Eastbound Interstate 8 just west of Interstate 10 will be closed briefly Wednesday night to install an overhead message board.
The state Department of Transportation will restrict eastbound I-8 to one lane starting at 9 p.m. Wednesday and about 1 a.m. Thursday will close all eastbound lanes for about a half hour, an ADOT news release said.
All lane restrictions will be lifted at 5 a.m., the release said.
Merchants: Customers avoid us; agents cite improved security
Border Patrol agent Alex Pulliza waves through northbound traffic on Interstate 19. Arizona uses random Border Patrol checkpoints, while Texas, New Mexico and California have permanent checkpoints.
GREEN VALLEY – Local business owners say a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 19 north of Tubac is killing tourism, putting residents in harm’s way and costing millions of dollars in home sales.
But Border Patrol officials credit the checkpoint with helping them seize tons of illegal drugs, make hundreds of arrests and boost security in the area.
Opposition to the checkpoint has heated up since an expansion was announced last week.
“The checkpoint is a safety hazard to the communities north and south of us,” said Carol Cullen, executive director of the Tubac Chamber of Commerce.
Cullen is concerned that smugglers looking to get around the checkpoint are driven up the Santa Cruz River, Anza Trail or along railroad tracks and gas lines, pushing them closer to homes and people.
The “temporary” checkpoint has been in place since 2007, when a rule requiring the Border Patrol to change sites every two weeks and championed by former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe expired.
In June, the Border Patrol will add $1.5 million in “interim” facilities that include a modular building, outdoor lighting and a canopy to protect agents and their search dogs from heat, rain and wind.
A planned $27 million permanent checkpoint could be years off, but its funding is included in the 2008-09 fiscal year budget for the Department of Homeland Security.
Mike Scioli, a spokesman for the Tucson Sector of the Border Patrol, understands the opposition but points out that many residents are thankful for the “second layer of defense” against smugglers and other criminals.
Recently, the sector reported a decrease in arrests at the checkpoint, “which means it’s working,” Scioli said.
Even with a decrease, the numbers are formidable: From October 2008 through March 2009, agents at the checkpoint seized 19,000 pounds of marijuana and made more than 300 arrests, Scioli said.
Out of 20 sectors in the United States, the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector is the busiest, accounting for more than 50 percent of marijuana seizures and 44 percent of all arrests, he said.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Scioli said.
After two years of having the temporary checkpoint in place, some business owners in the quaint, historical town of Tubac still eye it with disdain.
The Crowe’s Nest clothing boutique owner David Camet said he relies heavily on shoppers from communities north of the checkpoint. He said some customers, especially those from Green Valley, have called the checkpoint an inconvenience.
“People only come in now if they have to,” Camet said. “They don’t come to browse and enjoy a shopping day because they don’t want to have to wait 20 minutes in a line of cars to get home.”
Gary Hembree, owner of Old Presidio Traders, said the checkpoint has “done nothing to help business during these hard economic times.”
He said he has had Canadian customers ask if a passport is needed to get back through the checkpoint, and added that it creates an atmosphere of apprehension and confusion that drives away return customers.
But Don Stout of Tucson, who was shopping in Tubac last week with out-of-town company, said driving through the checkpoint doesn’t bother him.
“The checkpoint makes me feel secure,” Stout said. “I don’t think it should scare anybody, unless they have something to hide.”
Real estate agents said they have lost millions of dollars in sales because of the checkpoint.
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘I’m not going to drive through that thing every day,’ or that Tubac seems like a high-crime area,” said Zachary Freeland, director of new home sales for Brasher Realty in Tubac.
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Seven people died in 2008 midair collision near Flagstaff
FLAGSTAFF – A federal probe into the midair collision of two medical helicopters near a northern Arizona hospital that killed seven people last year places the blame on both pilots.
The pilots failed to see and avoid each other, a primary pilot responsibility, according to the National Transportation Safety Board report released on Friday.
Contributing to that error were one pilot’s failure to contact the hospital’s communications center as required and the other pilot’s decision to approach from the south instead of along the normal flight path from the east.
“Ultimately when any pilot is operating in an environment like that where the airspace is uncontrolled, the mantra is ‘see and avoid,’ ” said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The crash was among a series of nine medical chopper crashes since December 2007 that killed 35 people and led to increased scrutiny of the industry by federal regulators. The NTSB has pushed for better pilot training, night vision goggles and warning systems, but those recommendations have not been implemented.
