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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Sixth Legislature, Second Regular Session
VETOED
power plants; public service corporations
Purpose
Prohibits a public service corporation or a public power entity from initiating the closure, decommissioning or disposal of an electric generation facility within five years after the date the written notice is provided.
Background
A public power entity is any municipal corporation, city, town or other political subdivision that is organized under state law, that generates, transmits, distributes or otherwise provides electricity and that is not a public service corporation, not including: 1) a city or town with a population fewer than 75,000 persons; 2) a power district, electrical district, irrigation and water conservation district or multi-county water conservation district; or 3) the Arizona Power Authority (APA) (A.R.S. § 30-801).
A public
service corporation is any corporation, other than a municipality, engaged
in:
1) furnishing gas, oil or electricity for light, fuel or power; 2) furnishing
water for irrigation, fire protection or other public purposes; 3) furnishing,
for profit, hot or cold air or steam for heating or cooling purposes; 4)
collecting, transporting, treating, purifying and disposing of sewage through a
system, for profit; 5) transmitting messages or furnishing public telegraph or
telephone service; and 6) operating as common carriers (Ariz.
Const. art. 15 § 2).
A public service corporation may not sell, lease, assign, mortgage or otherwise dispose of or encumber the whole or any part of its railroad, line, plant or system necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public, or any franchise or permit or any right thereunder, nor merge such system or any part thereof with any other public service corporation, without first having secured from the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) an order authorizing to do so (A.R.S. § 40-285).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Prohibits a public service corporation or a public power entity, in addition to prescribed requirements, from initiating the closure, decommissioning or disposal of an electric generation facility within five years after the date the written notice is provided.
2. Requires a public service corporation or public power entity to provide written notice to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives (House), the chairperson of the Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water (NREW) Committee or its successor committee, the chairperson of the House NREW Committee, or its successor committee, and the Director of the APA within six months after the public service corporation's or public power entity's decision or application to the ACC for an order to close, decommission or dispose of an electric generation facility.
3. Requires the notice of closure, decommissioning or disposal to include:
a) the date the decision to close or decommission or to dispose of the electric generation facility was made;
b) the date of the intended closure, decommissioning or disposal;
c) a description of the public service corporation's or public power entity's electric generation facility that is intended for closure, decommissioning or disposal;
d) a description of the replacement power that the public service corporation or public power entity plans to use or rely on to meet customer and grid needs after the closure, decommissioning or disposal; and
e) the reason for the closure, decommissioning or disposal.
4. Allows a public service corporation or public power entity to:
a) take any reasonable and prudent action necessary to convert or repurpose an existing electric generation facility that is powered by coal, petroleum, oil or natural gas to a new electric generation facility that is powered by natural gas, biomass, nuclear or hydrogen or any combination of these, including any action that has been approved by a permitting authority; and
b) install any reasonable and prudent emission reduction controls or improvements on the electric generation facility that maintain the net electric generating output of the facility at a lower rate of emissions per unit of output, including any action that has been approved by a permitting authority.
5. Requires a public service corporation or public power entity that receives notice of any federal law or regulation that may result in the forced retirement of the public service corporation's or public power entity's electric generation facility to inform the Attorney General, the Director of the APA and each member of the ACC of the law or regulation within 30 days after the receipt of notice.
6. Allows the Attorney General, the APA and the ACC, after receiving the prescribed information, to each take any action necessary to defend the interest of Arizona with respect to the law or regulation, the public service corporation's or public power entity's electric generation facility or the total electricity generation by the public service corporation or public power entity, including filing an action in court or participating in administrative proceedings.
7. Requires the Attorney General, on the APA's written request, to represent and take any actions that the APA requests relating to an electric generation facility as prescribed.
8. Requires the Attorney General, on the ACC's written request, to represent and take any actions that the ACC requests relating to an electric generation facility as prescribed.
9. Contains a statement of legislative findings.
10. Defines terms.
11. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Governor's Veto Message
The Governor indicates in her veto message that, because Arizona's public service and public power utilities currently complete comprehensive resource plans which include timelines for existing power plant closures, H.B. 2646 creates unnecessary bureaucracy for the state government and public service and public power utilities.
House Action Senate Action
NREW 2/13/24 DP 6-4-0-0 NREW 3/21/24 DP 3-2-2
3rd Read 2/22/24 31-28-0-0-1 3rd Read 4/10/24 16-11-0
Vetoed by the Governor 4/23/2024
Prepared by Senate Research
April 24, 2024
RA/slp