Kayah Swanson, kayah.swanson@sierraclub.org
Phoenix, AZ – In Sierra Club’s latest version of its annual Dirty Truth About Utilities’ Climate Pledges Report that analyzes the plans of 77 utilities, Arizona utilities Salt River Project (SRP), Tucson Electric Power (TEP), and Arizona Public Service Company (APS) have earned abysmal grades for the third consecutive year for their coal and gas infrastructure that poisons the air, exacerbates the water crisis, and burdens customers.
The report assigns scores and grades to utilities based on three criteria: plans to retire polluting coal plants, whether they plan to build new gas power plants, and the scale of their investment in clean energy through 2030. In the report, SRP, TEP, and APS all earned D grades as a result of holding on to coal, and for their planned investments in fossil gas that intensifies the extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and floods Arizonans are experiencing.
Despite a sweltering, record-breaking summer in Arizona, including a 31-day streak of highs at or above 110 degrees fahrenheit in Phoenix, utilities are insisting on burning fossil fuels, and extending operation of coal plants that are increasingly unreliable and costly, all while opposing pollution control measures.
As families are faced with rising energy prices and the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change, Arizona’s utilities would rather keep customers on the hook to pay for volatile fossil fuel prices for decades to come, forcing Arizonans to pay for dirty, unreliable, and expensive coal and gas plants while dragging their feet on cost-effective clean energy.
“The Dirty Truth Report underscores that utilities are committed to the past rather than the future, and in Arizona that has dire consequences for our communities,” said Sandy Bahr, Director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “Our collective health depends on our state’s utilities to update their plans to include new clean energy investments that increase energy efficiency and clean solar with storage. A responsible, sustainable energy transition is long overdue.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.