Arizona can't afford to wait decades for new power lines | Opinion

When developers first proposed the SunZia transmission line, the 550-mile wire that now carries New Mexico wind power into Pinal County, I was 13 years old.

Since then, I finished school on Tucson’s south side, earned three degrees at the University of Arizona, and served four terms in the State Legislature. The line finally came online this June. Construction only took about three years, meaning the other two decades were paperwork, planning and litigation.

That’s the problem the U.S. Senate’s Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 is designed to fix. Those in Washington still wavering on it should hear from Arizona, where we feel the effects of a slow grid every summer.

Tucson Electric Power is proposing to raise residential rates by nearly 10%. Attorney General Kris Mayes says 4% is closer to fair. Either way, no rate hike fixes the deeper issue. Arizona is trying to meet fast-growing demand with a grid that takes too long to expand and modernize.

I studied public health, so I know energy is also a health issue. Pima County recorded 189 heat-related deaths by the end of September, more than all of last year. This year we lost vulnerable citizens to heat in March for the first time. A family that rations air conditioning by setting the thermostat to 85 in July to afford the bill is taking a health risk, whether they think of it that way or not. They shouldn’t have to do that in the richest nation on Earth.

This bipartisan legislation is refreshingly practical. It lets utilities upgrade power lines inside corridors they already use without starting a permitting review from scratch. And it makes neighboring grid regions plan together to better serve customers. Right now, so many new power projects are stuck waiting to connect to the grid that they could produce more electricity than the entire country’s grid does today. Most of that waiting power is solar, wind and batteries.

Some in my party still have doubts about this bill. I’d ask them to look at who is waiting in line. No industry suffers more from a broken permitting system than clean energy, because clean energy is most of what’s stuck. There’s a reason the American Clean Power Association is backing it.

Others want to wait for a better deal down the road. A new bill in a new Congress would still need 60 Senate votes and a presidential signature. I’d rather pass a good bill this year that takes action to make bills more affordable than wait for a perfect one that may never come.

There is a provision in particular that would protect clean energy projects from President Trump’s political attacks. Once a federal permit is issued, the bill sets a high bar for any administration to revoke it. After watching this White House pull permits from wind projects and slow-walk solar, it’s essential to get that protection written into law now.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego has been focused on this for a while now. The energy plan he released last year called for faster transmission permitting and for skipping redundant reviews on lines built along existing rights-of-way. A good deal of that is in this bill. When it reaches the floor, Arizona needs his vote, and it would help if he brought more colleagues along.

The next power line Arizona needs shouldn’t take two decades. Congress has a bill that would make sure of it, written by Democrats and Republicans who found a way to fix this problem together. Arizona’s delegation should help finish the job.