The two helicopters were approaching Flagstaff Medical Center on the afternoon of June 29, each carrying a patient. They hit about a half-mile from the hospital and crashed into a forested area. All seven aboard the two aircraft died.
The report said the pilots were probably focused on landing in the seconds before they collided and never knew the other was in the area.
The medical center doesn’t have flight controllers, and it’s up to the pilots to watch each other as they approach.
An examination of the wreckage showed no evidence of structural, engine or system failures.
A group of Phoenix area homebuyers says builder KB Home and its exclusive lender Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America, developed a scheme to sell homes at peak market prices even after real-estate values began to decline.
A lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix contends the builder and lender engaged in systematic appraisal-rigging to inflate by thousands of dollars the value of new homes sold since 2006. The plaintiffs, seven KB Home customers in Buckeye and Surprise, say the practice has cost customers millions of dollars and contributed to the recent flood of loan defaults and foreclosures.
KB Home and BofA representatives said they had not seen the complaint as of Thursday and could not comment.
The lawsuit arrives amid widespread resentment directed at lenders for practices perceived as predatory and at home buyers for taking on more debt than they could realistically afford. It is the latest in a series of lawsuits filed in Arizona and across the country to try to assess blame in the wake of the worst housing meltdown since the Great Depression.
In exchange for its participation with KB Home, Countrywide and its appraisal-management subsidiary, LandSafe, were made the exclusive providers of real-estate settlement services for KB Home, the suit says. They earned thousands of dollars per customer in loan-origination, title-insurance, appraisal and escrow fees.
The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status to add thousands more KB Home buyers nationwide. In the Southwest alone, at least 14,000 KB Home-built houses have been sold since 2006, the complaint says.
Many critics of the lending industry say inflated appraisals contributed to the nation’s economic crisis. The industry’s shift toward selling off mortgage loans as securities to investment brokers made lenders less concerned about the accuracy of appraisals, the critics contend, just as the rise of new incentives for mortgage brokers gave them more reasons to push risky loans on buyers.
Homebuilders sold their homes for higher prices, the banks profited from making and selling loans, and the mortgage brokers benefited from earning more commissions.
Some appraisers have said that they had to choose between playing along or losing the bulk of their business.
The Phoenix-area residents’ complaint, filed by their lawyer, Robert Carey, a former Arizona assistant attorney general, says the plaintiffs cannot be held responsible for their own lack of due diligence because participants in the homebuying transactions who presented themselves as disinterested third parties actually were in on the scheme.
That includes appraisers “who were under direct instruction to value homes at their contract price and were hand-fed inappropriate – if not outright false – comparable properties to use in completing their appraisals,” the complaint says. Reports written by different appraisers who should not have been communicating with each other or with KB Home relied upon the same “unverified information and patently faulty methodology,” the complaint says.
The complaint cites three common elements to the appraisals.
The first was “improper selection of distant, dissimilar properties” when there were “numerous available neighboring, identical comparable sales that would have revealed lower value.”
In addition, the complaint says, the appraisals contained identical “false and misleading statements regarding market factors and conditions” that ignored known facts about the housing market’s downward trajectory after 2005.
The third sign of a problem, the complaint says, was the use of pending KB Home sales as a basis for appraised value, “even when no sale was actually pending because the ostensible buyer had abandoned the transaction.”
On a more fundamental level, the complaint argues that the use of pending transactions raises a red flag because such information “would only have been known to KB Home” and the appraisers were not supposed to be conferring at all with the builder.
Other lawsuits
The lawsuit is the second filed against Countrywide and LandSafe this year by Carey’s law firm, Seattle-based Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, which also filed a similar case in Phoenix against Wells Fargo and its appraisal-management firm, Rels Valuation, in February.
A Wells Fargo representative said at the time that the lender’s process for obtaining home-loan proposals is legitimate.
Appraisers in Idaho filed a still-pending lawsuit in October against Countrywide, claiming the lender had pressured them to manipulate appraisals. A Countrywide representative at the time said that the lawsuit was without merit.
And a recent investigation of appraisals by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo prompted federally sponsored lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to adopt new standards this month for the way appraisals are conducted.
The newest lawsuit describes the financial impact of KB Home and Countrywide’s appraisal maneuvers as “staggering.”
It contends that price inflation by the builder and lender is an average of $20,000 per home, which would have cost consumers $280 million in the Southwest region alone.
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Participants in home-sales transactions at all levels have faced accusations of manipulating the process. Here’s a look at how it should work and what can go wrong.
