Local opinion: We can go better than Project Blue

The City and County can go bigger and much better than Project Blue. Without newly disturbing acres of land within Pima County? Without a big new demand for energy and millions of gallons of water? Yet delivering a much bigger social and economic benefit? Yes, and we can do so in ways that unions and businesses, homes and schools, government offices and local agencies, can all enjoy big savings and jobs.

Let us suppose the City of Tucson and Pima County, perhaps even the University of Arizona and the Chamber of Southern Arizona, were to pursue energy and water efficiency upgrades and resource productivity investments — big time. Perhaps like the State of Delaware (about the same population size as Pima County), which in 2007 created the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility (DESEU). Or like the citizens of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who voted in November 2024 to create a Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU). In their case, an SEU is an opt-in, supplemental, community-owned energy utility that provides 100% renewable energy from local solar and battery storage systems installed at participating homes and businesses in the city.

What kinds of jobs and energy bill savings might we expect? As my colleague, award-winning materials scientist, and innovator, Dr. Saul Griffith pointed out in his 2021 book, Electrify-An Optimist’s Playbook for a Clean Energy Future: If we make the necessary investments, and “[i]f we do an OK job on cost reduction, every home will save around $1,000 a year, and if we do very well, every home will save $2,500 per year.”

There are about 454,000 households in Pima County. If we actually achieve a net annual savings of just $1,000 per household, that could save the local economy about $454 million per year, once the home, business and infrastructure upgrades are completed. By my estimate, this might be about 7 times bigger than Project Blue. And, following the logic in the draft economic analysis done for Project Blue, rather than an average of 1,000 construction jobs over three years, the required level of investment might support closer to 2,500 high-quality, high-paying jobs each year over the next 20 or more years.

With an even bigger array of supply-chain jobs. And, as consumers and businesses spend their energy bill savings on other goods and services, rather than on energy, the scale of those savings might support an additional net gain of 2,000 to 4,000 jobs as the savings mount. That, in turn, would enable a more robust level of overall economic well-being for both construction and manufacturing businesses as well as for the community as a whole.

Why not promote big investments in the more productive use of local renewable energy, water, and other resources? If we can pull the big market levers, enabled by smart local government policies, programs and initiatives, then huge economic opportunities await us. And all of that could be put to very good use for the common good, while using less energy and water. If we choose to make it happen.