Kris Mayes is a Republican and a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

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As two of the architects of the Arizona Corporation Commission's Renewable Energy Standard, we are concerned that the commission's efforts to promote renewable energy in Arizona are being distorted for partisan gain.

In a recent debate, Sam George, one of the three Democratic candidates for the commission, claimed that the Renewable Energy Standard "is not that great," and went on to state that changing the political makeup of the commission from Republican to Democrat would help make Arizona a leader in solar energy.

George is ill-informed. The nationally recognized standard — which requires the state's electric utilities to produce 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources like the sun and wind by 2025 — has already been a boon for solar-energy production Arizona. And it was designed, approved and implemented by an all-Republican commission.

Here are the facts: By the year 2025, thanks to the standard, Arizona utilities will have produced nearly 67 million megawatt hours of renewable energy, or enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.

Over the next 20 years, the standard will prevent the emission of 93 billion pounds of carbon dioxide. In 2006 alone, the standard prevented the emission of 114 million pounds of carbon dioxide, and nearly 30 million gallons of water were spared.

The standard is spurring major renewable-energy projects throughout Arizona:

● Arizona Public Service, which serves large areas of Phoenix, has contracted for the 280 megawatt Solana Solar Concentrating Plant near Gila Bend, which will produce enough electricity to power 70,000 homes.

● In 2007 and 2008, Arizona Public Service signed contracts for more than 100 megawatts of wind power from wind farms in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

● Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative, which serves much of southeastern Arizona, received approval from the commission for its plan to utilize Renewable Energy Standard funds to place solar systems at each of the 46 schools in Cochise County.

● In May, APS and the Salt River Project, the other major Phoenix-area electric utility, began taking electricity from the largest biomass plant in Arizona, the 15 megawatt biomass facility operated by Renergy in Snowflake.

● A 15 megawatt geothermal project is planned by the Navapache Electric Cooperative in Alpine.

● The city of Tucson will place solar on each of its seven city facilities. The city has hired a solar-energy director to oversee the expansion of its use of solar energy.

● Arizona Public Service, the Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power Co. have announced a 250 megawatt utility consortium solar project to be located in Arizona.

The Democratic candidates for the commission would apparently like voters to ignore these achievements. This is a disservice to those voters, who have steadfastly supported and been proud of the commission's efforts to create one of the most aggressive solar-energy requirements in the country.

We encourage voters to support Republican candidates Barry Wong, Bob Stump and Marian McClure.

They will move Arizona forward in an informed, non-partisan, prudent manner to encourage more renewable energy for Arizona.

They are also committed to maintaining a balanced portfolio of energy resources to ensure our utility bills remain as low as possible. And they have pledged to stick to the facts. We wish this could be said of the other candidates in this race.