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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, Second Regular Session
AMENDED
appropriation; coal-impacted workforce; study
Purpose
Establishes the Study Committee on Coal-Impacted Communities (Study Committee) and appropriates $300,000 from the state General Fund (state GF) in FY 2027 to the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to conduct a workforce development study on the communities in Coconino County impacted by the closure of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS).
Background
The NGS was a 2,250-megawatt coal-fired power plant located on the Navajo Reservation in northern Coconino County with a lease that was executed with the Navajo Nation on January 19, 1971, and expired on December 22, 2019. The NGS had three 750-megawatt generating units, which provided baseload power to customers in Arizona, Nevada and California. The NGS was owned by four utilities which included the Salt River Project, Arizona Public Service, Nevada Energy and Tucson Electric Power. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also had ownership in the NGS on behalf of the U.S. Secretary of the Interior under a 1969 delegation of authority.
The United States' share of the NGS electricity was used to operate the Central Arizona Project (CAP). The U.S. Congress, through the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968, authorized the federal government's participation in the NGS with the creation of the CAP which is a 336-mile water distribution system built to deliver more than 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water annually to Central Arizona. The revenues from surplus power sales were deposited in the Lower Colorado River Basin Development Fund and were available to assist the Central Arizona Water Conservation District in repaying the costs of constructing the CAP and to fund Native American water rights settlements in Central Arizona (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation).
S.B. 1488 appropriates $300,000 from the state GF in FY 2027 to the OEO.
Provisions
1. Appropriates $300,000 from the state GF in FY 2027 to the OEO to conduct a workforce development study on the communities in Coconino County impacted by the closure of the NGS.
2. Establishes the Study Committee consisting of:
a) two members of the Senate;
b) two members of the House of Representatives (House);
c) one member who is appointed by the President of the Senate and who represents a nonprofit organization that provides food security, entrepreneurship, youth leadership and housing to a community impacted by coal;
d) one member who is appointed by the Speaker of the House and who represents a nonprofit organization that works to protect the water of Black Mesa and to bring power back to Indigenous communities impacted by coal;
e) one member who is appointed by the President of the Senate and who represents the Navajo Nation Economic Development Division;
f) one member who is appointed by the Speaker of the House and who represents a public university in this state that has a program that supports communities impacted by an energy transition, including communities where fossil energy is being retired and where new energy is being developed; and
g) one member of the Coconino County Board of Supervisors who represents the supervisorial district where the NGS operated and who is appointed by the President of the Senate.
3. Specifies that, of the two Senate members of the Study Committee, one member is appointed by the President of the Senate and one member is appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate, rather than both members being appointed by the President of the Senate.
4. Specifies that, of the two House members of the Study Committee, one member is appointed by the Speaker of the House and one member is appointed by the Minority Leader of the House, rather than both members being appointed by the Speaker of the House.
5. Requires the Study Committee to:
a) meet as often as the co-chairpersons deem necessary; and
b) investigate and analyze the social and economic effects on communities heavily reliant on the coal industry, particularly in communities experiencing job losses or economic decline due to the transition away from coal power generation, with a focus on developing strategies to mitigate impacts and support economic diversification in those communities.
6. Allows the Study Committee to use the service of legislative staff to provide necessary administrative and operational support.
7. Requires an agency or a political subdivision of Arizona, on request of the Study Committee, to provide the Study Committee with services, equipment, documents, personnel and facilities, to the extent possible, at no cost to the Study Committee.
8. Requires the Study Committee, by December 31, 2026, to submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the Governor, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House and provide a copy to the Secretary of State.
9. Repeals the Study Committee on October 1, 2027.
10. Exempts the appropriation from lapsing.
11. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Amendments Adopted by the Appropriations, Transportation and Technology Committee
· Reduces the prescribed appropriation to the OEO from $600,000 to $300,000.
Amendments Adopted by Committee of the Whole
1. Specifies that, of the Legislative Study Committee members, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House each appoint one member and the Minority Leaders of the Senate and House each appoint one member.
2. Removes the requirement that the two Study Committee members from both the Senate and the House be from different political parties.
3. Makes conforming changes.
Senate Action
NR 2/10/26 DP 8-1-1
ATT 2/24/26 DPA 7-0-1
Prepared by Senate Research
March 11, 2026
SB/hk