by admin | Jun 27, 2025 | News and Updates, Regulatory
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – On Tuesday, June 24, the Prescott City Council held another meeting to vote on the city’s proposed General Plan. This document contained various sections of woke policy such as Vision Zero, road diet language, and pushes for pricey, unreliable energy. Had it been approved, the City Council would have sent it to the ballot for an upcoming election.
However, the public made their voices heard during multiple meetings, urging the council to vote the plan down. The plan failed to obtain the required supermajority (five votes) for referral to the ballot. Prescott Mayor Phil Goode spoke out in strong opposition to the proposal which, as written, reflects policies that many fear could begin to turn Prescott into Los Angeles or San Francisco. The mayor, along with two other council members, heeded the calls from grassroots residents by voting against the original, problematic General Plan—and when a slightly revised version came up for a vote, it too failed, this time with four voting against and only three in favor.
Mylie Biggs, Associate of Government Affairs for the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, said, “This is a major win for the people of Prescott and the members of the Council that stood firm. Every other city in Arizona should be cautious of the language in their own General Plans and follow Prescott’s lead in rejecting wokeness in their cities.”
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by admin | Jun 24, 2025 | News and Updates, Regulatory
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) that passed the House of Representatives last month contained numerous wins for the American people: permanent tax relief, funding for border security, an expansion of Health Savings Accounts, and even a new program to expand school choice. But arguably the most impactful accomplishment in the BBB was their success in taking a machete to the labyrinth of green new scam tax subsidies created by Joe Biden and the Democrats through the inflation-creating Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). That alone makes it the most beautiful feature of the Big Beautiful Bill.
The House’s version included key provisions sunsetting some of the worst subsidies authorized under the IRA, including:
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- Ending the Clean Electricity Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for any project that doesn’t start within 60 days of the enacting legislation and isn’t in service by 2028;
- Ending the Clean Electricity Investment Credit and Transferability of Tax Credits for Wind and Solar;
- Eliminating the Tax Credit for Residential Solar and Rebates for “Green” Products;
- Repealing the Electric Vehicle Credit designed to Force Manufacturers to Abandon Gas Powered Vehicles.
The rollback of these subsidies in the House BBB was a monumental feat, especially given the army of lobbyists hired by the green energy grifters to defend these subsidies on Capitol Hill. In fact, the big spenders in the GOP caucus almost succeeded in stopping the subsidy rollback. If not for the stalwart efforts of the House Freedom Caucus and the White House stepping in at the last minute of negotiations, the green scam subsidies would not be on the chopping block.
But now the bill is in the Senate, and the initial draft released of the revised Big Beautiful Bill by Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo is anything but big or beautiful. As detailed by energy expert Alex Epstein, almost every IRA subsidy that was rolled back in the House is revived in the Senate version of the legislation.
The green energy lobby must be giddy. The Senate version reinstates subsidies for green energy suppliers, reopens loopholes such as the transferability of tax credits, and most importantly it eliminates the hard “placed in service” 2028 deadline for new projects, replacing it with a toothless “construction begins” deadline. Taken altogether, these changes would guarantee that these subsidies would continue long after Trump’s term ends in 2028. Which means all of these subsidies will be renewed at some point, and America will be stuck with Biden’s green new scam for decades to come.
The Senate’s resurrection of the Biden green subsidies in the BBB didn’t escape the attention of President Trump. “They are largely a giant SCAM. I would much prefer that this money be used somewhere else, including reductions. ‘Anywhere’ would be preferable!…None of it works without massive government subsidy (energy should NOT NEED SUBSIDY!).” As usual, Trump knows a Washington, D.C., grift when he sees it.
Additionally, Trump is correct that America’s energy development, production, and generation should never require subsidies. Yet over the last decade, wind and solar have consumed hundreds of billions in R&D refundable credits, loan guarantees, grants, and other subsidies. Just in the Inflation Reduction Act alone, $96.7 billion was earmarked for “clean” energy grants, mostly directed at solar and wind.
These IRA subsidies are why every major public utility in Arizona and across the country is adopting grid crushing resource plans that rely solely on wind, solar, and battery storage for new generation capacity. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said it best earlier this month while testifying to the House subcommittee on energy, “If you’re not there at peak demand, you’re just a parasite on the grid, because you just make the other sources turn up and down as you come and go.” Solar and wind alone can’t carry our grid, yet these subsidies drive out the very sources that solar and wind require to operate. One needs to look no further than Spain to see what happens when you try to power your economy on intermittent sources of energy.
America cannot afford to have our grid ruined because Republicans in Congress can’t say no to the green grift lobby. The current subsidies not only represent hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, but they are dangerous to the reliability of our nation’s grid. And anyone who cares about that should reach out to their representative to restore the big, beautiful end to green scam subsidies.
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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!
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by admin | Jun 19, 2025 | News and Updates, Tax
Around the country, the “war on cars” has become apparent. From New York’s congestion pricing scheme to the onslaught of road diets and protected bike lanes to “reallocate” the public space away from cars, there is hardly anywhere you can travel without experiencing the increased hassle and cost of driving your personal vehicle.
Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse the woke transportation trends at the U.S. Department of Transportation under former Secretary Pete Buttigieg, many state and city governments remain committed to punishing drivers.
One specific tool being used to implement the anti-car, woke transportation agenda is vehicle mileage limits and taxes. For example, in Washington State, they passed a law that sets a target of reducing vehicle miles traveled per capita by 50% by 2050. Their department of transportation is empowered to create policies and strategies that would effectively force people to give up their cars. And of course, for our neighbors to the West, California lawmakers have proposed a mileage tax or “road charge” determined by how many miles a person drives in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and endlessly subsidize their failed transit system. Implementing this would require invasive measures such as reporting odometer readings or installing “special plug-in devices.” This kind of Orwellian intrusion on our freedom to travel privately has no place in any American city, even in California.
This week, Arizona legislative Republicans took a huge step to protect our state from these insane California-style, anti-car policies. With the passage of SCR1004 (the Freedom to Move Act), sponsored by Senator Jake Hoffman (Queen Creek), Arizona voters will decide in November 2026 whether to enshrine a first-in-the-nation constitutional protection against taxing, tracking, and limiting our vehicle miles traveled.
“The Arizona Free Enterprise Club has been fighting for the Freedom to Move Act since 2023,” said Scot Mussi, the Club’s President. “We are thrilled that our Republican-majority legislature chose to give voters the ability to protect their way of life by preserving our freedom to travel by personal vehicle in our state.”
President Trump and Secretary Duffy are doing critical work at the federal level to reverse the wokeness that has infected transportation policies and funding at the department and across the country. Now Arizona is leading the way on showing other states how they can pass their own protections for drivers and keep their states free too.
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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!
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by admin | Jun 13, 2025 | Corporate Welfare, News and Updates
One of President Trump’s most important campaign promises was to bring accountability and transparency to federal government spending. Under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), his administration didn’t waste any time getting to work.
Within weeks of Trump’s inauguration, DOGE had uncovered billions of dollars in waste and abuse of taxpayer funds under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Here are just a few of the ways the Trump administration discovered USAID was spending your tax dollars:
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- $1.5 million to “advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.”
- $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala.
- Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab.
- $1 million to boost French-speaking LGBTQ groups in West and Central Africa through the State Department.
- $15 million for condoms to the Taliban through USAID.
This list barely scratches the surface of the waste and abuse that was discovered. But now, it appears it’s not just the federal government that’s been throwing your money around to outlandish woke initiatives. Arizona may have its very own USAID scandal.
A group of Republican lawmakers led by Rep. David Marshall recently completed an investigation into the City of Phoenix, and what they found was eye-opening. Over the past five years, the city has distributed more than $28.5 million of taxpayer funds to over 100 private organizations with a shocking lack of oversight. And what causes do you think they’re supporting? Certainly not conservative ones.
The investigation revealed that Phoenix’s USAID slush funds are being used to bankroll non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support liberal causes and enrich political friends. Groups like Phoenix Film Foundation, Phoenix Pride Inc., Mexican Baseball Fiesta LLC, the Arizona Science Center’s Galaxy Gala, and many more received subsidies under vague labels including “Sponsorships,” “Grants and Subsidies,” “Emerg[ency] Assist[ance],” or “Miscellaneous.” (You can see the full list here.)
Of course, this is illegal. But the city is trying to use an outdated ordinance to justify these giveaways. Incredibly, it claims that its department directors can just pass out $32,000 to any organization it wants to! You read that right. The bureaucrats in the City of Phoenix actually believe that they can create these USAID slush funds and dole out the money to any special interest at the sole discretion of a single city employee. On top of that, the city doesn’t even track these donations by nonprofit status, so it has no idea how much taxpayer money it has handed out.
While this investigation has focused solely on Phoenix, it’s likely that it’s not the only city doing this. It’s been an open secret for years that various liberal non-profits have been gravy training off local governments, just like what’s been happening at USAID. All of this serves no other function than to fund the Democrat operation in Arizona while filling the coffers of their political friends (and family members). It’s something Governor Katie Hobbs has perfected with things like a $700,000 contract for Urias Communications, owned by the brother of her former Office of Tourism Director Lisa Urias, to create a new state logo.
These USAID slush funds must be cut off throughout our state, and it’s great that these three legislators flagged it. It’s even better that the Goldwater Institute has stepped in ask for a deeper investigation from Arizona’s Attorney General and has pledged to explore further legal actions if she declines. But we shouldn’t stop there.
City and local governments should not be spending your tax dollars without the clear legal authority to do so. And these “expenses” are a clear violation of the Arizona Constitution’s Gift Clause, which prohibits the government from subsidizing private organizations. It’s time for our legislature to consider conducting audits of various cities and political subdivisions in the state. The people of Arizona deserve to know if NGOs are grifting off taxpayers. And if they are, it must be stopped immediately.
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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!
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by admin | Jun 12, 2025 | News and Updates, Regulatory
Earlier this year, President Trump signed a trio of executive orders aimed at keeping our nation’s vital coal power plants online. In fact, at the signing ceremony, the President explicitly called out one of Arizona’s coal plants by name. He directed Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to keep the Cholla Power Plant online and told the workers to remain calm because they are going to have that plant “opening and burning…coal in a very short period of time.”
