Arizona utility regulators are asking the state Supreme Court to uphold their decision to allow a utility to generate electricity by burning garbage and calling it a “renewable resource.”
Mohave Electric wants to meet renewable energy requirements in part by building an incinerator near Surprise that would accept 500 tons of trash a day, recycling about a quarter of it and burning the rest. The Sierra Club contends the Arizona Corporation Commission’s own guidelines, have a more limited definition of what is renewable, including solar, wind and burning methane. It wants the court to rule the panel acted illegally.
But commission spokeswoman Angie Holdsworth said regulators believe the project is allowed.
“This waste-to-energy model, if you will, is being done in other places around the country. And so they did approve this to be kind of an experimental program to allow Mohave to do this,” Holdsworth said.
The commission’s attorneys told the high court yesterday one goal of the requirement that utilities generate 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2025 is to provide alternatives to traditional fuels like nuclear, coal and natural gas.
They say burning trash meets that goal and Holdsworth said since the emissions will be monitored by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, there is little risk to the public.