As America’s sixth largest state, Arizona has a lot of land, and a lot of desert. Situated at the heart of the scorching American Southwest, Arizona regularly clocks in as one of the hottest states in the country and is home to the two hottest cities in the United States. The sun is almost always up here, and Yuma, in the state’s southwest corner, enjoys sunny skies about 90 percent of the year. As the Earth warms, Arizona’s 7.6 million residents face life-threatening rising temperatures and ever-dwindling water supplies. In 2023, there were 645 heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, the highest ever recorded, and there were over 400 deaths in the summers of 2024 and 2025. Reflecting on these numbers, Dr. John Balbus, the director of the Biden administration’s Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, says “outdoor spaces are becoming uninhabitable now in places like the Desert Southwest.” Arizona’s homeless population will be particularly vulnerable to this health hazard. The dry, hot terrain also contributes to the state’s ongoing megadrought, adding to a whole host of issues including the diminishment of the Colorado River, which supplies water to over a third of Arizona’s population. The majority of groundwater in Arizona has no regulations, which means aquifers can be drained and groundwater depleted without restriction or reporting. As temperatures have risen and drought intensified, wildfires have grown larger and burn more severely.
Arizona’s energy trends lend some hope, however. Per capita energy consumption in Arizona is already among the lowest in the nation, and the state is uniquely poised for a switch to renewable and clean energy. In 2024, renewables accounted for 20% of Arizona’s electricity generation. It has some of the best solar resources in the country, ranking fourth in the nation in 2024 with solar accounting for two-thirds of renewable energy. This is an increase of 177% since 2014. Arizona is one of only four states with utility-scale solar thermal generation. Wind power has also increased – by 270%.
Arizona also produces the nation’s highest-grade uranium — crucial for nuclear energy generation - putting this resource to work in the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the nation’s largest nuclear power plant. Palo Verde generates more electricity annually than any other U.S. plant, second only to the Grand Coulee Dam in total electricity generating capacity. Fossil fuels, unfortunately, continue to play a significant role. Since 2018, Arizona has reduced its dependency on coal but shifted to natural gas, which has become the state’s largest single energy source — generating almost half of its power.
Arizona has several energy projects currently in development. The SunZia Southwest Transmission Project will build transmission lines for renewable and nuclear energy between New Mexico and Arizona, and the TransWest Express Transmission Project will bring wind power from Wyoming to Arizona, and send solar power to the Rocky Mountain states. The Ten West Link transmission project, connecting California and Arizona, came online in 2024. The state will add an additional 3,807 megawatts of battery energy storage by 2026, a critical tool in meeting clean energy goals. To meet the lithium demand for battery storage, the Big Sandy lithium mining project is currently underway. Almost all of Arizona’s energy mineral resources are on the lands of Arizona’s 22 federally recognized Native American tribes, as was all of the state’s commercial coal production and the largest producing oil field.
In 2009, Phoenix, one of the fastest warming cities in the U.S., completed its Climate Action Plan. Updated in 2021, its goals were to become a carbon-neutral city by 2050 operating on 100% clean energy, with new buildings being net positive by 2050, significant greenhouse gas reduction targets between 2025 and 2050, zero waste by 2050, and 280,000 electric vehicles in the city by 2030 to achieve carbon neutral transportation by 2050. In September 2020, Tucson, the third fastest warming city in the nation, also declared a climate emergency and will implement a decade-long plan, “Framework for Advancing Sustainability,” to become carbon neutral by 2030. In the 2024 Phoenix Climate Progress Report, Mayor Kate Gallego says “Phoenix is on the frontlines of climate change, which is why we’re working day-in and day-out to develop new strategies to cut emissions, build resilient infrastructure, and importantly, empower residents to take climate action too.
In 2023, Governor Katie Hobbs declared a state of emergency for extreme heat and signed an executive order on government heat responses. In 2024, Governor Hobbs released Arizona’s first statewide climate plan: The Clean Arizona Plan, a priority climate action plan financed by $3 million in IRA funding, and produced in collaboration with Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University. The plan focuses on targeting Arizona’s primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions - electricity generation and transportation - by prioritizing the development of solar-plus-battery systems, electric vehicles, and energy technology workforce training.
As one of her first actions in office, Governor Hobbs joined the U.S. Climate Alliance, and established the Office of Resiliency, which has implemented programs including the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the Clean Energy Hub, Efficiency Arizona, and Solar for All Arizonans, and produced an Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan in 2024. In partnership with the Office on Tribal Relations, they convened the historic Arizona Tribal Energy and Economic Futures Summit in October 2025.
But Arizona lawmakers don’t make change easy. For example, in January of 2020, The Arizona Committee on Natural Resources and Energy voted to stop cities from prohibiting construction of natural gas-powered buildings. In May, 2021 Arizona’s utility regulators rejected new rules that would have required most of the state’s electricity providers to get 100% of their power from clean energy sources by 2050.
The Republican-dominated Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) has a track record of rejecting and repealing actions to propel the clean energy transition. In January 2022, the ACC rejected a set of clean energy rules that would have included a strategy for 100% clean energy as well as energy efficiency programs and rebates. In February 2024 the ACC eliminated the Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff (REST), in what policy director Mark Kresowik says is a “big-step backward” for Arizona. The REST standards had been in place for over a decade.
Read the Sierra Club’s 2025 Environmental Report Card for the Arizona Legislature and Governor.
While Arizona faces a water crisis, the water and energy intensive data center industry is moving in, with Phoenix becoming the country’s third-largest data center market. As energy demand soars from data centers, the utility Arizona Public Services (APS) is hiking customer rates, extending the retirement date for its coal plant, and abandoning its clean energy commitments, while spending millions to influence the Arizona Corporation Commission. According to Amanda Ormond, former director of the Arizona Energy Office, Arizona is facing a “challenging and dangerous energy situation” due to a “confluence of factors”: “the Trump administration has cut almost $8 billion in federal clean-energy funding just in the state…; the ACC is looking to dismantle Arizona’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards; and utilities like APS have walked back their climate commitments.”
Elected officials, tribal communities, environmental organizations, and residents are fighting back. The No Desert Data Center Coalition successfully pressured the Tucson City Council to vote against Project Blue, an Amazon-backed data center complex, though the project has now shifted into another county. Arizona’s Attorney General Kris Mayes has been prioritizing climate action, arguing against the rate hike, calling it “nothing more than a case of blatant corporate greed,” suing an industrial agricultural operation for its water use, and filing 30 lawsuits against the Trump administration. Read about climate justice efforts in Arizona to organize against an aluminum recycling plant, to oppose border wall construction that would impact a critical wildlife crossing and threaten pollinators, and how Indigenous communities in Arizona are persisting with clean energy projects as the Trump administration terminates federal funding for almost 1600 projects by tribal governments and Native entities.
CREDIT: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