What they do: Establish a property’s fair market value, which is used by banks as the basis for issuing a mortgage loan.
The right way: Produce an independent property-value estimate based on recent similar-sale transactions.
The wrong way: Seek out recent transactions that justify a predetermined price and ignore transactions that conflict with the desired price.
What they do: Approve or deny a mortgage loan based on a property’s assessed value and the anticipated ability of a borrower to repay the loan.
The right way: Rely on independent appraisals to determine a prudent loan amount for a given property.
The wrong way: Pressure appraisers to set the value of a property at an amount desired by the loan broker or property seller.
What they do: Sell new homes based on current market value.
The right way: Establish a sale price based on an independent appraiser’s estimated valuation.
The wrong way: Pressure the lender or appraiser to set estimated property value at a predetermined amount.
Source: The Arizona Republic
PHOENIX — The latest AAA fuel gauge report show gasoline prices in Arizona are the lowest in the nation.
The AAA says drivers here paid an average of just $1.94 a gallon on Friday compared to a national average of $2.17.
Phoenix drivers have it best of all, paying just $1.87 a gallon. Tucson – and Pima County – drivers were paying $1.91 Friday.
The highest price in the nation, as usual, is paid by drivers in Alaska and Hawaii. Drivers in the Aloha State are forking over $2.50 for a gallon of regular, while those in Alaska are paying $2.60.
Destories
PHOENIX — Speed-enforcement vans are back on Arizona highways for the first time following the killing of a van operator last month.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Jim Warriner said Tuesday that the vans began being phased back onto roadways Monday.
He said he does not know how many vans are out snapping the photos of speeders or when all of them will be up and running again.
Warriner declined to say whether people were inside the vans, citing safety issues. He said only that “the technology is out there that has allowed us to move forward.”
“We’re comfortable that the van operators and the vans will be protected,” he said.
Thomas Patrick Destories, 68, is charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Doug Georgianni, 51, who was operating a speed-enforcement van on a Phoenix freeway when he was killed.
Authorities haven’t said what they believe the motive might be, but said the two men had never met.
The speed vans were pulled from Arizona freeways the day after the killing; fixed cameras never stopped operating.
Warriner said late last month that DPS was working with camera operator RedFlex Traffic Systems Inc. to decide how the vans would operate in the future, and that they could be unmanned.
The photo-enforcement program was launched under former Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano. Civil violations are punishable by a fine and surcharges totaling $181.
Georgianni is survived by his wife Jean, his parents, and six brothers and sisters.
Arizona has earned a bronze rating as a bicycle friendly state from the League of American Bicyclists, according to a news release from a local cycling committee.
Just six states applied for the designation, which is based on factors related to the states’ commitment to improved cycling conditions, and four made the grade, the Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee news release said.
The league rates states based on legislation, programs, places to ride and education of the public on bicycle recreation and transportation, according to the league’s Web site.
The program, which was launched last year, has four levels of recognition: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. No state earned the platinum or gold award. Only Washington and Wisconsin earned silver.
Tucson is Arizona’s only gold level bicycle-friendly community. Tempe and Scottsdale earned silver awards and Chandler, Flagstaff, Mesa and Gilbert earned bronze.
PHOENIX – The debate over the first statewide speed camera enforcement program in the nation has reached a boiling point following the fatal shooting of a camera operator.
Critics of Arizona’s program condemned the killing but vow they’ll continue to fight what they call unfair and overly intrusive government. Supporters of the program say camera opponents have inflamed the public, and that the speed cameras have made highways safer.
Doug Georgianni, 51, was killed on April 19, as he operated a speed-enforcement van on a Phoenix freeway. Thomas Patrick Destories, a 68-year-old Phoenix man, is being held in Maricopa County jail on a first-degree murder charge in the death. He has declined to comment.
Authorities haven’t said what they believe the motive might be, but said the two men had never met. Many simply assume the killing was the latest and most extreme backlash against Arizona’s photo-enforcement program.
Arizonans have used sticky notes, Silly String and even a pickax to sabotage the cameras since September when they began snapping photos of highway speeders driving 11 mph or more over the speed limit.
State lawmakers have proposed two bills to do away with the cameras, and three separate citizens groups are targeting them in initiatives for the 2010 ballot.
“The conversation on everyone’s mind in Arizona is the photo radar killing. That’s what everyone is talking about,” said Shawn Dow, a volunteer with the citizens group CameraFRAUD.com.
