On several policy matters like climate change and health care, Arizona often butts heads with the U.S. government.

But step outside the Capitol mall, and you’ll see a modern building with solar panels on its rooftop.

The Arizona Corporation Commission today approved a waiver for a western Arizona utility to receive renewable energy credits for energy generated by a Phoenix-area waste-to-energy plant.

A proposal to reverse a federal ban on new mining claims near the Grand Canyon survived a committee vote Tuesday and could go to the full House as early as next week.

A proposed waste-to-energy plant in Phoenix is being touted by supporters as a source of renewable energy and a way to minimize the amount of trash in landfills. But critics of the project argue that the waste incinerators aren’t as green as supporters make them out to be — and the proposal has a loophole that could allow a utility to get renewable energy credit for burning fossil fuels.

The decision by the state agency in charge of implementing air quality policy to repeal the Clean Cars program in favor of emission standards that aren’t as stringent led to a chorus of protests from environmentalist and health advocates.

A renewable energy advocate filed the first citizen initiative of the 2012 election, proposing a dramatic expansion of Arizona’s tax incentives for solar power and a state-run exchange that would buy and sell special credits for solar power.

Construction should begin within a month on a “waterless” 700-megawatt solar power project in Maricopa County that won a $359.1 million conditional loan guarantee this week from the Department of Energy.

Deep within the canyon, a few miles removed from the mule trains of the popular Bright Angel Trail, Horn Creek creates a ribbon of green vegetation here before plunging toward the Colorado River.

But the handful of people allowed to camp in this splendid isolation receive a warning with their permits: Don’t drink the water when Horn Creek is flowing. It’s radioactive.

Some local governments had already been investing in solar projects before federal stimulus grants were available, but now many more cities and counties are doing so. Experts say to expect more solar projects to pop up around Arizona and the rest of the country as local governments face a deadline of using stimulus money by the end of 2012.

The Arizona Corporation Commission wants to make sure electric utilities are ready for the summer high-use energy season.