The Cholla Power Plant is one of many Arizona coal plants that have either been mothballed or slated for retirement in the near future. In 2019, SRP and the other utilities shut down the Navajo Generating Station, resulting in a loss of 2,250 MW of reliable capacity. Earlier this year, an additional 425 MW of generating capacity was taken offline at Cholla. And over the next 6 years, Arizona’s public utilities, as outlined in Integrated Resource Plans recently approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission, plan to shutter every last bit of coal generation in Arizona by 2032. Most alarming is that according to those same Resource Plans, the replacement fuel for this reliable source of energy will be solar, wind, and battery storage, all to meet carbon free “Net Zero” goals that will cost Arizona ratepayers billions and destabilize the grid.
On the same day President Trump signed the coal orders, the Arizona legislature, led by Representative David Marshall, sent a letter to the Department of the Interior urging the Administration to help keep Cholla, and every other coal plant in the state, online. Last month, every Republican in the legislature voted to send HCM2014 to the Corporation Commission, urging them to protect our grid, fight to keep these plants online, and support the Trump Energy Agenda.
What Arizona ratepayers got instead was a late Friday afternoon news dump from Kevin Thompson, Chairman of the Corporation Commission, blasting the idea of reopening Cholla. In his press release, Thompson and fellow Commissioner Nick Myers claimed that it would cost ratepayers $1.9 billion to keep Cholla online and then took the time to attack and belittle GOP lawmakers and advocates of the Cholla option.
It is interesting to note that prior to this figure being disclosed by Thompson and Myers, it was impossible to get any actual numbers or a cost analysis from the commission comparing the price of coal to other Green New Deal options. Every time the subject was brought up, we were simply told that going solar is the cheapest option and that we should just “trust the experts.” It is unclear how Commissioner Thompson even arrived at this figure.
But now that we have their figure, let’s take them at their word: keeping Cholla online has a price tag of $1.9 billion. That sounds high, and ratepayers might be concerned about footing that bill. But this doesn’t take into account that the 425 MW of electricity from Cholla has to be replaced with another source of energy. So, instead of keeping coal online and adding additional capacity to meet future demand, we now must foot the bill for replacement power and new capacity.
And what would that replacement power cost? Since the utilities’ future resource plans depend almost exclusively on green energy generation to meet their climate commitments, “Net-Zero Heroes,” that is what ratepayers should expect – solar plus battery storage to replace our coal plants.
And what do solar plus storage projects cost? The Eleven Miles Center, built in 2024 by SRP at a cost of $1 billion, has an advertised peak capacity of 300 MW with four hours of 300 MW storage. The APS Papago Solar and Storage project is planned to be operational in 2026 and has the same capacity. The advertised cost is $836.4 million.
At first blush, both solar projects appear to have a similar output compared to Cholla at a slightly lower price, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. A coal plant with a capacity of 425 MW of capacity can produce power 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Solar? The advertised capacity of 300 MW of solar from Eleven Miles Center or the Papago project will only produce 300 MW for a few hours each day and drop to zero every single night when the sun isn’t shining.
So how much solar needs to be built to match the dispatchable coal power being replaced? According to energy experts such as Alex Epstein, AlwaysOn Research, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, for every 1 MW of reliable, dispatchable coal power being replaced, the grid will need more than 3 MW of solar plus storage to meet demand.
In effect, to replace the capacity of 425 MW at a plant like Cholla, the utilities will need to build approximately 1,700 MW of solar plus storage at a ratepayer cost between $4.7 billion and $5.7 billion dollars! Additionally, paying triple the cost for solar will only provide the grid with four hours of battery backup, so ratepayers would still benefit more from investments in projects like Cholla than in unreliable solar and storage.
Given the exorbitant price tag to build thousands of acres of intermittent, unreliable solar and batteries, it seems crazy not to seriously consider keeping Cholla open. Combined with the announcement this week by the EPA to move toward repealing the radical Obama/Biden era “Clean Power Plan 2.0” rules and anti-science “endangerment finding,” the cost and regulatory barriers to expanding the use of coal and natural gas are being swept away.
Yet despite the efforts of the Trump administration and GOP lawmakers, Commissioners Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers continue to obstruct the exploration of expanded coal development in Arizona. They have also shown no interest in revisiting the utility Resource Plans that were rammed through the process right before the November election. The regulatory, tax, and subsidy environment that drove many of the assumptions in those plans are now defective with Trump in the White House. Items such as the closure of the Cholla Plant, along with other coal facilities on the chopping block, should all be reopened and reconsidered.
Arizona has huge energy demands on the horizon. The implementation of Trump’s agenda will secure our energy future and keep Arizona free and prosperous. The reflexive opposition to coal and other fossil fuel generation perhaps made some sense when Biden and the Green New Deal Left were driving the energy agenda, but that’s no longer the case. Instead, Commissioners Thompson and Myers seem stuck in the Green New Deal world of 2023, which means ratepayers all get stuck with a costly, unreliable grid while they are at the Corporation Commission.
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.
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