Ryan Randazzo in KJZZ s studio in 2018.
Republican lawmakers in the state Legislature are trying to strip the Arizona Corporation Commission of some of its most fundamental powers.
Twin bills in the House of Representatives and the state Senate would strip utility regulators of the power to force electric companies here to shift to 100% carbon-free energy.
Late last year with three Republicans supporting it the Corporation Commission passed clean energy rules that will compel utilities in the state to phase out coal and natural-gas-burning power plants soon and produce energy with no carbon emissions by 2050.
If the bills pass, the authority to do that would lie with the Legislature instead. One of the measures passed out of committee in the state House Jan. 26, while the other will be heard Jan. 27.
By - Associated Press - Friday, January 22, 2021
PHOENIX (AP) - In a story published Jan. 10, 2021, about Arizona marijuana growers, The Associated Press erroneously reported the spelling of the last name of the Arizona Republic reporter who wrote the story. He is Ryan Randazzo, not Ryan Andazzo.
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The demolition capped off another tumultuous year for coal power. The industry helped build the modern West, but it’s collapsing as utility companies turn to natural gas, solar panels and wind turbines for lower-cost electricity, and as voters demand cleaner energy to reduce air pollution and confront the climate crisis.
New Mexico’s Escalante Generating Station produced its final coal-fired electrons in August, and Portland General Electric shut down Oregon’s last coal plant in October. Those facilities will be joined in retirement in the next few days by one of two units at Washington’s Centralia coal plant and one of four units at Arizona’s Cholla coal plant. PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway empire, expects its Cholla unit to come offline around noon today, Christmas Eve.