Not-so-good results Tuesday for the Greens
Voters in::
Washington defeated a carbon tax for the second time in 2 years.(56%-44%)
Colorado defeated a proposal to effectively shut down oil and gas exploration in the state(57%-43%)
Arizona defeated aproposal to derive 50% of electricity from renewables by 2030(70%-30%)
Alaska defeated attempts to restrict development around salmon habitats(64%-36%)
Montana said no to new restrictions on hard rock mines(56%-44%)
And Elizabeth Warren’s dream of a Progressive take-over of the democrat party may have suffered a fatal blow on Tuesday. Despite her strong endorsement and campaigning Richard Cordray’ s bid to become Ohio Governor for came up short(as did every democrat in Ohio running for statewide office). In other races in competitive districts Warren’s Progressives went 0 for 9.
I would have to see the specific wording of the AZ legislative bill to really have an opinion on why it was defeated. Referendum voting has several problems - one of them is the percentage of voters who don't fully understand the wording.
As a general thing, AZ stands to gain from investing in a solar energy economy, given that it averages something like 320 days of sun per year, and has a huge market to its west to sell to when the system overproduces. The key to intermittent energy sources is not state initiatives so much as interstate cooperative pacts that distribute different types of energy across high-voltage long distance grids. Some days, for one example, it's cloudy in one place, but windy in another place and the windy place can sell you their overproduction. There's talk in the energy industry of establishing a DC Grid of long distance lines. Apparently DC current can transmit long distances better, with less loss, with new power line technology available. Then it's converted to AC when it reaches its consumer local grid. If you've heard talk about smartgrids (I'm guessing you don't follow this stuff as much as I do), they are the future.