Support Historic Bill to Reform Destructive, Old U.S. Mining Law

A new bill has been introduced in Congress that would overhaul the 1872 Mining Law and at last bring the United States into the 21st century — ready to meet the demands of a clean energy economy while not repeating the mistakes of the past. Tell your elected officials to support this historic legislation, and help protect the Santa Ritas, Patagonia Mountains, and other Sky Islands from toxic hardrock mining. For 151 years, mining for copper, uranium, and other minerals has been governed by a gold-rush era law that promoted westward expansion and extraction at all costs. As a result, according to the EPA, 40% of western watersheds are now polluted. Hundreds of thousands of mines have been abandoned and left to taxpayers to clean up. And Indigenous tribes and other communities have been polluted with arsenic, mercury, and lead. This is unacceptable.  The Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act, introduced by Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), offers several solutions. It would: Establish environmental standards that don’t exist under the current law and make industry clean up their abandoned mines; Ensure a fair return to taxpayers with a royalty for mining on public lands; Create space for meaningful tribal consultation and improve siting/permitting with a leasing system and public process; and Give land managers power to protect sacred and irreplaceable resources.  Urge your elected officials to support this visionary bill and protect our public lands and water for future generations. Find Sky Island Alliance's action here:  https://skyislandalliance.org/2023/06/rosemont-mine-alert/

Tell EPA: Adopt strong carbon rule for coal & gas power plants

Included is the Sierra Club's update on happenings at the State Capital and the Arizona Corporation Commission. Please, find the call to action (below) urging the EPA to adopt the strongest possible carbon rule for coal and gas power plants.

The Arizona Legislature was not in session this week and won't be back until July 31st, but there was a lot of activity nearby, some of it good -- vetoes by the Governor -- and some of it bad -- a reversal by the Arizona Corporation Commission on two issues.

Starting with the good news, the Governor vetoed several harmful bills, including HB2618, a bill that would have impeded solar development, and SB1246, a measure that would have required referring a harmful transportation proposal in Maricopa County, limiting transit.

Please send a quick thank you to the Governor for these vetoes. You can send her a note here.

Meanwhile, down the road at the Arizona Corporation Commission, the Commission approved a harmful settlement with Arizona Public Service (APS) and reversed a decision to deny a certificate of environmental compatibility to massive power plant expansion at Coolidge. Read more about those decisions here.

In other news, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a  carbon rule for coal and gas power plants. This is an important opportunity to move us closer to our carbon emissions reduction goals and get us closer to being on track relative to stabilizing the climate. Please use the link below to take action on the carbon rule today. Tell EPA to adopt the strongest possible rule.

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/submit-your-comment-on-the-epas-proposed-cut-climate-pollution-plan/?source=az-sc

Urge Mayor Romero and City Council Members to Reject the Siting of a Waste-to-Energy Facility in Tucson

waste-to-energy plant in Europe

The Tucson Environmental and General Services department is studying over 10 project ideas for turning municipal waste into energy, fuel or fuel ingredients at the Los Reales regional landfill on the southeast side of the city.  No final decision has been made, but it is important to let City leaders know that waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities represent a false solution to our ever-growing solid waste problem. 

WTE facilities (e.g., combustion, pyrolysis, gasification and refuse-derived fuel) generate heat-trapping greenhouse gases and toxic fumes that can harm our health and planet.  These facilities also destroy valuable resources and work against the circular economy, which keeps materials in use for as long as possible. 

Much better upstream solutions exist for minimizing the generation of solid waste, including waste prevention, reuse/refill, product redesign, recycling and composting.  The City should make zero waste solutions the priority, not downstream waste management treatment facilities.  

You can sign a petition opposing a WTE facility at the Los Reales landfill on Change.org at: https://www.change.org/p/don-t-burn-it-tucson.

You can also send an email directly to Mayor Romero (Mayor.Romero@tucsonaz.gov) and your City Council member (www.tucsonaz.gov/gov/ward-maps).   

For more information on the problems with WTE technologies and more sustainable alternatives, please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/dontburnittucson/home.

Recording of Sustainable Tucson meeting: STGM Chemical Recycline with Veena Singla

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeO913M_vCA&t=1s

Urge your legislators to support Prop 400 on public transit and oppose SCR1015 making enacting citizens' initiatives harder

After a couple of weeks off, the Arizona Legislature will be back on Monday. The rumor is that after addressing a few bills, they may recess again until August 1st. 

It sounds like they may have an agreement on an affordable housing bill that could advance, but there's still no agreement on

Writes Laurie Roberts, "Next time you’re sitting in traffic, wondering if you’ll make it home before your loved ones forget what you look like, know that it could be worse." Legislative hard-liners who obtusely refuse to accept that a modern metropolitan transit system should support all residents, not just drivers, are rejecting compromise after compromise offered by the Governor and the Maricopa Association of Governments. 

Maricopa County is the only county in Arizona that needs legislative approval and the governor’s signature to call an election for a transportation sales tax. Unfortunately, the legislature has refused to approve a clean version of a bill and instead has been trying to limit the dollars that can go toward transit. After 500 meetings and feedback from more than 10,000 residents, Mayors and other elected leaders agreed on a plan that includes transit.  Tell state legislators: Let voters decide their transportation future.

https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0392210&id=7013q000001ojTmAAI

It's already so difficult to enact a citizens' initiative

Stop Attacks on Direct Democracy in Arizona!

It also looks like they are going to revive a referendum to require every legislative district to exceed a given percentage of signatures in order to put a citizen initiative on the ballot. That will make it a lot more difficult and more expensive and would allow one district to block an initiative. Ask your representative to vote NO on SCR1015 and to oppose efforts to make it more difficult to engage in citizen initiatives.

Use the Sierra Club’s action form.

https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0392209

HELPFUL HINT: It is always better to add a personal comment so it doesn’t seem so much like a petition. You can also get the contact information on the form and contact your legislators by email or phone. Some legislators are more inclined to read personal emails than group petitions.