June 21, 2008

Today’s story in the Arizona Republic should be a wake-up call to Arizona lawmakers and residents alike.

I fully support the legislation to help attract solar manufacturing companies because they can be a critical step toward making new careers available to our citizens that are clean and green.

Please join with me in contacting your representatives at the Capitol. Ask them to make sure Arizona’s 2009 budget doesn’t miss this opportunity while trying to solve other problems.

But while attracting solar manufacturing is a good step, we also need to point our state in other directions that make sense. While other states might be competing for solar manufacturing using just tax incentives, Arizona can offer companies they can’t get anywhere else: a built-in market for their products.

And with a little creative thinking, we ought to be able to help Arizona’s families and businesses become customers of these solar manufacturing companies with a statewide effort to convert our homes, offices and businesses to modern, efficient solar.

In effect, we can begin helping ourselves end dependence on mammoth utility companies as our homes and businesses convert to generating our own electricity.