Arizona Governor Nixes Confusing Renewable Energy Bill

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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs this week vetoed legislation she said would have a “deep chilling effect on renewable energy deployment” in the state.

In a letter to Speaker of the House Ben Toma, Hobbs explained that the bill, HB 2618, not only “encourages an inconsistent statewide patchwork of regulations for renewable energy projects,” it also “creates additional regulatory confusion for businesses.”

HB 2618 would have amended state statutes regarding solar and wind generating power plants by imposing a series of complicated new regulations. Among them: providing exacting zoning standards, site-specific conditions and permitting requirements for cities, towns and counties to adopt; maintaining a form of “financial assurance,” most likely a bond, just in case the plant owner goes bankrupt or abandons the project; and requiring plant owners to submit a decommissioning and site restoration plan before a land use or permit application would be approved. 

The end result of the bill, wrote the governor, would be “negatively impacting Arizona’s ability to attract, retain and grow a renewable energy ecosystem in our state and create good-paying jobs.”

The Sierra Club and the Interwest Energy Alliance, a group of renewable energy project developers and manufacturers, also opposed the bill, in agreement with the governor, who closed her letter with an invitation to the legislature to collaborate with her on “identifying consistent and predictable solutions” to the renewable energy bill’s issues.

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Leroy Achoy
Leroy Achoy
10 months ago

Confusing Renewable Energy Bill. Then there are the hidden costs, the costs you have to dig a little deeper to find. For example, for each EV auto battery, one must process 25,000 pounds of brine for lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. When it is all added, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for just ONE battery. Let’s examine the mine at Jiangxi, China. The workers use ammonium sulfate poured into big holes to dissolves the clay. The strong ammonium fumes are very damaging to the lungs of the… Read more »

Richard L "Scott" McKie
Richard L "Scott" McKie
9 months ago
Reply to  Leroy Achoy

Too bad nobody seems to be interested in a successfully, professionally tested, US Patented “over-unity” electric powe supply that has been privately developed and is being readied for up-to full power Beta testing.
It’s been tested (for hours) at its designed output of 480 VDC — and it’s designed amperage output is 480 Amps.

It takes up about 2.5 feet of cubic space, and weighs less than 30 lbs — becasue it is totally solid-state elecronics.

And before you say “that’s impossible” — Physicists at the US Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — have now produced “over-uniity” power production — twice.