Guess who’s coming to the Arizona solar-energy debate? That’s right, it’s none other than President Barack Obama, through his non-profit advocacy group Organizing For Action. The OFA recently sent out an email blast and created a web page that encourages people to send a message to the Arizona Corporation Commission…
Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, apologized to the Arizona Corporation Commission this week after one of his employees spread misinformation to customers. The flap began about 11 p.m. on July 31, records show, when SolarCity sales consultant Doyle Dreesen sent a breathless email to an unknown number of customers that…
If you’ve driven past the Phoenix VA hospital at Indian School Road and Seventh Street in the past couple of years, you couldn’t help but notice its large solar-panel project. Yet most of the panels have been sitting idle, New Times has learned, collecting sunlight but not transmitting electricity anywhere…
APS isn’t funding a campaign by a Virginia conservative group that attacks solar-power installers, a utility spokesman says. But that doesn’t mean the company doesn’t appreciate the hard-hitting ad that has generated 145,000 views on YouTube. “We’re happy they support our point of view,” says Jim McDonald of APS about…
Arizona, New Mexico, and California are among the worst places in the country to subsidize solar and wind projects if better air quality is the goal, a new study says.The best bang for the buck in terms of improving public health, according to Carnegie Mellon University researchers, could be had…
Governor Jan Brewer and other state officials attended a demonstration today of a new, mobile solar-power generator that unfolds like the lotus flower it’s named after. Monarch Power CEO, Joseph Hui, introduced the Lotus Mobile as a product that could power a refrigerator or other appliances in any location (when…
We had a temporary, though intense, urge to flee the state after reading Michael Clancy’s climate-change apocalypse story in today’s Arizona Republic. Clancy’s story describes how climate change could turn Arizona from the paradise it is today into a scorched, polluted, economically challenged wasteland that swelters in winter as well…
See also: Matinee Energy Official Pushed Gold-Mine Scheme in 1980s, Now Behind $700 Million Solar Deal With Hyundai Heavy See also: Matinee Energy? Power Co-Op Isn’t Buying It; Proposed Benson Solar Farm Reportedly too Big for Nearby Lines See also: Solar Firm Matinee Energy is Full of Hot Air Tong…
Matinee Energy, the Tucson mystery company with ties to two controversial brothers, has plans to build a large-scale, 120-megawatt solar-power plant in Benson.But even if the firm manages to complete the project, which claims a construction budget “up to the maximum of $444 million,” it isn’t clear who would purchase…
First Solar, the Tempe-based solar-panel manufacturing company, is being targeted by a class-action lawsuit alleging its principals hid negative facts to mislead investors.The federal complaint (see below) comes about a week after the company revealed that it was being investigated by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission for alleged problems with…
Matinee Energy, a company with plans to build several large solar-power plants in Arizona, says a founder who once ran a bogus gold-mining scheme no longer has a role in the firm. Yet many questions remain about the mystery company, which reportedly has contracts with Hyundai Heavy and KEPCO KDN,…
The Phoenix Suns seemed in control of the Golden State Warriors for about the first 34 minutes of last night’s game in San Francisco. The problem was, the pro game is 48 minutes long, and the Suns couldn’t stop the Warriors for the duration, losing 102-96. Marcin Gortat had…
The federal government just approved the destruction of 2,000 acres of Sonoran Desert land in the southwest Valley for a new solar plant, but conservationists aren’t complaining.This time, anyway.Thomas Hulen, executive director of Friends of the Sonoran Desert National Monument, was one of seven environmentalists who signed a November 21…
There’s good news and bad news about the transformer that caught fire in Phoenix last night.The good news: the enormous plume of smoke that is currently drifting West over downtown Phoenix is non-toxic.The bad news: the smoke could be here for a while — Phoenix fire crews are going to…
More subsidies for the solar industry in Arizona are crucial to avoid being left behind by other states and China, a Phoenix business leader said today at a solar-power conference. Tax incentives and loan guarantees “make a lot of sense” right now in Arizona, which is already a leader in the industry, said…
A former Maricopa County constable was arrested over the weekend after police say he conspired to burn his house down so he could collect an insurance payout.According to the Tempe Police Department, former Kyrene Justice Court Constable Jonathan Harold Irwin Levenson, who is Jewish, planned to make the blaze look…
When Suzanne Izenberg was arrested for arson yesterday, the arresting officer suggested to the court that she not be released on bail because she’s a drug abuser and there’s a good chance she’ll try to set something else on fire — which makes a lot of sense considering she’s tried…
The United States Department of Justice announced today that two men have been charged in connection with starting the Wallow fire, the behemoth blaze that destroyed a large portion of the Apache National Forest earlier this year.According to the DOJ, the two suspects, Caleb Joshua Malboeuf, 26, and David Wayne…
About 80,000 people in Mesa and Apache Junction are without power because of a fire on a Salt River Project transformer. The transformer — on the corner of Power Road and University Drive in northeast Mesa — caught fire this morning about 11:45, leaving about 30,000 residents without power. However, Salt River…
As firefighters continue to battle the Wallow fire in eastern Arizona, the starter of half of the monstrous 2002 Rodeo-Chedeski fire is scheduled to be released from prison tomorrow. Leonard Gregg, an Apache who lived in Cibecue, admitted he’d started two fires — Rodeo and Pine. The former wildland…
Two likely very unhappy campers are getting questioned today in connection with a campfire left burning on May 29 that apparently started the largest wildfire in Arizona history. Media reports state that the feds aren’t releasing names, nor have they arrested anyone. Meanwhile, the nearly half-million-acre Wallow fire is…
The enormous Wallow Fire continues to rage in eastern Arizona, and it has rekindled the debate over whether environmentalists are to blame for wildfires.Over the years, environmentalists have filed lawsuits that put restrictions on loggers who clear a lot of the dry brush from the forests. They say “old-growth” logging puts…
