Kris Mayes

Professor Kris Mayes, Faculty Director of the Program on Law and Sustainability at College of Law, was a guest on KPNX-Channel 12’s “Sunday Square Off,” on Sunday, Aug. 7.

Mayes and the panel discussed Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ triumphant return to Congress on Aug. 1 to vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. Mayes predicted that Giffords, who sustained severe head injuries in January during a shooting spree in Tucson, will continue to make her mark on society.

“She is the preeminent stateswoman of Arizona right now,” said Mayes, a close friend of Giffords. “Whether she decides to run for re-election or do something else, she will have an unbelievable impact on this state.”

Mayes and the panel, Arizona House Minority Leader Chad Campbell and attorney Chris Herstam, also discussed the Phoenix mayoral race, an Arizona initiative that would abolish party primaries, and the politics of the national debt ceiling vote.

“We have a completely dysfunctional political system, especially in Congress,” Mayes said. “We have parties completely beholden to their flanks and frankly, Americans are disgusted with it. We’ve got a big problem when we have our leadership acting more poorly than our children … If the rest of us behaved this way in our businesses and in our homes, we’d be fired or divorced by now.”

To watch the program, click here, and then click on the debt ceiling link.

Before joining the College of Law in 2011, Mayes served as chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission and helped co-author the Arizona Renewable Energy Standard, It requires that, by 2025, utilities must generate 15 percent of their overall energy portfolio from renewable sources, like wind solar, biomass, biogas, geothermal and other technologies. Mayes also helped establish one of the most ambitious energy efficiency standards in the nation, requiring utilities to sell 22 percent less energy by 2010 than they would have under current forecasts.