by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jun 25, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) that passed the House of Representatives last month contained numerous wins for the American people: permanent tax relief, funding for border security, an expansion of Health Savings Accounts, and even a new program to expand school choice. But arguably the most impactful accomplishment in the BBB was their success in taking a machete to the labyrinth of green new scam tax subsidies created by Joe Biden and the Democrats through the inflation-creating Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). That alone makes it the most beautiful feature of the Big Beautiful Bill.
The House’s version included key provisions sunsetting some of the worst subsidies authorized under the IRA, including:
- Ending the Clean Electricity Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for any project that doesn’t start within 60 days of the enacting legislation and isn’t in service by 2028;
- Ending the Clean Electricity Investment Credit and Transferability of Tax Credits for Wind and Solar;
- Eliminating the Tax Credit for Residential Solar and Rebates for “Green” Products;
- Repealing the Electric Vehicle Credit designed to Force Manufacturers to Abandon Gas Powered Vehicles.
The rollback of these subsidies in the House BBB was a monumental feat, especially given the army of lobbyists hired by the green energy grifters to defend these subsidies on Capitol Hill. In fact, the big spenders in the GOP caucus almost succeeded in stopping the subsidy rollback. If not for the stalwart efforts of the House Freedom Caucus and the White House stepping in at the last minute of negotiations, the green scam subsidies would not be on the chopping block.
But now the bill is in the Senate, and the initial draft released of the revised Big Beautiful Bill by Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo is anything but big or beautiful…
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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…
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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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by Jonathan Eberle | Mar 29, 2025 | News
By Jonathan Eberle |
The Arizona State Legislature is advancing a measure to urge the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to prioritize affordable and reliable energy sources over intermittent renewable energy alternatives such as solar and wind.
House Concurrent Memorial 2014 (HCM 2014), introduced by State Representative Justin Olson, calls on the ACC to prevent regulated utilities from shutting down dispatchable energy sources, including natural gas and coal, in pursuit of Net Zero goals.
The legislation, which does not carry the force of law but serves as a formal request to the ACC, asks the Commission to ensure Arizona’s electrical grid remains powered by affordable and reliable energy sources; prevent regulated utilities from phasing out critical, dispatchable energy sources such as coal and natural gas in favor of renewable alternatives that may be costly and unreliable; and adopt a national model policy, “Only Pay for What You Get,” which requires utilities to recover costs only from the reliable portion of new energy generation sources.
The bill passed the Arizona House of Representatives on February 26, 2025, with a vote of 33-26-1, and was referred to the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee for further consideration.
HCM. 2014 comes amid a broader debate on the future of Arizona’s energy policies. The ACC, which regulates the state’s investor-owned utilities, has faced increasing pressure from policymakers, industry groups, and environmental advocates over how to balance affordability, reliability, and sustainability in energy production.
Supporters of the measure argue that shifting too quickly to renewable energy sources without proper reliability safeguards could lead to increased costs for ratepayers and potential grid instability.
If approved by the Senate, copies of HCM 2014 will be transmitted to the Chairperson and each Commissioner of the ACC, urging them to align state energy policies with the resolution’s recommendations. While the ACC operates independently, legislative pressure could influence future regulatory decisions regarding Arizona’s energy transition.
As Arizona continues to navigate its energy future, the debate over affordability, reliability, and sustainability is expected to remain a contentious issue among lawmakers, utility providers, and consumers.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Mar 7, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
From the Paris Climate Accords, to the Green New Deal (in the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,”) the global “Net Zero” agenda has been steaming ahead at full speed. And it hasn’t been just in the form of government mandates. Across the world, electric utilities have been making their own Net Zero Commitments – whether it is in response to government regulations against fossil fuels, or subsidies from the government for unreliable power, explicit mandates, or from the influence of investors like Blackrock. No, it’s not just in Germany, and it isn’t just in California, either. The Net Zero agenda, unfortunately, is alive and well here in Arizona too.
We always knew it would be costly, and experience has proven that true. But now, in a newly released report published by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and the AZ Liberty Network, the cost for Arizona’s largest utility to go “Net Zero” was found to be even more expensive than expected coming with a massive price tag of at least $42.7 billion by 2038.
History of the Green New Deal in Arizona
The “green” agenda is not new to Arizona. In 2006, then Chairman of the Corporation Commission Kris Mayes pushed through the first mandates in Arizona, requiring our utilities to get 15% of their energy generation from “renewables” by 2025. Those rules alone have already cost ratepayers $2.3 billion. In 2018, an out-of-state billionaire funded a proposition on the ballot that would have required utilities to obtain 50% renewable generation by 2035. That measure went down in flames, being rejected by a 2-1 vote.
Then in 2020, the Arizona Corporation Commission began pursuing another mandate – this time to require 100% renewable energy by 2050, also known as going “Net Zero” by 2050. The mandates almost passed without the Commission ever conducting an analysis to find out what it would cost ratepayers. Once an analysis was finally done, it was projected that the mandates would cost ratepayers $6 billion, leading to the proposal being rejected by the Commission.
But then, Arizona’s utilities, who opposed the 2018 initiative, announced publicly that they were voluntarily going “Net Zero” – mandate or no mandate. Or, for APS, Net Zero doesn’t even go far enough, and they have pledged to be 100% “carbon free” by 2050.
And these aren’t just public statements. The utilities have committed to going “Net Zero” in SEC filings to their shareholders, and they even compensate their top executives (page 68) based on how much “clean” energy they build in our state. Unsurprisingly, these commitments completely shape their resource plans…
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