Arizona governor vetoes SMR fast-track bill

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) recently vetoed a bill that would have removed some of the oversight and regulations for small modular reactor deployment in Arizona.

House Bill 2774, sponsored by state House Rep. Michael Carbone (R), would have permitted large industrial energy users to build a SMR in their facility without having a certificate of environmental compatibility. Also, in rural Arizona the users would be exempt from local zoning restrictions.

Hobbs vetoed the bill on April 18 after the bill was passed in the state Senate on April 16 in a narrow 16 to 13 vote with one member not voting. The bill, which was introduced on Feb. 10, was previously passed in the state House on Feb. 26 in a 35 – 24 – 1 vote.

While Hobbs said she supports “responsible adoption of emerging energy technologies”, which includes SMRs, she did not support the lowering of regulations, as she wrote in the April 18 veto letter.

“Unfortunately, this bill puts the cart before the horse by providing broad exemptions for a technology that has yet to be commercially operationalized anywhere in the nation,” Hobbs wrote. “I look forward to engaging in further conversations that will deliver responsible policy that enables the deployment of emerging energy technologies like small modular reactors.”

Carbone said Hobbs’s veto “missed the mark” and it said the bill was not only about SMRs but also about supporting rural Arizonans economic and job opportunities.

“HB2774 was part of a broader strategy to unleash Arizona’s economic potential in a way that delivered clear benefits to rural Arizona,” Carbone said in an April 22 press release responding to Hobbs’s veto.

Carbone intends to revisit the matter at the next session, as stated in the press release.

In 2023, the state of Arizona’s nuclear power accounted for 4% of the United States’s nuclear generation and its nuclear power made up 27% of its total state net generation among all sources.. Arizona also has the second largest nuclear power plant in the country in the Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Station.