CameraFRAUD.com is the largest and most organized of the groups going after the cameras. Its initiative would ban photo-enforcement cameras throughout Arizona, including those in the statewide program and those run by individual municipalities, such as red light cameras in Tempe.
Dow said the Arizona Department of Public Safety and camera operator RedFlex Traffic Systems Inc. put Georgianni in danger by having him in a marked law enforcement vehicle even though he was a civilian.
“They’re putting these people in marked police vehicles that are civilians that have no training, no way to defend themselves,” Dow said. “We should have trained police officers – cops, not cameras.”
DPS spokesman Lt. James Warriner said the department is working with RedFlex to decide how the vans will operate in the future, and that they may be unmanned.
The speed vans were pulled from Arizona freeways Monday; fixed cameras are still operating.
Warriner said critics have blamed his agency for the killing “when all we’re doing is administering a program that was mandated by state Legislature and the former governor.
“Because of (critics’) vocalness, you could almost say they’ve led to this, too – because of their protests, the encouragement of people to strike out,” he said.
Warriner said Georgianni’s killing will not stop photo enforcement.
Karen Finley, president and chief executive officer of RedFlex, said in a statement that the company is being “deliberative and prudent” in its review of establishing criteria to redeploy mobile speed cameras. She declined to comment further.
Republican Rep. Sam Crump of Anthem, who is seeking to ban speed cameras on state highways, condemned Georgianni’s killing.
“While we don’t know at this time what the motives were for this senseless killing, many have understandably speculated that it was due to anger against the speed cameras,” he said in a statement the day after the killing. “To the extent there is any truth to that, I call on all individuals to reduce the war of words on this topic. Whatever the motives for this crime were, there is absolutely no justification for such a heinous act.”
The photo-enforcement program was launched under then- Gov. Janet Napolitano.
PHOENIX — Screeners working at their regular Customs counters at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airportwere on the lookout for people showing flu-like symptoms Monday.
Such passengers will be given masks and gloves and brought into a separate room where they will be asked about their travels and activities over the past week.
Passengers arriving from Mexico are being given a flier saying public health officials are investigating an outbreak of swine flu, listing symptoms of the respiratory illness, and providing tips on how to prevent it from spreading. If necessary, sick travelers will be referred to local health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We are going to be able to hear if they are coughing, if they are stuffy,” said Bonnie Arellano, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Arizona, which is in charge of the screenings here.
Eighteen nonstop flights by US Airways and Aeromexico are run each day between Phoenix and cities in Mexico.
Arizona health officials say the state has no confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu so far.
Department of Health Services spokeswoman Laura Oxley said Monday that the department’s lab is testing flu samples submitted by physicians and other clinicians but that none fall outside normal flu types.
Documented cases of swine flu have turned up in a number of other states, including California and Texas.
Arizona officials are urging health providers to be on the lookout for swine flu and to submit samples for testing.
Meanwhile, health officials say people should frequently wash their hands, sneeze into a tissue and stay home if they’re sick.
PHOENIX — A Federal Aviation Administration database released on Friday shows aircraft have struck birds or other animals more than 1,200 times in Arizona since 2000.
In six cases, aircraft flying out of Tucson or Phoenix had what the FAA classified as “substantial” damage after hitting birds, and others had lesser damage. At least six commercial jetliners had engines with damaged fan blades needing replacing or repair. In one 2002 case, a propeller-driven commuter plane had to return to Phoenix after a bird struck its wing and punched a hole in a fuel tank.
Passengers evacuated the plane safely as fuel poured onto the runway. Firefighters covered it in foam and plugged the leak.
In all, 1,259 bird strikes or animal collisions were reported from 2000 through 2008. No fatalities were reported.
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FAA Wildlife Strike database:
http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/public—html/index.html#access
Arizona needs more money, coordinated efforts and planning on transportation, a diverse gathering of community leaders and transportation experts said Wednesday.
A higher fuel tax, the elimination of a transportation sales tax cap for counties and the creation of a statewide panel to guide planning were among the chief recommendations by the biannual Arizona Town Hall’s 127 participants from across the state.
Planning is the key, said Town Hall President Tara Jackson. “Some would argue we are already behind,” she said.
The group concluded the best way to plan would involve a state-level panel of representatives from cities, counties, tribes, businesses, academia, nonprofits and other stakeholders.
The panel should plan based on the grass-roots needs of communities, a “value-based” approach, the group said.
