With another move attacking Arizona Public Service, it appears California billionaire and now presidential candidate Tom Steyer cannot seem to quit Arizona.

Steyer鈥檚 attacks against the Arizona utility date back to the 2018 election cycle when his attempt to mandate onerous new renewable energy standards was rejected by voters in a 2 to 1 margin.

Now, Steyer is using a digital ad to accuse the company of corruption. This is the second time in recent months that Steyer has inserted himself into Arizona issues.

Many observers attribute his behavior to a desperate attempt to increase his name ID in the state and salvage his reputation after and painful and expensive loss in the fall.

鈥淐alifornia billionaire Tom Steyer can鈥檛 stop meddling in Arizona politics,鈥� Arizonans for Affordable Electricity spokesperson Matt Benson said. 鈥淚t was just last year that Arizona voters overwhelmingly rejected Steyer鈥檚 Prop 127, which would have added $1,000/year to the typical family鈥檚 electricity bill. Now he鈥檚 back 鈥� this time as a self-described 鈥榬atepayer advocate.鈥�

“You鈥檙e not fooling anybody, Tom.鈥�

The California billionaire, who made millions investing in fossil fuels, is inserting himself in Arizona policy conversations claiming the state is being misguided by corporations and elected leaders. But the state鈥檚 economy has been booming for the past year with local economists touting the diversity in job and industry growth.

Arizona鈥檚 economy continues to grow at one of the fastest rates in the nation, ranking聽fourth in the U.S. for GDP growth last year and second in the country for personal income growth.

More than聽300,000 new jobs have been added since 2015聽and Arizona is projected to聽add another 165,000 new jobs聽by 2020.

Also, the greater Phoenix metropolitan area has officially eclipsed its pre-recession job peaks in almost every industry.

鈥淎rizona is open for business and our economy is booming,鈥� said Governor Doug聽Ducey in a statement. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not by accident: Arizona鈥檚 pro-business policies, low taxes and light regulations are delivering more job opportunities and bigger paychecks for Arizona workers.鈥�

Business community advocates say Steyer鈥檚 latest advertisements are likely to prove as unsuccessful as his previous political activities in the state.

鈥淭his guy apparently can鈥檛 take a hint,鈥� Arizona 番茄社区 of Commerce and Industry spokesperson Garrick Taylor said. 鈥淎rizonans have rejected over and over Steyer鈥檚 job-killing agenda, but yet he keeps coming back here. Arizona鈥檚 economy is doing just fine without Steyer, thank you very much, in large part because lawmakers and the governor have studiously avoided the sort of policies he advocates.鈥�

Steyer鈥檚 efforts in Arizona began in 2018 when his progressive political action committee, NextGen Climate Action, launched an effort to mandate that utilities provide half their annual retail sales from renewable energy sources by 2030 鈥渋rrespective of cost to consumers.鈥� The effort excluded zero-emission nuclear energy from the definition of renewable energy.

Then in May, Steyer portrayed himself as a ratepayer advocate by engaging in an APS rate case before the Arizona Corporation Commission. Many were quick to point out that his 2018 energy mandate, known as Proposition 127, would have increased costs on Arizona residents, including low-income families and small businesses. Estimates revealed the typical Arizona family would see its utility bills increase by $1,000 or more over the course of a year.

In addition to the $28 million Steyer dumped into the failed campaign, he also attacked Republican candidates, spending more than $3 million against Attorney General Mark Brnovich and engaging in the Arizona Corporation Commission race through dark money groups such as ChispaAZ.

On Tuesday morning, Steyer announced his candidacy for president in a digital video. Steyer plans to spend at least $100 million on his campaign.

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The SCALE UP Program is a Tucson-based initiative to help local businesses become more sustainable, saving them money on utilities, providing educational resources and offering financial incentives while reducing energy use, water consumption, waste and emissions.

The program was launched by the Local First Arizona Foundation, the sister organization to nonprofit Local First Arizona (LFA) focused on creating strong, self-sufficient local economies, in partnership with the Tucson 2030 District, a public-private聽 dedicated to creating a high-efficiency building district in Tucson.

鈥淲hen it comes down to it, the Local First Arizona Foundation is about creating a better economy that benefits all Arizonans,鈥� said CJ Agbannawag, program manager for SCALE UP.

鈥淲e believe that it鈥檚 important that, when we鈥檙e talking about sustainable economies, we also need to be considering what it means to have a sustainable environment and a sustainable community,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd we realize that business ownership and the way we run a business has a big聽 and on your community.鈥�

SCALE UP 鈥� Sustainable Communities Accessing Lending and Expertise Upon Performance 鈥� launched in 2018 as a pilot program for Tucson, funded by the Arizona Office of Grants and Federal Resources.

鈥淲e wanted to put a twist on the traditional type of energy efficiency workshops and water efficiency workshops to see if [businesses] can have better follow-through鈥� and actually make these bigger implementations and investments in their buildings so they can be more sustainable,鈥� Agbannawag said.

