This site aggregates Arizona's political blogs. If you would like to have your blog added to the list, contact site administrator Mark B. Evans at mevans@tucsoncitizen.com.
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For a list of all the blogs aggregated, see below.
For five years supporters of President Obama who also support decisive action on climate change have been forced to wait patiently for leadership from the 44th President of the United States.
In 2008 and 2009 the prospects of federal climate action seemed imminent and inevitable. A new clean energy economy was on the horizon. Republican standard-bearers such as Newt Gingrich and John McCain were on the bandwagon and even leading the charge (watch video).
Much of what happens at the Arizona Corporation Commission occurs behind closed doors and that is why transparency won a rare victory on Friday when Commissioner Susan Bitter Smith requested a broader public hearing on the crucial matter of net metering. The date for the hearing is still to be determined.
Net metering grants consumers the ability to feed excess electricity generated from rooftop solar systems to the grid – and to be fairly compensated for that electricity. ...
86 percent of people surveyed in Arizona during the past decade believe that global warming has “probably been happening”, the highest level of any state in the nation. This finding was highlighted in a nice piece yesterday in Politico.
Conventional political wisdom in Arizona has held the climate issue as one to avoid, for fear of alienating wide swaths of the public and thereby damaging carbon-cutting strategies or clean energy progress. Those who advocate for sustainab...
Word might be getting out. The Arizona Corporation Commission, widely regarded as a lower-tier agency in terms of attention, is receiving heavy interest from a bevy of candidates eying its two open seats in 2014. Fifteen months before any voting will take place, five candidates have formed exploratory committees, with more likely on the way.
Ryan Randazzo reported Tuesday night that Republican state Rep. Frank Pratt, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, annou...
Public sentiment towards energy in Arizona is straightforward and consistent. Repeated surveys portray an unabashed support for solar energy and a strong desire for a transition from fossil energy sources among members of the public.
Highlights of a few recent opinion studies:
2013 Colorado College “Conservation in the West Poll” conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Assoc. and Public Opinion Strategies:
-“Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters say that it (so...
Ryan Randazzo of the Arizona Republic is reporting that Arizona Corporation Commissioner Brenda Burns will not seek a second term at the ACC, Arizona’s utility-regulatory body. Burns was elected in 2010 along with Commissioner Gary Pierce, and since that time has been viewed by many as an actively anti-solar commissioner.
Burns’ legacy to Arizona’s energy system will include a May 2012 amendment that added a new fee for families and businesses planning to install solar,...
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.; District 9) introduced her first piece of legislation last week, a bill intended to incentivize clean energy manufacturing in the United States. The Security in Energy and Manufacturing Act (H.R. 1424) would extend the advanced energy manufacturing tax credit program, providing a 30% tax credit or grant in lieu of a tax credit, to domestic companies manufacturing renewable energy systems.
While the political makeup of the US House likely makes Sinem...
State Representative Carl Seel R-Phoenix and Prescott radio soundboard operator Christopher Campbell have formed exploratory committees, the first step in making a run for the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC). Candidates will be vying for two seats on the critical utility regulatory board in 2014, with Commissioner Gary Pierce terming out and Commissioner Brenda Burns presumably running for re-election.
Nearly every actively publishing climate scientist in the world – the folks who wake up every day and go to work studying our climate system – has concluded that humanity’s release of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses is changing our planet in a dramatic and essentially permanent way. Comparable periods in earth’s history where change occurred this rapidly coincided with extinction events of many species habiting the planet at the time.
Climate change is poised to whip Arizona in the 21st century. On a higher-emissions track experts with the US Global Change Research Program warn of an eight to ten degree Fahrenheit increase in average annual temperature in the US Southwest this century. Imagine the hottest Phoenix summer day and add ten degrees to it. Think of the Phoenix economic development pr consultant trying to spin this type of heat. “Come to Phoenix, you’ll have a scorchingly good time!”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with politics or philosophy. I don’t know that you have to belong to a certain belief to want to do something for the earth.” – Barry Goldwater Jr., AZ Republic – March 28, 2013.
We’ve known for years - it is hard to find a concept bringing more Arizonans together, regardless of political affiliation, than our state leading the way on solar energy (see here, here, here, and here). Now Arizona Republicans have a rock star flag-...
Jim Holway, a prominent advocate for water sustainability has indicated interest in a run for the Arizona Corporation Commission in 2014 according to jimholway.com. This would make him the first non-incumbent 2014 ACC candidate to form an exploratory committee. Two seats are open in next years mid-term contest, with Commissioner Gary Pierce terming off the Commission, and Commissioner Brenda Burns presumably running for re-election assuming she doesn’t throw her hat in for a...
