Arizona utilities, solar industry brace for tax bill cuts

Arizona utilities and solar experts are bracing for major cuts to the renewable energy industry amid the July 1 passage of the Trump administration’s push for continuation of tax cuts first that will have sweeping impacts across a number of industry sectors.

The One Big Beautiful Bill is expected to significantly slash green energy credits and strip solar and wind energy of its appealing prices, say officials in the industry and within Arizona utilities.

“The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide,” the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The bill will add taxes to make solar systems 10% to 20% more expensive, according to Autumn Johnson, executive director of Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association.

“It’s a lot of rhetoric with pretend energy experts,” Johnson said. “(The bill is supposedly) leveling the playing field.”

But the Solar Energy Industries Association paints a dire outlook. The group predicts families will face higher electric bills and the electric grid will get weaker.

“Enacting this legislation would set back America’s global competitiveness, destabilize our energy future and weaken the very industries that power our economy and strengthen our national security—while surrendering the 21st-century tech race to China,” the Solar Energy Industries Association statement read. “It will strip the ability of millions of American families to choose the energy savings, energy resilience and energy freedom that solar and storage provide.”

In a statement, Salt River Project said it “will continue to monitor” the happenings of the bill.

Arizona Public Service Co., which just asked for nearly 14% rate increase, said it’s too early to tell what the impacts are to the industry.

“APS strives to maintain reliable service and keep its costs as low as possible by using a competitive, all-source Request for Proposal process to procure the resources to reliably serve customers,” an APS statement read. “We expect to continue reviewing all future generation proposals, including those with renewable energy, through this process to ensure we address our customers’ growing energy needs.”

Both APS and SRP have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in growing their renewable energy portfolios, all in an effort to become carbon neutral when it comes to producing power.

While the bill passed by the senate aims to support coal, many utilities, including APS and SRP, have moved away recently announced it will be converting its Coronado Generating Station in northeastern Arizona from coal to gas.

APS has continued expanding its renewable energy uses with a goal of having 45% of its generation coming from renewable energy by 2030. It plans to exit coal-fired power plants by 2031.