In the聽, 11 locally-owned Tucson businesses went through a six-workshop series covering topics including energy efficiency, water conservation, waste reduction, transportation efficiency, benchmarking and聽, a volunteer effort by LFA to connect citizens with businesses and provide educational opportunities to the community.

鈥淓ach of the six workshops, we pulled in community experts, because there鈥檚 already a lot of these great resources out there in your community,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淲e had slides that facilitators presented on with information that was aggregated from the community and also from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), and then we provided a workbook with quick lists of resources for all the different topics.鈥�

The workshops provided checklists that businesses could use to benchmark (evaluate) their sustainability practices and track their progress. The program also offered an incentive package of resources, including energy rebates.

鈥淭here were actually some custom incentives as well,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淔or example,聽 here in Tucson, they offered a custom rate for businesses. If they saved 10 percent on their efficiency, they could get a 10 percent discount on their corporate membership through the bike share program.鈥�

The program鈥檚 purpose is to educate business owners, offer perspective on sustainability issues and create understanding about important questions: Where does the energy come from when you turn the lights on? Where does your water come from in Tucson?

鈥淲e wanted businesses to take ownership for these sustainability plans,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淭here are a lot of auditing-type services out there where someone will come in and do an energy audit for your business, but then those plans just kind of sit on a shelf.鈥�

SCALE UP encourages participants to create a sustainability plan and follow through on it, using resources and advice from industry professionals, government officials and utility experts. The program also lays out all the different incentives and rebates utilities offer, making it easier for business owners to sift through options.

鈥淎t the end of each topic, businesses had to benchmark their buildings and benchmark their business practices,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淭hings like, 鈥楬ow many LED light bulbs do you have? How many gallons-per-flush are your toilets?鈥欌��

Businesses also had to benchmark their buildings using the聽 online tool, tracking the progress of energy efficiency improvements and comparing past and current usage.

鈥淭he pilot was just in Tucson, so it worked with Tucson Water, Tucson Electric Power and the City of Tucson and all the different municipalities down here to get the information specific to the area,鈥� Agbannawag said. 鈥淏ut the plan is to eventually expand it to the rest of the state.鈥�

The Arizona chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a national environmental health聽, was a major partner, he said.

鈥淲e also worked with the Pima Association of Governments, because they have a lot of great transportation resources in Pima County, including the folks that run our local bus system and streetcar system, from聽,” Agbannawag said. 鈥淲e also had other local nonprofits, like Watershed Management Group, which is a local water coalition here in town; they participated. Technicians for Sustainability was a partner as well; they鈥檙e a local solar installer. So we had a pretty broad range of partners that assisted in this program.鈥�

Ultimately, the LFA Foundation hopes the program makes business owners more aware of what is going on in their environment and their community, as well as the impact their businesses can have, Agbannawag said.

鈥淪econdly, we want to help these businesses to reduce their utility spending so they actually have more money freed up to invest in their building in other ways or to invest in their company in other ways, so that they can be more environmentally-friendly and have better economic performance,鈥� he said.

Finally, participants were given exclusive access to a revolving loan fund from the nonprofit聽 (CIC) in Tucson, allowing businesses to take out low-interest loans for sustainability projects. The loans were matched up to 20 percent by a grant from a CIC investor.

The pilot program businesses saw 鈥渁 pretty big spectrum of improvements across the board,鈥� Agbannawag said.

For example, Pop-Cycle, a sustainability-focused bicycle shop, operates out of a historic building in Tucson that the company believed to be inherently inefficient, Agbannawag said. But after completing the SCALE UP program, Pop-Cycle saw the building鈥檚 lowest energy bill in 20 years, he said.

Right now, SCALE UP is in a planning period, hoping to receive assistance from the state and the City of Tucson to continue the program.

鈥淲e鈥檙e taking what we鈥檝e learned, we鈥檙e identifying other partners, so that way when we do relaunch the program we can pretty quickly expand it,鈥� Agbannawag said.

SCALE UP wants to take a cohort of businesses through the program every quarter 鈥� four cohorts per year 鈥� and complete at least two more sessions before expanding to Phoenix and elsewhere in the state, he said.

Climate change and water shortages will create new financial challenges for local businesses, and learning to be more sustainable is a smart way to prepare for that and offset the economic impact, Agbannawag said. Consumers should be aware, too, he said.

鈥淎t Local First, we tell people all the time to vote with your dollar, to support the local businesses, because they have the decision-making power here in our state, and we want to keep our money here to support our tax base in Arizona,鈥� he said.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e a consumer that wants to be more sustainable, find the businesses 鈥� like the ones that went through SCALE UP 鈥� that are supporting green projects and sustainability projects, and support them as well, and let them know that they鈥檙e doing a good job.鈥�

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Business owners can email CJ Agbannawag for more information about upcoming SCALE UP workshops or to add themselves to the contact list for future cohorts.

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