After AZ GQP Insists On Removing Teeth From Clean Power Plan, Legislation Fails Because Freedumb

[hatrack]

EDIT

Arizona elects the commission members statewide. Three open seats were on the ballot in November, along with high-profile races like those for president and U.S. senator. Burns, who did not run for re-election, thought the energy plan was poised to pass 3-2 on the second vote, based on his knowledge of the two new members of the commission and the three returning members. But then some intense partisanship intervened. Arizona Republicans control the governor’s office and have narrow majorities in both houses of the Legislature. Some Republican lawmakers didn’t like the idea of the state setting a mandate to get to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050, and they didn’t like that the Corporation Commission was the body that was passing such a far-reaching policy.

Arizona’s constitution gives the Corporation Commission special powers, treating it almost like its own branch of government. Republican lawmakers introduced bills to reduce the commission’s powers, with some supporters of the bills citing the clean energy proposal as the main reason. Opponents of clean energy legislation cited familiar arguments about renewable energy being unreliable and much of the support for clean energy coming from activists from California. Those bills haven’t passed so far in the current legislative session, but the message was clear: The Corporation Commission was on notice that its actions were being closely scrutinized, and it should be careful.

Last week, when it was time for the commission to debate and vote on the clean energy plan, the swing vote turned out to be the new chairwoman, Lea Márquez Peterson, a Republican, who had voted to support the proposal in November. During hours of debate, an opponent of the policy, Commissioner Justin Olson, a Republican, proposed an amendment that, among other things, would turn the clean energy mandates into goals, taking the teeth out of the proposal. His amendment passed 3-2 in a party-line vote that included Márquez Peterson, which turned out to be the key vote.

The switch from mandates to goals meant that the panel’s two Democrats no longer supported the plan, so it didn’t have enough votes to pass.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13052021/inside-clean-energy-arizona-energy-plan/

[Mickju]

1. What hope do we have...

with so many troglodytes in positions of power?