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Bringing Community Choice Energy to Arizona

Tucson to study community choice energy and public power to achieve carbon emission reduction goals.

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Tucson to study community choice energy and public power to achieve carbon emission reduction goals.

Tucson will embark on a major study of whether it makes sense to boost renewable energy use by forming a city-run electric utility or by starting a program allowing the city to buy and sell solar and wind energy to residents.

Those are the highest-profile options to be looked at once the city hires a consultant to conduct the study starting this summer.

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The People of Tucson Stand Up for CCA

TCCers have been showing up regularly to city council meetings and last night was no exception, only this time with some great fanfare, including 5 articulate speakers and professionally crafted signs help up by a dozen CCA supporters. Although CCA is not the law of the land yet in Arizona, our state legislators need to hear from cities like Tucson that there is a growing demand at the local level for weaning from fossil fuels and increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency through the proven model of CCA.

To view CCA advocates’ testimonies, start at approx. 6:17:11, with Jane Conlin as the last speaker, ending at approx. 6:43:05, including several comments in between on other important topics during that time frame. Here is the link:

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Arizona experts reflect on what the Supreme Court climate ruling means

While SCOTUS wants to use the excuse of a document written in the late 18thcentury to roll back GHG emission regulations by the EPA, state constitutions have more latitude.  AND cities and states can make the difference with their climate action plans.  Kevin Gurney, one of the authors of the most recent IPCC report and a professor at Northern AZ University, is optimistic:

“Right now, I’m still optimistic that, at the end of the day, we’ll just work around (the court decision),” Gurney said. “States are trying to do stuff. Cities are trying to do stuff. If we can release the information they need that will allow them to independently go after this problem that, to me, is the hopeful part.”

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