If you had to pay an extra few cents per month to help your rural Arizona neighbors, would you?
That’s what northern Arizona communities and nonprofit groups are asking of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) in the ongoing Arizona Public Service rate case.
They are calling on the ACC to approve Coal Community Transition (CCT) funding for communities that have for decades borne the brunt of widespread health and environmental impacts of coal. This critical funding would provide direct payments to schools, towns, counties, and tribes that have been supplying the coal or coal-powered electricity that has fueled Arizona’s remarkable population and economic growth for 40-plus years.
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Supervisors from 12 impacted school districts in Navajo and Apache counties have called on the ACC to help save rural communities that have powered Arizona by approving funds for CCT in this rate case. https://docket.images.azcc.gov/E000032291.pdf?i=1701109700138
Coal Community Transition is not a new issue, the ACC conducted extensive proceedings in 2021 and 2022 to determine how electricity customers could compensate coal communities for using their resources and leaving behind coal ash and other pollutants when coal plants close. Those proceedings ended with no action taken by the ACC, leaving coal communities hanging in the balance as plants continue to close.
When the power companies ramped up coal production in the late 70s, metro Phoenix and Tucson were able to grow into the major cities they are today. Beginning in the 1990s, coal powered the Central Arizona Project canal, delivering water to Phoenix and Tucson. Phoenix has quadrupled in population thanks to inexpensive water and power from coal plants. The coal plants were intentionally located far from the major cities, in rural towns that have come to depend on the coal plants for jobs and tax revenue. These plants are not only the primary economic engines for Arizona’s metropolitan areas, they kept the towns that surrounded them thriving. Places like Springerville, Eager, Joseph City, St. John’s, Page, and the Navajo and Hopi Nations.
With the steep decline in the price of wind and solar energy combined with the increase in domestic natural gas production and the EPA’s focus on reducing pollution and carbon emissions from energy production, coal is on its way out. Without direct transition payments from the power companies, the towns that provide labor for these plants are facing or have already faced economic ruin. The Hopi Tribe lost 80% of its revenue when the Navajo Generation Station closed.
The Cholla Generating Station in Joseph City is the next scheduled coal plant closure of the four remaining in Arizona. Joseph City is an unincorporated town, founded by Mormon settlers in the mid-1800s. It is facing an unimaginable economic downturn when the plant ceases operation in 2025. No more high-paying jobs. No more tax revenue for the schools. Employees will be moving out of town to find comparable work, and taking their school-aged students with them.
A recent study estimates the Joseph City Unified School District will lose $20 million in revenues in the 10 years after plant closure. Superintendent Bryan Fields testified in September in front of the ACC seeking CCT funding to support the district as the area works to build a new economic future.
Recognizing its obligation to the area, APS has proposed $5 million dollars in transition support. The fate of the school district and area are in the hands of the five elected ACC commissioners.
Without approval of a transition package, rural communities that have inordinately contributed to the growth of our state will be abandoned.
This is an injustice that can be avoided if the ACC owns its responsibility to take action on funding the transition from coal to a clean energy future.