Two months ago, Arizona’s monopoly utilities and their political allies were patting themselves on the back about the expansion and development of a couple of new natural gas projects that they claim will help the Grand Canyon state keep up with growing energy demand.
On the surface, an announcement of new projects like the Transwestern Expansion should have been great news for Arizona ratepayers. Our state is in desperate need of more reliable, dispatchable power; especially after years of reckless green new deal investments that have raised costs and reduced reliability.
But sadly, it turns out that SRP’s enthusiasm for gas isn’t about expanding baseload power on the grid after all. The new gas capacity is instead being used to replace existing coal power generation that SRP has pledged to shut down in Arizona. All to meet ridiculous self-imposed carbon reduction goals and climate commitments that should have been junked a long time ago.
New Gas Capacity being Wasted to Shut down Coal
Last week, the SRP’s Board of Directors held a meeting and voted to convert the Springerville Generating Station from coal to natural gas by the early 2030s. That follows an earlier vote to repower the Coronado Generating Station (CGS) near St. Johns, retool it for gas by 2029, and cease burning coal entirely by 2032. It is very likely that by the time these two plants have been decommissioned, SRP won’t have any coal generation left in their portfolio, as the 527MW they get from Craig Generating, Four Corners, and Hayden Generating are all slated to be decommissioned by 2031 as well. The evaporation of a total of 2,600MW of coal generation in less than a decade.
SRP calls these decisions the “lowest-cost option” to preserve 400MW and 762 MW, respectively, of capacity, while simultaneously bragging that it will “support its carbon-reduction goals and net-zero vision”. In reality, it demonstrates that they still believe that costly and unreliable solar, wind, and battery storage are the future to meet energy demands.
Nuclear not riding to the Rescue
Since we aren’t getting any meaningful bump in baseload power capacity from these bait-and-switch plant conversions from coal to natural gas, perhaps SRP is looking at nuclear to meet our significant future energy needs.
The good news is that SRP and our other major utilities have issued rosy press releases about future partnerships and grant-funded studies to explore small modular reactors (SMRs).
The bad news: not a single nuclear plant is expected to come online before the 2040’s! Talk of expanded nuclear power from our monopoly utilities isn’t a plan; it’s a prayer.
Green Scam All the Way Down
So, if SRP’s nuclear talk is nothing more than fan fiction, and if they are chewing up all of our natural gas capacity to shut down coal, how are they going to meet future energy demand?
Two words: Green Scam.
Just like APS and TEP, SRP is pouring billions into solar and battery projects that must be massively overbuilt to replace the dispatchable energy coal once provided.
Take the Copper Crossing expansion in Pinal County: an expensive 55-MW solar field paired with 65 MW of battery storage — enough to power about 14,000 homes for only four hours. To meet evening demand, SRP would need to triple that capacity, all while still depending on natural gas for backup.
Or the largest battery storage project in the state of Arizona that went live last year – the Sonoran Solar Energy Center – with its 260MW of solar generation and 1 GW of battery storage just south of Buckeye. This “asset” was not just about meeting SRP’s decarbonization goals – but Google’s too – as they stated, “Google’s current projections indicate these projects will help its Arizona operations reach at least 80% [carbon free energy] on an hourly basis by 2026.”
And the list goes on. SRP customers aren’t getting large expansions of gas, coal or nuclear anytime soon; they’re getting expensive intermittent power that can’t stand on its own and will lead to endless double digit rate hikes.
SRP Should Abandon Their Climate Commitments & Embrace the Trump Energy Agenda
SRP has completely failed to recognize the moment. The political and energy landscape has shifted under their feet. We now have a president openly calling for America’s coal plants to stay open, and for new coals plants to be built.
Meanwhile, Arizona is on the cusp of an energy demand explosion. New data centers and chip manufacturers to fuel the AI revolution – which everyone recognizes cannot feasibly be supplied by intermittent sources.
And yet SRP is whistling past the graveyard, shutting down reliable generation and pretending nothing has changed.
There is no excuse for shuttering any working generation asset — coal, gas, or otherwise — in the face of unprecedented growth, the collapse of the ESG financing scam, and complete national policy reversal.
The path forward is obvious – SRP needs to abandon their net-zero crusade, keep the plants running, expand dispatchable capacity, and serve their customers with power they can afford, and that actually works.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
Recent Comments