REQUEST TO SPEAK on (mostly) environmental bills at the Arizona Legislature

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There some good bills and some bad bills being heard in committees at the State Legislature starting Monday. There are some good bills in support of EVs. (Also see my previous post that includes the many bad bills that make it harder to vote.)  

Why do Request to Speak? Bills have to go through certain committees before they can be heard and voted on the floor of the House or Senate. Sometimes, just sometimes, we can stop bad bills from going to a vote on the House or Senate floor by killing them in committee. One way to do that is to weigh in on the Request to Speak system on the Arizona State Legislature website by choosing FOR or AGAINST. You need to weigh in before or while the bills are still in committee. That is why I include when the bill is being heard in a particular committee below. 

(See Request to Speak directions at the bottom of this page.) 

Coming Up at the Arizona Legislature this Week

Monday, January 24th

Senate Committee on Transportation & Technology at 2:00 PM 

SB1150 electric vehicles; pilot program; appropriation (Steele, Jermaine) establishes an electric vehicle (EV) pilot program, appropriates $500,000, requires EV ready homes. SUPPORT.
SB1151 charging station; pilot program; appropriation (Steele) appropriates $500,000 for a pilot program administered by Arizona Department of Administration. SUPPORT.
SB1152 zero emission vehicles; plans (Steele) requires state agencies to prioritize zero emissions vehicles when they purchase vehicles. SUPPORT.
SB1154 transportation electrification study committee (Steele) establishes a study committee to review laws and consider ways to promote EVs. SUPPORT.

House Committee on Military Affairs & Public Safety at 2:00 PM 

HR2004 border wall; construction materials; repurpose (Blackman, Payne) says the Arizona House of Representatives supports transferring unused federal border wall construction materials to the states to construct a border wall along the southern border. OPPOSE.

Tuesday, January 25th

House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, & Water at 2:00 PM

HB2411 coal combustion residuals program (Griffin) authorizes the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to seek assumption of the coal ash program from EPA. The Sierra Club opposes ADEQ getting additional programs while the agency is not implementing the ones it has and are concerned about its coziness with utilities. OPPOSE.

Wednesday, January 26th

Senate Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM 

SB1275 fireworks; use; overnight hours; prohibition (Mesnard, Shah) prohibits fireworks from 11:00 PM to 8:00 AM except on New Year's and July 4th. The Sierra Club thinks they should be prohibited altogether, but this is an improvement. SUPPORT

Thursday, January 27th

Senate Committee on Judiciary at 9:00 AM 

SB1215 missing and murdered indigenous peoples (Steele, Dalessandro, M. Hernandez, et al.) establishes a study committee and directs them to look at ways to reduce and end violence against Indigenous people. SUPPORT.

DIRECTIONS FOR REQUEST TO SPEAK ACTIONS

Sign On to your Request to Speak account, click the blue Request to Speak button, click on New Request in the nav bar (left column), then simply cut and paste the bill number into Search Phrase (for example:SB1150). Push blue Add Request button, weigh in FOR or AGAINST, click No on Do you wish to speak? (in person), leave a short Comment, and click on SUBMIT. For another submission, click on the New Request link in the nav bar on the left and follow the directions above. 

If you had an account with RTS previously, it is still active. If you do not have an account, go ahead and set one up, but someone will have to help you activate it as it requires going to the Capitol. Reach out to Civic Engagement Beyond Voting.