The plan should recognize economic development and ecological considerations and help shift the state away from dependence on foreign oil.
The panel would work to eliminate fragmented planning, educate the public and encourage discourse and prioritize needs.
The Town Hall recommends several ways to pay for transportation improvements.
The fuel tax should be adjusted to account for inflation and indexed to inflation to make sure it does not fall behind on the cost of providing services, the group suggested.
“One is to play catch-up, and one is to index for the future,” said Si Schorr, a Town Hall participant who represents Pima County on the State Transportation Board.
The fuel tax has not changed since its inception in 1991.
Other suggestions include toll roads with “congestion pricing,” which would charge more for people using the highways during high-traffic hours, said James Condo, a Phoenix attorney who led the final session to hammer out amendments to the Town Hall report.
Participants met in four groups Monday and Tuesday at the Doubletree Hotel Tucson at Reid Park, then met as one big group to craft amendments to the draft, which was completed Tuesday evening and posted on the Internet for Town Hall members by midnight. Throughout the day Wednesday the document was evolving.
A final draft will be on the Arizona Town Hall Web site next week, Jackson said.
The final report will be combined with the massive background report and distributed widely, Jackson said.
She thinks the goals are achievable, because they were crafted by a broad array of community leaders and experts. Those experts and leaders can now help make the suggestions happen, she said.
“Little of this can be done tomorrow, but I don’t think any of this is pie in the sky,” Jackson said. “These are not people prone to pie-in-the-sky ideas.”
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Arizona Town Hall Web site:
PHOENIX — Financing of highway work around Arizona is being hindered by the state’s budget crisis and resulting cash-flow problems, coming on top of anticipated delays in projects due to slipping tax collections.
The Arizona Department of Transportation announced Wednesday that its contractors will have to wait longer for payments because the department had to repay $110 million in short-term financing early at the request of Treasurer Dean Martin.
Martin has said he legally had to call in the ADOT financing before resorting to short-term borrowing in the past week to pay for a big payment to schools. That short-term borrowing was the state’s first since the Great Depression.
Arizona faces a shortfall in the current budget despite a $1.6 billion fix approved by lawmakers in January. Lawmakers expect to eventually use up to $1 billion of federal stimulus money to keep the budget in the black.
A construction industry group, Associated General Contractors, criticized the development, saying it was “the latest erosion of funding for transportation projects.”
“The construction industry in Arizona is one of the hardest hit by the economy,” said David Martin, president of the group’s Arizona chapter. “To not pay contractors for work that has already been performed is unacceptable. This continual raiding of transportation funds, including those by the Legislature, cannot continue.”
ADOT officials told the state Transportation Board last week that reduced revenue from fuel-tax collections and other sources would require deferrals of numerous construction and repaving projects, including work on such major routes as Interstate 10.
“We are looking at a reduced five-year plan overall,” ADOT Director John Halikowski told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
ADOT said the short-term financing provided by the treasurer acts as bridge between when the state spends money on highway work and when it is reimbursed by the Federal Highway Administration and other sources for that spending.
ADOT said it might have borrow money from other accounts to pay contractors.
“Without this additional operating capital, ADOT contractors and their subcontractors may have to wait longer for payment, affecting working families across the state,” ADOT said. “Early repayment of these funds will impact ADOT’s ability to manage cash flow and does reduce funds available for transportation projects.”
The department noted that the repayment came at a time when the agency is gearing up to launch $350 million of highway projects funded by the federal stimulus program.
Gov. Jan Brewer said Tuesday she had asked the Obama administration to change the stimulus program so that cash-strapped states like Arizona don’t have to advance the money for the stimulus work and get repaid by the federal government.
PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer says she’s asked the Obama administration for leeway in meeting a requirement that Arizona and other cash-short states provide upfront funding for transportation projects eligible for stimulus program money.
Brewer said she made the request to Vice President Joe Biden during a White House-arranged conference call between Biden and several state governors on Tuesday.
Brewer said the stimulus program’s requirement for states to provide advance funding for transportation projects “can exacerbate the cash-flow issue.”
She said she suggested that the federal government either provide advance funding to states with cash-flow problems or create a fund to make temporary loans to states.
This photo provided Monday by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, shows Thomas Patrick Destories. Destories, a 68-year-old Phoenix man, was booked on suspicion of first-degree murder, in connection with the shooting death of a man operating a photo radar van in Phoenix.
