After lull in climate action, Arizona joins group of states and territories pushing for changes

Arizona has joined the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition that seeks to improve America's environmental future by advancing changes in laws and policy.

Gov. Katie Hobbs on Wednesday said she had added Arizona to the other 24 states and territories in the effort, which represents approximately 55% of the U.S. population, according to a news release. The scope of Arizona's efforts to improve the environment often has depended on the political party of the governor. As the first Democrat to hold the office since 2009, Hobbs is looking to change the trajectory of the state's approach.

“Together, we are creating green jobs and businesses, ensuring clean air and water for Arizonans, lowering energy costs, and preparing more effectively for a changing climate," Hobbs said in an announcement of the move.

The six-year-old alliance has four main commitments, which include:

• Reducing collective net greenhouse gas emissions to below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.

• Accelerating new and existing policies to reduce pollution, build resilience to the effects of climate change and promote clean energy deployment;

• Making equity and environmental justice central to efforts to achieve climate goals and create high-quality jobs;

• Tracking and reporting progress to the global communities.

The alliance's website says that member states are delivering air pollution reductions, emissions reductions, climate resilience, clean energy jobs, economic growth, energy savings and zero-carbon electricity.

Christian Slater, spokesperson for Hobbs' , said the administration will seek to achieve goals in Arizona through green energy investments. He cited the opening of the Chevelon Butte wind farm in Winslow on Monday as an example. According to KTAR News, the investment will bring in $267 million to the state.

Arizona climate policy swings on pendulum

Hobbs' move to join the alliance follows a recent lull in Arizona's presence on the stage of climate policy.

The Grand Canyon is touted as a glimpse into the climate's future: reduced visibility, extreme drought, higher temperatures and wildfires were all indicative of what could happen on a larger scale in the future.

"The Grand Canyon is like the canary in the coal mine," Roger Clark, a program director for the Grand Canyon Trust and an active member in the regional haze work from its earliest stages, told The Arizona Republic in 2020. "Visibility issues are an early warning sign of things going away in the atmosphere."

In 2007, under Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, Arizona attempted to spearhead a regional approach to helping the environment, signing a memorandum of understanding directing environmental agencies to design a market-based mechanism to achieve regional emissions goals. This became the Western Climate Initiative.

But in 2010, a new governor — Republican Jan Brewer — signed an executive order pulling Arizona out of the initiative altogether because she believed it would cripple the state's economy. She later signed a law preventing state agencies from monitoring greenhouse gas emissions. The Western Climate Initiative launched two years later, in 2012.

Most recently, a years-long effort to create requirements for carbon-free energy in the state died at the Arizona Corporation Commission in 2021.

The commission was considering rules that would make electric companies get 100% of their energy from carbon-free sources by 2050. But Democrats on the panel, along with one Republican, killed the effort after other Republicans watered down the plan. Among other things, the changes would have made the goals a recommendation, not a mandate.

Allie Feinberg is a Pulliam Fellow at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Reach her at ahfeinberg@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @alliefeinberg.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona joins US Climate Alliance after lull in climate efforts