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Arizona

Reliable and affordable sources of energy are critically important to the success of families and businesses across the nation – and in Arizona resident can always rely on the abundant sunshine. As a result, solar power is an active conversation in Arizona’s state legislature, regulatory agencies, and communities about how to shine light on solar energy and harness policies that are good for communities across the Grand Canyon state. An increase in solar energy production would not only be vital to the environment, it would also bring affordable energy to households and businesses throughout the state. That is why solar energy policies and initiatives in Arizona are helping to lay the foundation for a vibrant, clean, reliable, and affordable future in this diverse Southwest state.

State Executive Summary

2018 Solar Report

According to the Solar Foundation, Arizona saw an increase of 14% solar growth in 2017.

The Grand Canyon State has nearly 8,400 solar jobs, creating a source of income for families.

Third-party solar power purchase agreements are not legal in Arizona. This means the installation cost is a bit higher, yet Arizona still ranks third in the nation for solar.

Solar Energy News

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Current and Recent Initiatives
  • Arizona’s Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Residents with Solar Leases
    In March 2018, the highest court in Arizona ruled that customers who lease rooftop solar panels are exempt from paying some property taxes. This ruling also saves residential solar installers who own the systems millions in potential taxes. Residents of the sunny state now have more expanded freedoms to choose clean energy.
  • Ballot Initiative in Arizona requires 50% Renewable Energy by 2030
    The Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona Committee has created a ballot initiative requiring that 50% of Arizona’s annual retail sales of electricity come from renewable energy sources by 2030, 10% of this being from solar. So far, the initiative has over 480,000 signatures from state residents.
  • Renewable Energy Standard & Tariff (REST)
    In 2006, Arizona approved the REST, which requires all electric utilities to generate 15% of their energy from renewable resources by 2025. REST requires utilities to file annual implementation reports that highlight how they plan to achieve their generation goals. These reports include incentives for customers who install solar energy technologies in their homes and businesses.
  • Decision in Tucson Electric/UNS Solar Rate Case Delayed
    A net metering rate amendment is alive and well in Arizona. If approved, the new order would set initial export rates at 9.64 cents per kilowatt hour for Tucson Energy and 11.5 cents for UNS, locked in for 10 years for each customer and decreasing up to 10 percent annually. Currently, Tucson Energy customers are credited for excess solar production at the full retail rate of about 11 cents per kWh.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Michigan depends on the safe, reliable transportation of propane and oil to fuel households and businesses.  Modernizing infrastructure like Line 5 helps ensure the protection of our Great Lakes while allowing Michiganders access to the energy they need.
“The historic agreement will result in eliminating nearly every risk of an oil leak in the Straits and provide added protections to the Great Lakes. It also will allow for multiple utilities to be housed and protected, better connecting our peninsulas, improving energy security and supporting economic development.”
Read more – The Hill
With the safest and most efficient pipelines across the country reaching capacity, more oil is being shipped by trains to refineries.
U.S. East Coast oil refiners are ramping up rail deliveries of crude from Western Canada, grabbing stranded barrels that full pipelines have driven to a record discount.
Read more – Reuters
CEA Midwest Executive Director Chris Ventura was interviewed about the recently released report,  The Benefits of Ohio’s Natural Gas Production to Energy Consumers and Job Creators, and discussed the savings and economic growth Ohio energy consumers have witnessed as a result of natural gas development in the state.
Lower energy costs make the region more competitive when trying to attract new companies, Ventura said. Bringing in new business creates construction jobs, then leads to permanent jobs once facilities have opened, he said. A variety of industries around the state have benefited from shale drilling, he said.
Read more – The Canton Repository
CEA’s Tim Page discusses the importance of critical energy infrastructure, and the lengthy process to ensure construction and modernization takes into account environmental factors and land owner concerns.
This pipeline’s route has also been changed over 300 times following public input to protect cultural sites, endangered species and the environment. Enough stonewalling. This project, and its benefits, have been delayed long enough.
Read more – The Charlotte Observer
CEA Kevin Doyle looks at groups who oppose energy development by poisoning the public dialogue with misleading information to the detriment of Georgia’s families and economic growth for our state.
When groups repeat the same reasons why we can’t explore off our coasts, Rep. Carter points to Louisiana, where, in his words, “Gulf Coast communities are home to a $20 billion tourism industry and the state is home to the most productive commercial fisheries outside of Alaska, supplying one-third of the fish caught in the continental U.S. At the same time, they are the source of almost a quarter of our domestically produced oil and natural gas.”
Read more – Savannah Morning News
Consumer Energy Alliance’s Pennsylvania Energy and Manufacturing Forum in Pittsburgh featured Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke discussing the role American energy production in Pennsylvania has had on geopolitics, making America more energy independent.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke stopped in Pittsburgh on Friday to say that natural gas from places like Pennsylvania plays a key role in helping the United States deal with foreign adversaries. If an energy-rich nation like Russia or Iran were to act aggressively toward the United States, he said having an abundance of natural gas would help counter that move.
Read more – WHYY
Across the state, private companies are looking to invest hundreds of millions of dollars building state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plants.  CEA’s Chris Ventura looks at why this is important for the state’s economy and West Virginians looking for employment.
Recent headlines detailing how a proposed natural gas power plant in Harrison County is about to begin construction is welcome news to West Virginians looking for work. This plant, in addition to other proposed energy-related construction projects across the state, would reportedly generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs providing family-sustaining wages.
Read more – The Shinnston News & Harrison County Journal
CEA’s Pennsylvania Energy and Manufacturing Forum explored the benefits energy development has delivered to Pennsylvanians and workers across the region.

You don’t have to tell the Operating Engineers Local 66 about the benefits of southwestern Pennsylvania’s energy boom. It came at a time when the region’s construction industry was suffering from 9 percent unemployment and perhaps headed for twice as much.

Fast-forward a decade with the Marcellus and Utica shale drilling, pipelines and the building of Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County. Now the operating engineers are not only at full employment, but they’re recruiting engineers from outside of the state to come work here, as well as continuing to ramp up apprenticeship programs.

Read more – Pittsburgh Business Times
Consumer Energy Alliance’s Pennsylvania Energy and Manufacturing Forum in Pittsburgh featured Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke discussing the role of natural gas as part of a diversified energy portfolio for America.
“I’m bullish on the energy position of the U.S.,” he said. “And, quite frankly, If you go back in time, even five years ago, it was, in many minds, it was inconceivable that we’d be in the position we are today. And this is not the ninth inning; this is probably the fourth inning. We have yet to develop offshore wind. We have yet to develop our solar capacity and we have yet to fully bring online our ability for liquid natural gas.”
Read more – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
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