Pollution: It's Back, Baby!
(Originally published in CEBV CAN on Aug. 17, 2025)
The Clean Air Act as we know it was signed by President Nixon in 1970. The Clean Water Act (Federal Water Pollution Control Act) was updated and solidified in 1972.
Yes, regulation of pollutants used to be bipartisan! But industry special interests have been working tirelessly to undermine those laws ever since. This is the equivalent of tobacco companies convincing people that cigarettes are healthy (which, of course, they did before being exposed as bald-faced liars). Now that climate change denial is gospel for Republicans, it's a field day for polluters.
Last week the president triumphantly signed a repeal of the legal basis for the government's role in mitigating climate change. Called The Endangerment Finding, the 2009 rule concluded that greenhouse gases posed a threat to human health and therefore could be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Presidents before this one have used the determination to uphold laws regulating car exhaust, industrial emissions, and other sources of planet-warming gases.
It feels like a sick joke that Doug Burghum, the Secretary of the Interior, released "Coalie," a cartoon lump of coal designed to make coal mining look cute. The families of the 75,178 miners who have reportedly died from black lung disease since 1970 would like a word.
But this is not a column about how industry has used propaganda, legal warfare, massive campaign contributions, and regulatory capture to attack public protections. It's about something closer to home: the Arizona Corporation Commission. My favorite, infuriating, never-ending source of wasted potential.
AZ State Senator Lauren Kuby (D-LD8), who ran for a seat on the Corporation Commission in 2022, has twice introduced a bill renaming it the Public Utility Commission, since the Commission oversees public utilities in Arizona, including (virtually always) approving rate hikes. The change would alert the public to what the Commission actually does. The bill hasn't receive a hearing either year.
Now, the Arizona Corporation Commission is acting on its intention to gut clean energy goals altogether. And APS (Arizona Public Service) has also shrugged and abandoned its pledge to reach 45% of its power generation from renewable sources by 2030. APS is increasing investments in extractive natural gas and extending the life of the Four Corners Coal plant. In 2024 the Corporation Commission upheld APS's Grid Access Surcharge for solar energy users, and commissioners have decried subsidies for clean energy (but not a peep about natural gas subsidies). Listen to Stacey Champion testifying at the Corporation Commission meeting about the repeal.
Last year the legislature passed (and Gov. Hobbs signed) two bills strongly opposed by clean energy supporters: an APS-written bill that will allow utilities like APS to transfer their debt to low-interest bonds (this will allow them to shift financial liability from their shareholders to us, their customers, via a mandatory fee added to our monthly bills) and a law that gives power companies new protections from lawsuits if their equipment starts a wildfire (environmental advocates call it the “bill that lets APS burn your house down"). Both bills had bipartisan support. Lots of hands are dirty when it comes to industry regulation.
These moves are taking Arizona backward in the race to mitigate climate change. Industry propaganda, donations, and lobbying have taken precedence over public health and safety. Arizona has virtually unlimited sunshine to power solar cells. Wind is plentiful--Texas (Texas!!) is the nation's top wind energy producer, getting up to 28% of its total energy from windmills and saving Texans billions in the process. Arizona ranks 22nd. Arizona gets 13% of its energy from solar, lagging Texas, California, and Florida.
In 2024, Arizonans had the chance to overhaul the Corporation Commission with 3 stellar clean-energy candidates, and whiffed. None was elected. Two seats will be on the statewide ballot in 2026. Let's not miss again.
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