'Tea-party' protesters in Scottsdale target emission rules

Executives from several large, publicly traded electric utilities were greeted in Scottsdale on Thursday by a group of “tea party” protesters demanding that the companies fight global-warming legislation.

The protesters – Americans for Prosperity, the Scottsdale Tea Party and FreedomWorks – said that man-made global warming is not real and that utilities should reject new regulations on the emissions from their power plants that raise energy prices.

Inside the Fairmont Scottsdale, about 75 top executives from major utilities, including Arizona Public Service Co., conducted a private quarterly board meeting of the Edison Electric Institute, including a presentation from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Edison represents about 95 percent of the shareholder-owned utilities in the country and supports legislation that would reduce greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants and other sources, so long as it limits price increases for electricity customers.

“We stopped debating the science of climate change many years ago,” Edison spokesman Jim Owen said. “The science issue is fundamentally settled. Let’s get engaged in the solution.”

Protesters said the utilities should use their vast financial resources to fight “the lies” that scientists spread about global warming, not embrace new regulations.

The Arizona Republic