Fast on the heals of the Arizona legislature’s attempt to pull support from in-state solar power generation, Colorado’s legislature passed a bill yesterday to boost dramatically the amount of electricity produced by renewable sources in their state.

The Arizona bill would have ended a state program requiring utilities to generate 15% of electrical power from renewable sources (such as solar and wind) by the year 2025. (The program is called the Renewable Energy Standard, or RES.) The bill was withdrawn, at least temporarily, following an outcry by the public, businesses and even the state’s largest utility.

Colorado Sees Daylight

Meanwhile, back at the Colorado legislature, House Bill 10-1001 was winding its way through committee hearings. On Monday, both houses of the Colorado legislature had passed the bill creating a RES of 30% of electrical power by 2020. (Or, twice as much renewable power as Arizona, five years sooner.)

In the highly competitive field of green jobs and technology, last month Arizona clearly fumbled the ball. The real damage is becoming apparent this month, as Colorado recovered the fumble and now heads down the field.

The Community Power Project

UPDATE: 2:20 PM MT, 3/3/10: The ACC has put off a vote on the project described below, until the next open meeting — March 31-April 1.

A first-of-a-kind plan by Arizona’s largest utility (APS), to create a “community power project” in Flagstaff is before the Arizona Corporation Commission today.

Coconino County Supervisor Carl Taylor spoke in favor of the program, saying that it was a perfect fit for the county’s plan for sustainable, clean energy. Flagstaff Mayor Sara Pressler has also been an early and enthusiastic backer of the plan.

Solar and Wind

Under the plan being considered, APS will pay for, and own, rooftop PV arrays on roughly two-hundred homes in the Flagstaff area, rooftop solar water heating systems for fifty homes and “a handful” of small scale wind turbines. The customers will lock-in a rate for their electricity for twenty years. All of the homes in the program are on a single feeder system and will have smart meters so that the effects of the system can be tracked.

While mostly supporting the pilot program, some solar companies with their own financing programs spoke at today’s hearing, raising concerns about potential problems in the future having to compete with a giant utility.

Commission chair Kris Mayes told them she understood their concerns, but felt that since the program will only serve 200 homes, it should not have a large effect on competing companies. “If this [program] were for 10,000 homes, I would certainly agree with you,” Mayes told one speaker.

After a firestorm of criticism over HB 2701, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer issued a two-sentence statement late Thursday afternoon praising Representative Debbie Lesko for her “wise and thoughtful actions today to withdraw HB 2701…”

Grave Consequences

We had to take the Governor’s word that the bill had been withdrawn, because Lesko had been muzzled. Reporters calling her office about HB2701 were referred to a Republican party spokesman. Probably, someone in the state GOP hierarchy had placed Lesko before her open political grave and asked if she might consider withdrawing the bill. Lesko, we’re told, did the “wise and thoughtful” thing — i.e., she didn’t jump into her grave.

Still, one wonders. If Rep. Lesko had withdrawn the bill, why does her Website, dated February 25th (highlighted in yellow below), still, on the 27th (I also added the date of my screen grab), have Lesko singing the praises of HB 2701?

Plan A

In truth, the lingering page is probably just Lesko’s Revenge; it’s her thumbing her nose at the Big Elephants who stomped her, but good. That doesn’t mean, however, that opponents of HB2701 can rest easy. 2701 may be gone, but its mission — to usurp the powers of the Arizona Corporation Commission and cut subsidies for renewable energy — is very much alive.

Plan A is finished.

Plans B and C are already in the works.