Vice President Kamala Harris visits Arizona to push clean energy
Jan 20, 2023, 4:25 AM | Updated: 6:40 am
PHOENIX — Vice President Kamala Harris visited Arizona for the first time since entering the role on Thursday to tout the administration’s clean energy initiative.
Harris attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the Ten West Link transmission line in Tonopah.
The transmission line will add a significant amount of new power grid infrastructure connecting Southern California to the Southwest desert.
“It will deliver electricity from wind and from solar farms out here in the desert to big cities like Phoenix and Los Angeles and San Diego and to rural communities like Blythe,” Harris said.
The event highlighted the ongoing efforts from the Biden-Harris administration to achieve a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.
“This electricity will be clean electricity. Solar panels and wind turbines do not produce toxic fumes that poison our air or dangerous chemicals that poison our water,” Harris said.
Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Governor Katie Hobbs accompanied Harris to the event.
“This transmission line will bring economic benefits, including new jobs, resulting in indirect economic benefits such as secondary spending by those employed by the project and property tax revenue,” Hobbs said.
Harris did not stop at the state’s southern border despite President Biden tapping on her to lead the response to border challenges back in March of 2021.
This move has garnered criticism from border sheriffs and other national leaders.
Harris did not say when she would make a trip to the border.