Energy Advocates Slam Hobbs for Signing Utility BIll

Bill Would Allow APS to Sell the Outdated Four Corners Power Plant Not Retire It

Press Release

Advocates Denounce Governor Katie Hobbs’s Signing of Utility Bill

HB2679 is Bad News for Ratepayers, Clean Air, Clean Water, and Public Health

Phoenix, AZ – On Tuesday, May 13, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed House Bill 2679, despite strong opposition from a broad range of public health, environmental, and consumer advocates. The bill will benefit Arizona’s largest monopoly electric utilities — APS, TEP and SRP — to the detriment of ratepayers.

HB2679 allows utilities to bond for debt in coal plants, but unfortunately allows those plants to continue to operate, polluting the air and water, and with no transition funding for coal-impacted communities. It also allows utilities to refinance hundreds of millions of dollars in debt at lower interest rates, but has zero requirements for any savings, which could be significant, to be passed back to customers.

“At the end of the day, this bill perpetuates the way utilities have operated on tribal lands for decades,” said Nicole Horseherder, executive director of Tó Nizhóní Ání, a Navajo organization based on Black Mesa. “They have negotiated below market rates on resources, overused our water, dodged critical pollution regulation using tribal sovereignty and now this bill allows them to leave their mess behind, reduce their liabilities, and never have to give back to communities who need to transition out of fossil fuel.”

HB2679 will allow APS to transfer or sell the outdated Four Corners Power Plant rather than retire it. That means more air pollution and harm to the climate, while ratepayers foot the bill for any losses on the sale.

“From a bigger picture perspective, we cannot ignore that this piece of legislation and another one that was also signed into law this legislative session (HB2201), were strongly lobbied for by utility companies, especially APS. They poured a tremendous amount of resources into getting these bills passed because they are proactively preparing to protect their interests and their profits as the effects of climate change continue to worsen in Arizona,” said Vania Guevara, advocacy and political director for Chispa Arizona.

“These bills were designed to remove accountability and responsibility from our electricity companies and burden ratepayers; straight out of the corporate greed playbook,” said Guevara. “Additionally, HB2679 was a 40-plus page proposed law. Nothing with that level of complexity should be approved without appropriate stakeholder review. We are extremely disappointed that our elected officials, regardless of political party, moved this through the legislative process. You put corporate profits above the well-being of Arizona families.”

“HB2679 saddles Arizona families with the cost of bad corporate decisions, keeps outdated coal plants running, and offers zero transition support to impacted communities,” said JoAnna Mendoza, co-executive director, VetsForward. “Our communities deserve cleaner air, not corporate bailouts disguised as policy. Leadership means standing up to powerful interests, not bending to them.”

“What we needed from Governor Hobbs was a strong leader who would stand up to utilities and stand for clean air, the climate, and public health,” said Sandy Bahr, director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “What we got from her is a rubber stamp for continued dirty coal generation and a blank check for utilities.”

“We know this bill enables APS to sell the Four Corners coal plant and securitize the transaction — effectively extending the plant’s life beyond 2031, in direct contradiction to APS’s own 2020 clean energy commitment,” said Autumn Johnson, executive director of the Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association (AriSEIA). “Doubling down on coal, when far cheaper options like solar are available, is a terrible deal for Arizona’s economy and our clean energy future. Why are we propping up uneconomic coal plants in other states instead of investing in energy projects here at home?”

Advocates say the utilities did not need this bill this session — there was time to come back and do securitization right. The main focus of the bill, the Four Corners power plant, is not scheduled to retire until 2031. There was time to have the Arizona Corporation Commission hold an evidentiary hearing on it, as former corporation commissioner Bob Burns suggested, and to have a proper stakeholder process. There was time to draft a bill that has accountability and proper oversight, that protects ratepayers, and that does not keep a dirty uneconomic coal plant polluting the air and water longer.