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Commissioner Márquez Peterson Advocates for Federal Energy Permitting Reform
Phoenix, Ariz. - Arizona continues to face incredible economic development and residential growth. At the Arizona Corporation Commission, one of our greatest challenges is balancing the need for energy generation and distribution, the affordability of our utility rates for our ratepayers and the demand for clean energy by many of the companies coming to our state.
This week, Commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson sent letters to Arizona Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema seeking their support for the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 to address these challenges.
The Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 is aimed at speeding up the lengthy permitting process energy projects face across the nation. The Act passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week and now heads to the full Senate for consideration.
The passing of the Act is important to Arizona in many ways. From a national perspective, it will boost American energy and mineral production and ultimately will help lower costs for American families. Additionally, the passing of the Act will ensure that new transmission lines meaningfully improve electric reliability for all customers.
In Arizona, we are focused on approving projects proposed by our utilities to meet the 40% increase in energy demand estimated by APS and the steady growth we are seeing in other parts of our state. In order to build new solar, wind, natural gas plants, we need new transmission lines from other states in the West and within our state connecting our growing communities. The current permitting process is arduous and lengthy.
The passing of the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 will provide an important step in streamlining the process, lessening the cost of compliance (which ultimately impacts our ratepayers) and allowing states like Arizona to provide the energy infrastructure at a faster pace to meet demand.
Commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson has served on the Commission since 2019 and is the Past Chairwoman. She can be reached at lmarquezpeterson-web@azcc.gov.
