Americans have been hoping for economic recovery and a return to normalcy. Instead, they’re  experiencing ongoing pandemic concerns and the ravages of wildfires and hurricanes. And adding to their woes, they’re now increasingly worried that the electricity grid on which they depend could fail when they need it most.  

The U.S. energy market is changing more rapidly and dramatically than anyone would have predicted. A steep decline in the price of solar-generated electricity, combined with the rising cost of coal and gas-fired electricity, has turned energy economics on its head. This is particularly true here in the Southwest. 

California’s rolling blackouts last year, followed by the Texas grid catastrophe in February — and now the threat of blackouts across the Western U.S. this summer — are a wakeup call. We need a grid we can count on. Ensuring we do means properly valuing the dispatchable, reliable generating capacity we already have.

Commissioner Márquez Peterson’s energy-smart leadership has the Arizona Corporation Commission going in the right direction, making sure that Arizonans realize the full benefits of current energy market trends. Beyond being good for our wallets, it represents the most prudent, market-oriented, and conservative path forward for Arizona.

Remarkably, right now the Arizona Legislature is considering nonsensical legislation that will lead to higher utility bills for the state’s residents.

Local officials pushed back earlier this month against a new report that showed three Arizona cities slipping in a national ranking on clean-energy policies, saying the report does not appear to reflect their clean and renewable-energy efforts.

When we talk about clean and renewable energy, it is important to recognize that clean energy investment and economic development are not mutually exclusive — in fact, to the contrary, the two go hand-in-hand.

As the coronavirus continues to upend the country, Americans are facing unique challenges. Millions are out of work and struggling to make ends meet. If that isn’t bad enough, electricity bills are also rising during peak summer demand. That means staying cool has suddenly become an unaffordable luxury for many.

While it can feel like the world is in the midst of an energy transition—where one source of energy is replaced by another—that’s not what’s happening. Instead of transition, we’re in a period of addition. The growing use of wind and solar power is actually coming on top of increased consumption of coal, natural gas, and oil.

Billionaire Democratic mega-donor Tom Steyer criticized the state’s largest electric company and the biggest competitor of his clean energy ballot initiative Friday for using shady tactics to block a public vote of the renewable energy measure in November.