Arizonans Protest State’s Largest Utility Abandoning Clean Energy Commitments

PHOENIX—Despite a summer in which nearly 600 people are suspected to have died in the increasing heat of the changing climate in the nation’s sunniest state, Arizona’s largest utility walked back its clean energy commitments in August.  

Nearly two dozen Arizonans gathered outside Arizona Public Services headquarters Thursday to protest that decision—as well as the utility’s recent announcements that it is planning to build a new natural gas pipeline all the way to Texas, is likely extending how long it will operate its largest coal plant and, for the third year in a row, is raising its rates, this time by 14 percent in 2026.

“They’ve totally abandoned their commitment on climate to future generations, and they’ve guaranteed that our bills will be even higher,” Sandy Bahr, the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon chapter director, said at the protest. 

APS’ recent actions come as the federal government, under the Trump administration, has gutted funding for climate and clean energy initiatives, and announced it would repeal science-backed findings that greenhouse gases harm human health and the environment. Instead of supporting the transition to clean energy, the administration is promoting the continued use of fossil fuels, going so far as to block the closure of a coal-fired plant. 

Those federal actions have had ripple effects throughout the country’s utilities. Southern Company has extended the lifespans of its coal-fired plants in Mississippi and Georgia. North Carolina’s legislature passed the “The Power Bill Reduction Act,” which will allow Duke Energy to backslide on its legally mandated carbon emissions reductions.

APS, Arizona’s largest utility, is following suit on its own accord. 

In a press release announcing the company’s second-quarter financials and its decision to roll back its clean energy commitments, it cited Arizona’s “unprecedented levels” of growth in population and its economy, and the need for reliable utility service to meet the increasing demand. 

“Our mission is to reliably serve customers at the lowest cost possible,” Ted Geisler, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, which owns APS, said in the press release. “To do that, we need to integrate the most reliable and cost-effective resources available to us to meet Arizona’s fast-growing energy needs.”

Ann Porter, a spokesperson for APS, said in a statement that the utility is committed to providing reliable power at the lowest costs possible and remains the state’s leader in clean energy. The utility’s current rates have not kept up with the costs it takes to operate a reliable and resilient grid, and APS remains committed to long-term clean energy goals, she added.

“We understand rising costs are impacting so many aspects of customers’ lives today and that it’s never a good time to see bills increase,” Porter said. “That’s why we’re focused on doing our part to keep our costs down, while giving customers tools, programs and options to help them manage their bills. Reliability isn’t optional—it’s essential, especially in Arizona.”

For three consecutive summers, the utility has experienced record-high energy demand. That demand is only expected to go up. By 2038, the company expects a 60 percent increase over today’s peak demand.

That’s largely due to the massive influx of data centers opening in Arizona. The state is already home to approximately 118 data centers, with more in the pipeline, and they are increasingly coming under scrutiny across the state.

Before the August announcement, APS aimed to meet its electricity demand with zero carbon emissions by 2050. Now, it’s settled on just being carbon neutral by that date, meaning it would still release greenhouse gases in the atmosphere but would find ways to offset those emissions.

On the same day it announced its revised carbon emissions goal, APS, along with the City of Mesa, the Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power and UniSource Energy Services, announced plans to build a new natural gas pipeline from the Permian Basin in West Texas to Arizona by late 2029. Natural gas pipelines are major emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that’s roughly 80 times more effective at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. APS may also extend the lifespan of its Four Corners coal power plant, from 2031 to no later than 2038, Porter said, despite the company’s own economic data showing it makes more sense to close it down.

This year, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, signed bills into law that allow utilities to shift financial responsibility for events such as power plant retirement, unrecovered fuel costs, damaging weather events like wildfires and other operational uncertainties onto ratepayers via a monthly, unrestricted charge on their utility bills. Another new law in Arizona shields utilities from liability for wildfires. 

“It’s a perfect storm of bad policies happening in Arizona right now,” said Bahr with the Sierra Club. 

On top of it all, she added, is that the Arizona Corporation Commission, the state’s elected public utilities regulators, is now completely controlled by Republicans following extensive lobbying by APS. The commission is now seeking to repeal the state’s renewable energy standards.

By walking back its clean energy commitments, extending the life of coal plants and building new gas pipelines, Arizona’s air quality and heat issues will only get worse, Bahr said. 

“Extreme heat is our extreme weather here,” she said. 

Jose Flores, the Arizona environmental justice coordinator for Poder Latinx, an organizing group, said he’s heard from residents across the Phoenix area about their struggles with extreme heat and rising costs of nearly everything, including their electricity bills. 

“What we see is people are hurting, and the utilities, they don’t really care as long as they’re making record profits,” Flores said.