Exclusive: Sen T.J. Shope Defends Vote to Advance Hobbs’ Nominee for Top Environmental Post
Controversial Peters Advances To Full Senate Despite Hickman Farms Backlash
State 48 News obtained an exclusive statement from Senator T.J. Shope(R-LD16) explaining his decision to vote yes on advancing Governor Katie Hobbs’ nominee, Karen Peters, to lead the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Shope shared his full prepared remarks, portions of which were not read aloud during the hearing.
“I’ve asked some tough questions in today’s hearing—and rightfully so. The Department of Environmental Quality plays a critical role in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we build on, and the permits that impact businesses across the state.”
“Because this position is so important, I’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes, speaking with a broad range of individuals who are directly impacted by the department’s work. And, candidly, I’ve been surprised with what I have heard.”
“In conversation after conversation, Karen Peters has been reported to be a steady hand at ADEQ.”
Shope said he was especially encouraged to learn that Peters:
Retained much of the team from Governor Ducey’s administration.
Kept the stakeholder feedback process in place and uses it meaningfully.
Has not made “radical lurches to the left” since taking over the agency.
He highlighted her stance on defending Arizona against federal ozone penalties:
“She intends to be as aggressive as possible in pushing back against saddling Arizona with the sins of California and China’s air pollution.”
On the mining issue, Shope recounted:
“Others from the Governor’s Office waffled… But Ms. Peters didn’t hesitate. She spoke clearly and directly: ‘We absolutely support mining.’ That kind of clarity matters.”
Shope made it clear he would’ve preferred a Republican nominee but concluded:
“Honestly, we could have done a lot worse. In fact, I’m not sure we could realistically expect to do better.”
And while he disagrees with Peters on several positions from her City of Phoenix tenure, he ended with this:
“I take her at her word—and more importantly, I take her at her record—that she will follow the law, not use ADEQ to advance a radical policy agenda, and that she’ll put the interests of Arizona first.”
State 48 News spoke with Senator Shope by phone to clarify his position. He emphasized that his vote to advance Karen Peters was an initial position, and the full Senate will take up the matter again in January. Addressing claims from online commentators that he was absent during the Hickman Farms discussion, Shope explained that he briefly stepped away to get a cough drop after a coughing fit and was only gone for a few minutes. He also confirmed that he had notified the Committee Chairman in advance of his intent to vote in favor of advancing Peters’ nomination. Take a listen.
The embattled nominee to lead the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) advanced out of the Senate’s Director Nominations Committee (DINO) on Monday, despite intense scrutiny over her role in the Hickman Family Farms burial controversy—a move that caught many observers by surprise. State 48 News journalist Christy Kelly has covered the controversy extensively in a series of articles for the Arizona Globe, which can be found here and here.
The hearing put Peters in the hot seat as Republican lawmakers pressed her on emergency decisions—particularly her department’s approval of a mass burial of decomposing chickens at Hickman Family Farms following a deadly avian flu outbreak.
The testimony was stunning, and many believed it could derail her nomination.
At the heart of the controversy is ADEQ’s decision to permit the burial of hundreds of thousands of bird carcasses at the Hickman facility in Tonopah, during a time of heightened public health concern. Critics argue the move lacked transparency, sidestepped environmental safeguards, and may have endangered nearby water sources.
Sen. Jake Hoffman (R–LD15), chair of the committee, didn’t hold back.
“That seems like the epitome of bad government,” Hoffman said during the hearing, mocking the logic behind the emergency waiver.
“It’s like we have to bury the chickens to see what happens with the chickens.”
Peters, defended the waiver as a necessary emergency action.
“The Hickman chicken situation was an emergency… the carcasses were rapidly decomposing,” she said.
“The burials have stopped and her team is collecting more information.”
While Peters attempted to assure lawmakers that additional monitoring was underway, her response did little to appease Republican senators already skeptical of her environmental track record.
The hearing was moved up because Sen. Hoffman’s wife was due to give birth — and Baby Theodore arrived later that night! That didn’t stop Hoffman from pressing Ms. Peters with a lengthy examination. Watch as he tries to make sense of her decisions surrounding the Bird Flu response.
During her testimony before the DINO Committee, it was revealed that Karen Peters granted Hickman Family Farms a waiver to bury approximately 4 million chickens on-site following the avian flu outbreak. Peters explained that, given the scale of the operation, the state intervened to facilitate “landfilling and hauling.”
Hickman Farms received $1.5 million from the State of Arizona to support the effort, but Peters could not commit to requiring reimbursement from the private company—even though Hickman’s is reportedly eligible for up to $100 million in federal funds.
Based on the line of questioning, it was evident that neither Senator Jake Hoffman nor Senator John Kavanagh supported advancing Peters’ nomination.
Despite intense questioning from Senator Jake Hoffman, Karen Peters secured the critical third vote she needed when Senator T.J. Shope crossed the aisle and joined Democrats to advance her nomination.
The vote caught many political observers off guard, but neither the committee chairman nor the conservative grassroots base is backing down. Peters may have won the battle, but the war is far from over. The real fight will come in January, when the full Senate takes up her confirmation. At that point, the controversy over the Hickman Farms mass burial, the $1.5 million state-funded cleanup, and citizen concerns about water contamination are expected to dominate the debate.
One particularly striking line from Shope stood out: “Honestly, we could have done a lot worse. In fact, I’m not sure we could realistically expect to do better” he said.
That remark has infuriated grassroots conservatives—many of whom believe Peters is, in fact, the most radical nominee Hobbs has put forward.
Peters is best known for crafting Phoenix’s controversial Climate Action Plan and has drawn fire from conservatives over proposals tied to so-called “climate lockdowns,” aggressive wastewater reuse policies, and what critics mockingly refer to as “poo water.”
With the Hickman Farms scandal now front and center, the grassroots opposition has gained new ammunition—and they’re just getting started.
