Arizona Legislature Adjourns with Significantly More Work to Do on Water and Energy

(PHOENIX – June 13, 2026) The Arizona Legislature passed a bipartisan state budget and adjourned their regular session today. Though there were bright spots, the Legislature left with much still to do on water and energy, says the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). With 96,000 EDF Action and EDF members across the state, the mission-driven group works to advance water security and affordable, clean energy solutions.

The bipartisan budget maintains funding levels for the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Protecting these critical agencies’ operating budgets and staff at a pivotal time for water availability and quality in Arizona is a positive outcome given the challenging state budgeting environment. Clean energy tax credits were also preserved and the state took a small step toward ensuring social accountability for data centers by temporarily freezing the data center sales tax exemption.

The most significant water challenges in generations still confront the state and its nearly 8 million residents. The Colorado River is on the brink. Groundwater supplies in both urban and rural areas are under threat and massive funding gaps for water infrastructure projects are piling up. In light of these challenges, EDF Action and community partners worked tirelessly this session to stop dozens of bad water bills, including one that would have allowed an out-of-state hedge fund to profiteer at an estimated $1 billion by selling Arizona’s rural community groundwater supplies in the water scarce region of La Paz County to Phoenix suburbs. The legislation lacked a tangible plan to mitigate the impacts of the hundreds of small rural Arizona wells that will go dry. 

“We appreciate continued funding to support ADWR and ADEQ, these agencies play a critical role supporting water security and reliable access across the state.” said Chris Kuzdas, Arizona Water Program Director for EDF. “But the Legislature left without addressing our most consequential water challenges. What we choose to do on our water issues in the coming months and years will impact generations of Arizonans, with or without the Legislature. Rural communities, for example, are making history securing groundwater protections for the first time ever using existing authorities.”

Throughout the session, EDF Action celebrated the defeat of numerous anti-clean energy bills in the Legislature, especially given Arizona’s growing energy demands. Undermining utility-scale wind and solar power projects would only make it more difficult to meet the needs of a growing state with a dynamic economy.

"Stopping these anti-energy bills was a necessary defense of Arizona landowners and their right to lease their land for utility-scale wind and solar," said Nicholas Glover, Vice President of EDF’s Build to Zero program. "With Arizona's energy demands skyrocketing, the last thing the government should do is infringe on property rights to block new power generation. We need to be rapidly developing more utility-scale energy projects to keep up with our dynamic economy and ensure a reliable grid for the future."

Significant progress on grid modernization and energy reliability is happening outside and in parallel with the Legislature.

“We are deeply encouraged by the incredible work being done alongside the legislative session by a broad spectrum of Arizona’s leaders within the Arizona Energy Promise Taskforce initiated by Gov. Katie Hobbs,” said Kevin Moran, Associate Vice President, Regional Affairs for EDF. “The recommendations create a valuable roadmap for Arizona’s energy future. By prioritizing collaboration and forward-thinking infrastructure investments, we can ensure our power grid remains resilient, affordable, and ready to support Arizona's robust economic growth for generations to come.”