Groups Express Disappointment with Governor Hobbs Over Her Support of the Desert Southwest Gas Pipeline — Locking in Methane Gas Use for Decades
Desert Southwest pipeline expansion | Image Credit: Energy Transfer
May 12, 202630 minutes
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Phoenix, AZ — Today, organizations including Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, Chispa Arizona, and Solar United Neighbors, expressed disappointment in Governor Katie Hobbs’s announcement of her support for the Desert Southwest Pipeline, a methane gas pipeline that will stretch over 500 miles through three states — Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona — and cost more than $5.3 billion dollars.
“Governor Hobbs’s decision to support this gas pipeline is both unwise and short-sighted,” said Sandy Bahr, director for Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter. “This pipeline will ensure that Arizona exports more of our energy dollars from Arizona to Texas, but much worse will lock in gas use for decades. The Governor should have at a minimum waited until she knew more about the impacts of this proposed gas pipeline instead of once again just giving the Arizona utilities — APS, TEP, and SRP — what they want. This pipeline is costly to our wallets, our health, and the climate.”
“The fight for environmental justice is intersectional—we support a system where the working class has access to good union jobs, but a gas pipeline is not sustainable nor should it be done at the expense of potential harm and negative health impacts to the land or people. Decisions like this should not be made without communication and dialogue with impacted communities. We are truly disappointed with this decision. Utility corporations win again,” said Vania Guevara, Advocacy and Political Director for Chispa Arizona.
“Local solar energy is the cheapest and fastest way to lower energy bills and meet Arizona’s rapidly growing energy demand,” said Adrian Keller, Arizona Program Director for Solar United Neighbors (SUN). “In the sunniest state in the nation, it is disappointing that Governor Hobbs is supporting the expansion of a new methane gas pipeline that risks exposing Arizona ratepayers to price volatility and unpredictability in the gas market for decades. It is not in the best interest of Arizonans to pay increasingly higher rates to keep our state hooked on out-of-state natural gas when we have some of the best solar energy potential in the nation that is still underutilized.”
In addition to being an attack on the environment, the pursuit of extreme gas expansion is also an attack on Arizonans and their wallets. Arizonans will be saddled with the high cost of methane gas and this pipeline. Given high and volatile gas prices, and the availability of lower-cost alternatives like solar and wind, the gas plants this pipeline is intended to serve may become an increasingly uneconomical way to generate electricity. This gas pipeline expansion project risks becoming an expensive and unnecessary asset that degrades the environment and costs customers dearly, all while contributing to producing dirty, high-cost power.
This proposed pipeline will also make Arizona even more dependent on out-of-state energy as this pipeline will deliver gas to Arizona from Texas, which means more of our energy dollars will leave Arizona rather than being invested locally in solar. In her Energy Task Force Report, Governor Hobbs herself acknowledged concerns with gas, including issues related to increased water use to power gas power plants as well as the backlog of gas power turbines; concerns that appear to go unaddressed with this announcement.
While Governor Hobbs claims to prioritize supporting Arizona families, her support for the pipeline ignores the economic reality Arizonans are experiencing as families struggle to pay utility bills. If affordability is a priority, renewables, particularly solar paired with storage, need to be at the forefront of the energy discussions taking place.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.
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