A Republican lawmaker is taking steps to help Arizona’s power supply during the hot summer months.
This week, Arizona State Senator Frank Carroll announced that SB 1309, which he had sponsored, had been approved by the Committee on Natural Resources, Energy & Water. This bill would “ensure Arizonans have a reliable power supply during the scorching summer months in the desert and the freezing winter months in the high country.”
The bill would require “the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to ensure that any changes made to an electric power grid are capable of producing enough electricity to meet the demand for power in the summer and winter months,” and “a power generation resource mix that avoids both blackouts and brownouts unrelated to severe weather conditions or power quality incidents.”
In a statement that accompanied the announcement, Carroll said, “Because radical Democrats have adopted an extremist environmental agenda, Americans are suffering the consequences during preventable power outages that are endangering lives in the middle of heat waves and dramatic cold spells. Could you imagine if residents in Metro Phoenix experienced a long-lasting power outage when temperatures surge past 110 degrees for days on end?”
Senator Carroll added, “I sponsored SB 1309 to prevent the chaos associated with blackouts, as we’ve seen in states like California, when dangerous green agendas are adopted. We all want a cleaner environment, but not at the potential cost of human life. This commonsense measure will ensure Arizonans’ air conditioners, heaters, lights, and other basic necessities have the power to operate when we need them to.”
On the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak System, a representative from the Arizona Free Enterprise Club endorsed the proposal; while representatives from the Climate Cabinet Action, Advanced Energy Economy, Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association, and CHISPA ARIZONA – A Program of League of Conservation Voters, signed into oppose the legislation.
SB 1309 will soon be considered by the full chamber of the Arizona Senate.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
President-elect Donald Trump has a big job ahead of him in restoring common sense and sanity to federal energy policy when he takes office on January 20. The last four years in this realm can more accurately be characterized as a series of ill-considered, irrational scams than as any sort of coherent, productive set of policies. It has been four years of bad policies — largely based on crass crony capitalism principles — that has done severe damage to America’s level of energy security.
There is no doubt that cleaning up this mess left behind by President Joe Biden and his appointees will take the full four years of Trump’s second term. But the new president will be able to take some fast actions to jump-start the process as part of his first 100 days agenda.
With respect, here is a list of 10 quick common-sense actions Trump can take to begin to restore America’s energy security:
1 — Rescind Biden’s ridiculous permitting “pause” on LNG export infrastructure. Of all the Biden energy policy scams, this was perhaps the most heinous and unjustified of all. Terminate it immediately and get this American growth industry back on track.
2 — Terminate U.S. participation in the Paris Climate Agreement and in any future annual COP conferences sponsored by the United Nations. Halt the spending of federal dollars related to any and all goals and commitments related to either of these wasteful processes.
3 — Terminate the office of Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy, aka “the Climate Envoy,” currently occupied by John Podesta and eliminate its budget.
4 — Turnabout being fair play, Trump should invoke a “pause” of his own related to permits and subsidies going to Biden’s pet offshore wind boondoggle. The pause would be justified by the need to conduct a truly thorough study on the potential impacts of those massive developments on marine mammals, seabirds, and the commercial fishing industry. Invoke the “precautionary principle” that has been ignored by Biden regulators related to these costly and possibly deadly projects.
5 — Order the Interior Department to immediately and aggressively restart the moribund oil-and-gas leasing program on federal lands and waters. Direct the Interior Department Inspector General to investigate the Biden-era manipulations of these programs for potential criminal violations.
6 — Form an interagency task force to recommend ways the executive branch of government can act to streamline permitting processes for energy projects that do not require congressional action. Congress has proven several times now that it is incapable of passing legislation in this arena.
7 — Place an immediate hold on all green energy subsidies pending a full compliance review. This should include any and all subsidy programs that were part of the IRA or the 2021 Infrastructure law. This review should also include suggested reforms to qualification requirements for these subsidy programs in light of the high percentage of bankruptcy filings by unsustainable companies that have benefited from these subsidies.
8 — In light of the Supreme Court’s recent recission of the Chevron Deference, order the Environmental Protection Agency to review the rationale for regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide, aka “plant food,” as a pollutant under the provisions of the Clean Air Act.
9 — Order an interagency review of the U.S. power grid and transmission infrastructure as they relate to national security concerns. Include a special focus on the current, growing trend of major tech firms locking up power generation assets for their own specific needs (AI, data centers, etc.) which might deny generation capacity that would otherwise be dedicated to the public grid.
10 — In light of recent reports of Biden regulators steering billions of dollars of IRA and other green energy funds to NGOs to provide funding for anti-fossil fuel propaganda, lawfare, and other abuses of the legal system, order an immediate freeze on all such spending pending a formal review.
In reality, this list could consist of hundreds of high priority items for the new administration to undertake. Such is the level of damage that has been wrought on American energy security by the outgoing administration.
But executing these ten items in the early days of his second term would represent a good start and place the country on a path to recovery. We wish Trump and his appointees the best of luck in restoring U.S. energy security.
David Blackmon is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, an energy writer, and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
On Monday, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich petitioned Congress to reject legislation reducing states’ land-use and energy rights in order to federalize the energy grid.
The letter warned that the legislation would empower private companies to wield the authority of eminent domain against state land, enable the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct whenever and wherever it desires regardless of state input, and authorize private companies to pass on the construction costs of new facilities from one state to another.
“These provisions eviscerate state sovereign authority, commandeer companies to carry out the will of a three-vote majority of FERC Commissioners, undermine the power of each citizen’s vote to decide policies at the state level, and inevitably force the citizens of our states to subsidize the costs of expensive and unreliable energy policy preferences of California and New York,” stated the letter.
The letter also noted that Congress was rushing the legislation through without the transparency of committee hearings, markups, or debate.
Brnovich warned in a press release that the proposed legislation, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022, would burden Arizonans with other states’ problems.
“The Act is unfair and takes power from states to decide policies for their own people,” said Brnovich. “Arizona and Louisiana should not be forced to pay for California and New York’s expensive energy preferences.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) introduced the legislation under the promise of creating energy independence, citing the ongoing Russian war abroad.
THREAD: If the United States wants to remain the superpower of the world, we must have energy independence. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022 will make necessary permitting reforms to ensure we can produce the cleanest possible energy for ourselves & our allies. pic.twitter.com/ehJ045mgSz
Some renewable energy analysts say that the legislation would help fast-track the country’s adoption of “clean” energy.
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022 is out! @SenSchumer , @Sen_JoeManchin led. We think it can drive a very large amount of clean energy, because transmission is renewable energy's biggest barrier. Importantly, NEPA is preserved, including public participation.🧵
Brnovich joined a coalition of 18 states led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to request the rejection of the legislation: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is leading a coalition of 18 states in vocal opposition to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022.
