has evolved based on changes to energy markets and customer needs, and our plans are built around doing what’s right for the people and prosperity of Arizona,” said APS spokeswoman Jill Hanks in a statement to 12News.
The announcement quickly drew sharp criticism from environmental advocates, who accused the company of backing away from its public commitments. “APS is walking away from every clean energy promise it made to the public, to regulators, to shareholders, and to the communities it serves,” said Autumn Johnson, Executive Director of the Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association. “We are left with vague intentions and zero accountability.”
A free-market advocacy group also voiced concerns, though from a different perspective. The Arizona Free Enterprise Club argued that the new plan still comes with a heavy cost to consumers. “While this is modestly better than the carbon-free plan they have been pushing for the last five years, APS’ new ‘carbon neutral’ plan will still cost ratepayers billions,” said Scot Mussi, the group’s president. “The priority should be reliable and affordable baseload power for Arizonans, not meeting arbitrary carbon goals that require massive amounts of expensive wind and solar that will degrade the grid.”
Some of Arizona’s elected officials also weighed in. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs criticized the decision on X, writing, “Arizona needs an abundance of energy, with a strong, and reliable grid to keep our communities safe and to continue our economic growth. This decision sets us back. It makes our air dirtier, hurts our growing clean energy economy, and forfeits the cost savings of renewable options.”
She continued, “I’ll be reaching out to APS to discuss their decision and reiterate that we must continue investing in new energy technologies and diversify our energy portfolio at the fastest rate possible.”
Hobbs’ response is interesting given her history with APS. After her inauguration, it was revealed that Pinnacle West Capital Corp., the owner of APS, donated $250,000 to Hobbs’ inaugural fund. The group also made a $100,000 donation in 2024 to Hobbs’ secret litigation fund.
Republican gubernatorial candidate, and sitting U.S. Representative, Andy Biggs offered a sharply different take than Hobbs, posting, “Every utility in our state should be prioritizing reliable and affordable energy for Arizonans, not trying to meet the demands of environmentalists pushing the Green New Scam that hurts Arizona businesses and families. As Governor, I’ll make sure Arizona aligns with President Trump’s energy agenda to help our economy flourish.”
APS data shows most of the state’s surging energy demand is coming from the expansion of data centers rather than residential growth. The company and its investors view the sector as a major opportunity for revenue.
While APS maintains it remains committed to expanding cost-competitive clean energy, the rollback represents a significant departure from the 2020 pledge.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jul 16, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Attorney General Kris Mayes has long fancied herself as a champion for ratepayers. After another round of rate hikes rolled in at the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), this time a proposed 14% increase by both APS and TEP, AG Mayes fired off a press release announcing that she will “vigorously oppose” these requests as “Arizona residents struggle to keep up with ever-increasing electricity bills.”
Setting aside the fact that the AG has little purview over ACC affairs, Mayes seems to think that her own time serving on the Commission back in the 2000s makes her uniquely qualified to stop what seems like an endless barrage of double-digit rate hikes by our public utilities. Unfortunately for ratepayers, having Kris Mayes involved will only pour fuel on the Net Zero fire currently raging at the Corporation Commission.
You see, Kris Mayes is the one that laid the foundation for the Green Scam rate hikes Arizonans are suffering through today. In fact, the biggest irony about having Kris Mayes jump into the rate hike fray is that it highlights the dangerous parallels between the Commission she served on in 2006 and the one that we have today…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jun 14, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Earlier this year, President Trump signed a trio of executive orders aimed at keeping our nation’s vital coal power plants online. In fact, at the signing ceremony, the President explicitly called out one of Arizona’s coal plants by name. He directed Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to keep the Cholla Power Plant online and told the workers to remain calm because they are going to have that plant “opening and burning…coal in a very short period of time.”
The Cholla Power Plant is one of many Arizona coal plants that have either been mothballed or slated for retirement in the near future. In 2019, SRP and the other utilities shut down the Navajo Generating Station, resulting in a loss of 2,250 MW of reliable capacity. Earlier this year, an additional 425 MW of generating capacity was taken offline at Cholla. And over the next 6 years, Arizona’s public utilities, as outlined in Integrated Resource Plans recently approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission, plan to shutter every last bit of coal generation in Arizona by 2032. Most alarming is that according to those same Resource Plans, the replacement fuel for this reliable source of energy will be solar, wind, and battery storage, all to meet carbon free “Net Zero” goals that will cost Arizona ratepayers billions and destabilize the grid.
On the same day President Trump signed the coal orders, the Arizona legislature, led by Representative David Marshall, sent a letter to the Department of the Interior urging the Administration to help keep Cholla, and every other coal plant in the state, online. Last month, every Republican in the legislature voted to send HCM2014 to the Corporation Commission, urging them to protect our grid, fight to keep these plants online, and support the Trump Energy Agenda.
What Arizona ratepayers got instead was a late Friday afternoon news dump from Kevin Thompson, Chairman of the Corporation Commission, blasting the idea of reopening Cholla…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | May 30, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Within President Trump’s first 100 days in office, he has issued back-to-back executive orders aimed at cleansing America of woke ideologies as well as dismantling the Green New Scam. States can hardly keep up with the rapid changes being made. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary (USDOT) Sean Duffy is leading the effort to defund city projects involving road diets and “green infrastructure.” Leftists and bike-enthused activists are losing their minds over the removal of “Complete Streets” links on the USDOT website, horrified by the idea that vehicle travel might be prioritized over barely used bike lanes.
And good to his promise to unleash American energy, Trump’s team has eliminated excessive greenhouse gas (GHG) rules, vowed to get existing and new coal plants opened, and most recently played a major role in the House’s passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill” that included the repeal of many of the Inflation Reduction Act green scam subsidies. Every day this administration is dismantling the Green New Grift and restoring practical, pro-America policies.
And if there ever was a city in Arizona that should be jumping on the Trump bandwagon – it’s the City of Prescott. Prescott is a conservative community where registered Republican voters out number Democrat voters 3:1. It’s “Trump Country.” But take a look at Prescott’s recently proposed General Plan and you would never know it.
In Arizona, every municipality is required by statute (ARS §9-461.05) to build out and adopt a General Plan that outlines a pathway for growth in the community, covering topics such as land use, transportation, environment, water, and energy. This seemingly innocuous document that must be ratified by voters has become a pathway for city bureaucrats to sneak woke ideologies and climate goals into city planning…
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