PHOENIX – A suspect arrested in the shooting death of a man operating a photo radar van in Phoenix told police that he didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt, according to a court document released Tuesday
“I’m sorry. I was going to turn myself in,” 68-year-old suspect Thomas Patrick Destories told police, according to a probable-cause statement filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.
“I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt,” Destories said. “I saw it on the news. The gun is in the saddlebag.”
Destories had been riding his motorcycle when he was arrested Monday on a first-degree murder charge about 12 hours after 51-year-old Doug Georgianni was shot and killed as he operated a photo radar van on a north Phoenix freeway Sunday night.
Police say they don’t know the motive for the killing.
It’s unclear whether Destories has a lawyer. He’s being held in Maricopa County jail on a $2 million bond and is scheduled for his next court appearance on Monday.
Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill said Monday that the analysis of items at the scene and statements Destories made led investigators to decide that a first-degree murder charge was appropriate. He made the statement when asked about the assumption many people make that photo radar vans aren’t manned.
Arizona became the first state to use photo speed enforcement on state highways last year. The Arizona Department of Public Safety awarded a contract for the operation of 100 fixed and mobile photo speed enforcement cameras in July and the first were deployed in September.
The program has drawn criticism from many who call the effort costly and unfair to motorists. Its proponents say photo radar saves lives by slowing motorists and frees up police to tackle other problems.
Georgianni had worked for three months for Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., which has the state contract to operate the photo radar systems.
Hill said investigators believe Destories stopped behind the van and then slowly pulled alongside it and fired a gun multiple times.
The probable-cause statement said that Georgianni was sitting in the van, doing paperwork with an interior light turned on when he was shot.
Five large-caliber gunshots hit the marked Department of Public Safety van; three of them were in a tight pattern and grouped on the window of Georgianni’s seat, according to the document.
Hill said Georgianni was on the phone with his wife when he was shot.
Police found the magazine for a .45-caliber pistol in Destories’ front pocket when they arrested him, according to the probable-cause statement.
The Arizona Department of Commerce and Albiasa Solar of Spain will announce that a $1 billion solar-thermal power plant will be built near Kingman next year, generating enough power for 50,000 homes at once when it opens in 2013.
It’s the third large Arizona solar plant announced in less than 18 months, although one of the first two has been scrapped and the other won’t be running until 2011.
The Kingman plant will create 2,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs, according to the Commerce Department.
“The arrival of Albiasa Corp. is yet another big step toward establishing Arizona as a leader in the sustainable-industries sector,” Gov. Jan Brewer said.
The Spanish company incorporated a U.S. subsidiary in August, officials said, and has been scouting the Southwest desert from offices in Phoenix and San Francisco.
Although Albiasa officials won’t disclose the exact location of the 1,400 acres where they have secured the rights to build the plant, they said they chose the Kingman area because it was one of the few places with transmission capability on power lines.
“With the power loads in the Southwest cities, there are not a whole lot of power lines to get the power over there,” said Jesse Tippett, managing director for Albiasa’s U.S. operations.
Tippett and Albiasa’s chief project engineer, Albert Fong, said they are negotiating with utilities in the region to purchase the power from the plant, which is a major factor in getting financing for large power projects.
They also said that they are looking to utilities, such as Arizona Public Service Co. or Pacific Gas and Electric in California, that might be willing to finance the power plant now that utilities qualify for the same federal incentives that only developers qualified for last year.
Albiasa is building a 50-megawatt plant in Spain, and plans to use the same technology in Arizona, Fong said.
One megawatt of power-generating capacity is enough for about 250 homes in Arizona at once while a power plant is running.
Solar-thermal power plants don’t use the common black panels to make electricity. Instead, they use mirrors to focus sunlight on liquid-filled tubes. They use the hot fluid to make steam and spin turbines, much like coal, natural-gas and nuclear plants operate, but without the need for fuel.
Albiasa officials said they planned to use molten salt to store heat from the plant so it can keep generating power after sunset.
That also is the plan for Solana Generating Station, a 280-megawatt solar-thermal plant planned for Gila Bend by Abengoa Solar Inc. of Spain.
APS announced that it would buy the energy from that power plant once it is running in 2011. Last year, officials said they were struggling to get financing for the project, but APS spokesman Steven Gotfried said Friday the plans were moving forward.
Another 250-megawatt solar-thermal plant announced in December 2007 by APS, Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power Co. and several smaller utilities has been shelved because the power companies apparently couldn’t come to agreement on the project.
