Arizona Increases Its Renewable Energy Standard
In Arizona, the Corporation Commission raised their renewable energy standard (RES) to 15 percent by 2025, up from its original 1.1 percent by 2007 requirement. After more than two years of regulatory proceedings, the Arizona Corporate Commission (ACC) voted 4-1 in favor of increasing its RES, making Arizona the ninth state to go back and increase/strengthen its renewable energy requirement. The increased requirement will support an additional 3,200 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy capacity, with up to 30 percent of that amount set-aside for solar energy. It will also reduce annual CO2 emissions by about 8 million metric tons by 2025.
In the past couple of years, UCS played a supportive role as part of a larger coalition in this effort, including submitting several rounds of regulatory comments. UCS activists were credited by coalition leaders as submitting far more petition signatures than from any other coalition group—nearly 600.
