Two companies that were negotiating to take over a coal-fired power plant on the Arizona-Utah line ended the effort Thursday, saying the challenges were too great.

Sen. Bob Worsley, a Republican from Mesa, is the Arizona Capitol Times’ Leaders of the Year winner in government. Other winners include Gregory Harris of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie for law, Richard Stavneak, director of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, for unsung hero, and NAU President Rita Cheng.

A Republican-dominated legislative committee decided Wednesday that voters don't need to be told that if they approve a business-backed tax-limiting measure the state could be foregoing more than $5.2 billion a year in revenues.

The question of whether voters get to decide on a new renewable energy mandate for utilities could turn, in part, on how many petition signatures a judge lets Arizona Public Service challenge.

The state’s largest utility wasted no time in spending money to discredit a ballot measure that seeks to increase renewable energy goals.

Navajo leaders expressed hope October 2 that the Navajo Generating Station will be able to continue operations past 2019, after Peabody Energy said it had come up with a list of potential investors in the plant.

In the 24-month report released by the United States Bureau of Reclamation in 2016, the bureau predicted a more than 50 percent chance of a water shortage in 2018. This August, the Bureau of Reclamation report reduced that projection to zero.

Was this just a brief respite from 20-plus years of drought, or are we finally at the end of the latest 20- or 30-year dry cycle and ready to start the next wetter period? We don’t know the answers to those questions yet.

After 44 years, the adjudication of water rights in Arizona is still far from being resolved, and water policy experts say that resolving these competing claims is essential to providing certainty about water rights.

The Navajo Nation Council has approved a lease extension to allow a coal-fired power plant in northeastern Arizona to continue operating through December 2019.