Arizona’s largest utility company, Arizona Public Service (APS), announced Wednesday that it is abandoning its 2050 net-zero emissions goal, citing concerns that the target could jeopardize power reliability.
Pinnacle West, the parent company of APS, said Wednesday during its quarterly earnings call that APS will abandon its pledge to rely entirely on green energy by 2050 because doing so may threaten “reliability and affordability” of the power system. Instead, APS will pursue a carbon-neutral goal by 2050, as the original target could have seriously threatened the power grid as energy demand climbs in Arizona, according to company officials.
“Our mission is to reliably serve customers at the lowest cost possible. To do that, we need to integrate the most reliable and cost-effective resources available to us to meet Arizona’s fast-growing energy needs,” President and Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle West Ted Geisler said Wednesday. “Clean energy remains an important consideration for us … but always with a focus on a balanced energy mix that best serves reliability and affordability.”
The policy goal shift means that APS could continue to use fossil fuels to generate power, though it will have to offset any produced emissions. The utility also noted that it will explore opportunities to develop natural gas resources for when “intermittent resources like solar and wind are insufficient to meet customer demand.”
Arizona has adopted several green energy initiatives and goals over the years, and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has voiced a commitment to “invest in a 21st-century clean energy economy.”
Arizona’s energy bills are already comparatively high, and they are projected to climb as developers build out power-hungry data centers in the state, according to Forbes and Axios. The data centers, especially when paired with sweltering summer heat, are expected to increasingly strain Arizona’s energy system, according to multiple reports.
Rising energy demand and electricity costs are a national trend, as the artificial intelligence boom and the re-industrialization of America are driving substantial increases in expected future U.S. power demand, according to numerous reports and energy sector experts. Major energy companies in the oil industry have also recently abandoned aggressive climate targets for more attainable goals.
APS confirmed the emissions goal change and referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to its Wednesday earnings call news release.
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