Call Legislators on bad transportation and investment bills

 

Next week, few committees are meeting as well as the House and Senate continue to move bills from one chamber to the other. And a bit of good news from this week, SB1502 corporation commission; electric generation resources (Carroll: Kerr, Griffin), which seeks to pre-empt the renewable energy standard or any subsequent clean energy standard at the Arizona Corporation Commission by codifying a weak standard, failed on Third Read in the Senate 14-15-1. It may come back for reconsideration, however, so we are keeping an eye on it.  Both HB2471 and SB1500 (government investments; plans; fiduciaries; products) are moving in the House and Senate. They require a fiduciary to take into account only pecuniary factors when evaluating an investment, so they cannot consider environmental, social, or governance factors. The bills also prescribe requirements and prohibitions relating to the State Treasurer's investments, again prohibiting consideration of anything social or environmental. If you have not done so already, please send a message to your state senator and representatives and ask them to oppose HB2471 and SB1500 by using this link. NOTE: Some legislators may be more inclined to open personal emails or keep tabs of their phone messages.  Here are the links for reaching out to them.  How to find out who your new legislators are: 1) Look up your district by putting in your address here: https://irc-az.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=424810a4667049388ef6df4f0c73098b 2) Use that district to find your state Senator and contact info here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=S 3) Use that district to find your two state Representatives and contact info here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=H It is irresponsible to not include ways to reduce motor vehicle traffic and accommodate other transportation, including bicycles, in our planning and it runs contrary to our air quality plans, which include goals for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Unfortunately, the Arizona Legislature is seeking to limit local government and the Arizona Department of Transportation's (ADOT) ability to plan for transit and bikes and reduce vehicle travel. Already, the Arizona Senate passed the following two bills along party lines (16-13-1) this past week. SB1313 general plan; transportation; independent study (Hoffman) prohibits general plans from including policies or projects that reduce vehicle traffic and removes element from the general plan regarding multimodal transportation.  SB1314 transportation system performance; ADOT (Hoffman) changes performance factors to de-emphasize congestion relief and connecting with multi-modal transportation, plus prohibits adopting a motor vehicle travel mile reduction target or any other demand-management policy or project.  Still coming up are the following two bills. Please ask your senator to oppose both of these bills by using the link below. Or you can call or email them. Make sure to mention that you are from their district. SB1697 highways; bicycle paths; walkways; prohibition (Hoffman) prohibits the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) from planning, designing, or constructing bicycle paths or pedestrian walkways and accepting federal monies conditioned on the design and construction of a bicycle path or pedestrian walkway.  SCR1018 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle (Hoffman) refers to the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit any fees based on vehicle miles traveled. As we reduce reliance on gasoline and gasoline-powered vehicles, gas tax revenues will decrease and other ways to fund road maintenance are needed such as looking at vehicle miles traveled. https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0382066&id