Utility Dive detailed the flaws of Arizona House Bill 2101, citing AEE's Shelby Stults on how the measure fails to address energy reliability. Read snippets below and the full article here. 

The Arizona Senate passed House Bill 2101 on Tuesday, advancing legislation to the governor's desk intended to address reliability issues and prevent blackouts similar to recent disruptions in Texas and California...

"This measure won't do anything to help households keep the air conditioning flowing during a heat wave or keep the lights on during a storm or fire," Shelby Stults, Arizona policy lead at Advanced Energy Economy, said in a statement. "It's unfortunate to see the legislature fall for such a self-serving ploy from the state's monopoly utilities."

"If the goal is to improve reliability, avoid blackouts, and protect residents, Arizona should be looking for ways to curb demand at critical times and offer a diversity of innovative, advanced energy technologies to customers," Stults said...

However, several bill opponents said the reliability argument often created false equivalencies between Arizona and grid operators in those Southwest states. For example, while the blackouts of Winter Storm Uri were evaluated as a concern for high energy costs in Texas, Arizona legislators did not address unique factors in that market, such as the grid operator's pricing mechanisms, or the need for weatherization initiatives of gas infrastructure that the 2021 blackouts spurred.

Read the full article here.