Gov. Hobbs Uses Her Veto Power Generously April 29, 2025
Gov. Katie Hobbs is staying the course in a state where the legislature is red by a slim 17-to-14 margin, vetoing 52 bills to date in the 2025 session. Combined, she killed 216 bills between 2023 and 2024, giving rise to her nickname, the “Veto Queen.”
Among the bills that were tanked, House Bill 2774, which was written to ensure that once the market was ready, small modular (nuclear) reactors (SMR) would be fast-tracked for use in rural Arizona. Sponsored by Majority Leader Michael Carbone (R), the bill paralleled efforts by the state’s three largest utilities, APS, TEP, and SRP, to secure funding from the DOE to help build out the truck-sized nuclear reactors.
Opposed by many of the state’s environmental organizations, including PSR, the reactors are a reaction to the projected growth of data centers and AI factories in the state, both of which consume prodigious amounts of energy and water. They would be exempt from certain approval processes and would be allowed only in counties with fewer than 500,000 residents, which excludes Pima and Maricopa counties.
While the bill went down to defeat, the utilities continue to explore nuclear power. A TEP spokesman said at a recent City of Tucson public meeting that they are looking at the nuclear-powered alternative to fossil fuels. He said the DOE had asked the three companies to resubmit their proposal. Recipients will be announced in the summer.
Read her letter in response to 2774.
See the complete list of yeas and nays in 2025.
A Few More ‘Nays’
Other bills vetoed by Gov. Hobbs:
Senate Bill 1164, the “Arizona ICE Act.” This bill shared blatant racial profiling with SB1070, the state’s “show me your papers law” from 2010 when the governor was Jan Brewer. SB 1164 would have “mandated that every police department and sheriff’s office in the state comply when ICE asks them to hold onto a prisoner,” among other human rights violations. Arizona Mirror.
Senate Bill 1441 would have required school board candidates to list their political affiliations, a concept that appealed last year to former State Sen. Justine Wadsack, Tucson, who also wanted real estate agents to identify Republican- and Democratic-leaning neighborhoods.
House Bill 2527 was a sly one. It would have prohibited retiring a power plant “unless a new power plant capable of creating as much or more power was available on the power grid.” Between the lines: this bill supports the transition from coal to gas, not to renewables.
Trump Steps in to Save Arizona’s Oldest Coal Plant
Despite efforts by environmentalists on and off Navajo country, coal is making a comeback in the Trump Administration, with the President signing an order to end what he describes as “Joe Biden’s war on beautiful, clean coal once and for all,” beginning in Arizona with the Cholla Power Plant, the state’s oldest, built in 1962 and currently facing decommission.
Owned by APS, the state’s largest utility, officials there were taken by surprise by the April announcement. APS had moved ahead on shutting down the plant, citing federal regulations and rising costs that have “made the plant uneconomical to operate.”
No word for now on what’s to be done, but Navajo environmentalist Nicole Horseherder, a Diné and executive director of the nonprofit Tó Nizhóní Ání [Sacred Springs Speaks], believes there are more opponents to restarting the coal plant than celebrants.
“I would not underestimate the communities there,” she said. “There’s a lot that’s not being taken into consideration. It’s just a big publicity stunt.”
Read Nicole Horseherder’s opinion piece on the realities of having a coal plant in your backyard: Black Mesa knows the cost
Coal in Arizona
Retired
Four Corners Power Plant 3 out of 5 Units | 2013
Cholla Generating Station 2 out of 4 Units | 2015 & 2020
Navajo Generating Station 3 out of 3 Units | 2019
Pending Retirements
Cholla Generating Station 2 out of 4 Units | 2025
Planned Retirements
Springerville Generating Station 3 out of 3 Units | 2027-2032
Four Corners Power Plant 2 out of 5 Units | 2031
Coronado Generating Station 2 out of 2 Units | 2032
Air Pollution in Arizona Hits Phoenix Hard
The annual Lung Association State of the Air report for 2025 finds that nearly half the population of the US is living where air pollution is not just bad, it’s dangerous. In Arizona, higher temperatures from climate change are making matters worse.
Phoenix is ranked #4 nationally in the number of unhealthy ozone days, dropping from 5th place. Tucson made progress from last year, dropping from 33 days of hazy ozone days to 62. Maricopa and Pinal counties are among the 27 counties in the US that failed all three measures: ozone, short-term particles, and annual year-round particles.
Good news for Prescott: It is one of the cleanest cities in terms of ozone.
As we would suspect, communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air. Hispanic individuals are nearly three times as likely as white individuals to live in a community with three failing grades, according to the Lung Association.
This year the Lung Association is asking the public — and especially health workers and professionals — to help fight back against the weakening of the EPA. “Longstanding safeguards are at risk of being rolled back or weakened and polluters are being given the red-carpet treatment to get out of complying with standards,” according to the organization that has for 26 years analyzed data from official air quality monitors to compile the State of the Air report.
Sign the EPA support effort here.
Read or download the State of Air report here.
To learn more about our rising heat and ozone pollution, read “What Happens When Extreme Heat and Air Pollution Collide.”
Newsletter Editor:
Karen Peterson
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