Providing reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy in today’s environment is complex. But one thing is clear – we need to keep power flowing when we need it most.  

The Salt River Project District board is on the cusp of approving a nearly $900 million expansion of the Coolidge Generating Station, which burns natural gas. The lurking decision is wrong for SRP customers and for all Arizonans, for a variety of reasons. Here are the top five:

Last week, Salt River Project announced that it plans to spend nearly $1 billion to add 16 new natural gas units to its powerplant in Coolidge, one of the largest fossil fuel investments by a utility in recent memory. I served on the SRP board from 2016-2020, and this decision stunned me. It is wrong-headed, unnecessary, and out of step with where responsible electric utilities are moving in this country.

Over the past 10 years, we have watched as large wildfires ravaged the watershed in and around the Salt and Verde rivers. The devastation proves one important fact that must be addressed now – our forests are unhealthy.

Arizona is closer to an energy efficient future after the Corporation Commission approved a higher standard for energy savings this month. Under the proposed rule, electric utilities will need to find energy efficiencies that equal 35% of peak demand by 2030, up from the 22% standard set to expire at the end of the year.

Clean energy improves the air we breathe, supports healthy communities and helps reduce global warming pollution that has led to prolonged drought and extreme temperatures in the West.

A just and sustainable energy transition requires cooperation. Federal, state, and local governments must partner with the utility companies that manage our electric grid and the business community that helps drive investment and innovation.

Democratic lawmakers and progressive activists presented a list of demands they say are necessary for the safety of the state’s workers amid the COVID-19 outbreak on Monday, encouraging party leadership to mitigate the economic fallout of a virus that has already kneecapped tourism and hospitality in Arizona.

Waylon Johnson drives from his home in Mesa through the Superstition Mountains to get to his office strategically placed more than 100 feet under water.

The U.S. Forest Service, faced with the slow pace of forest thinning, is seeking proposals to remove dense stands of trees in a wide swath of Arizona to help prevent wildfires.