Request to Speak on bills that hurt wildlife, water and voting

HB2224 makes this unlawful

This week was utility and dirty energy week at the Arizona Legislature as committees advanced bills to allow utilities to get out of liability for negligence relating to wildfires and to broadly apply a financial mechanism to reduce costs of debt on power plants without retiring them. They also passed a bill to require that utilities have a right of first refusal for construction of renewables and to block wind energy.

Please contact your representatives using the Sierra Club form on this link to oppose HB2201 and HB2679, bills that would relieve electric utilities of responsibility for wildfires caused by their infrastructure and would allow them to issue bonds to pay for debt in assets without proper accountability, oversight, or consumer protection, and could shift major costs to future ratepayers.

You may be wondering why we do Request to Speak actions when some of the bills still get passed. Our RTS positions support the governor when she vetoes bad bills.

Coming up this week are some pretty awful wildlife bills and more bills to weaken our already weak water laws. I am especially concerned about  HB2224 unlawful wildlife feeding; enforcement; penalty that makes it unlawful to knowingly create wildlife habitat. This would totally negate creating urban wildlife habitat for any animals except birds.

Don't forget to support or oppose bills in the Request to Speak system. There are actually two bills we SUPPORT this week!  Note that you do not have to speak if you use the system, you can just sign in with a position on the bills.

Please weigh in on the following bills on the Request to Speak app anytime while they are still in committee.

https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

If you haven't signed up for the system, you can find the form here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdjBMoAJrjHD57GGegmdUCKAowcr93K4vQA6a7_AjyElBtrQ/viewform

Directions on how to navigate the system:

https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html

Monday, February 10th

House Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2083 game and fish commission; membership (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) requires that one member of the Game and Fish Commission be a "cattleman or rancher." Many in the livestock industry have a huge conflict when it comes to wildlife as they advocate for killing off predators and anything that might compete with cattle for forage. OPPOSE
• HB2224 unlawful wildlife feeding; enforcement; penalty (Gress: Bliss, Carter P, et al.) makes it unlawful to knowingly create wildlife habitat and establishes a $1000 fine in a city or town of 100,000 people or more. This would totally negate creating urban wildlife habitat for any animals except birds. OPPOSE
• HB2552 dogs; hunting; rules; prohibition (Diaz: Carter P, Griffin, et al) prohibits the Game and Fish Commission from limiting hunting with hounds. This would sidetrack efforts to limit hound hunting of animals such as mountain lions. OPPOSE

Tuesday, February 11th

Senate Natural Resources Committee at 2:00 PM 
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• SB1309 public utilities; electric grid improvements (Carroll: Angius) Includes a requirement of a "generation resource mix." That means you must use more than one type of energy source - which could include coal and gas power.  OPPOSE 
• SB1501 grid security; cybersecurity; reviews; commission (Farnsworth) requires the Arizona Corporation Commission to conduct an annual grid security review of a power plant and to consider research and evaluate grid management technologies, protect against physical and cyber attacks, and to assess emerging technologies, including distributed energy resources, microgrids, and new technology battery storage.  SUPPORT
• SB1521 unbuilt certificates; assured water supply (Dunn) It would allow a developer with a certificate of assured water supply to sell the certificate for use in another location within a municipal water service area - even if they are not in the same basin and regardless of where the municipal water service is coming from. OPPOSE
• SB1523 water use; prohibition; landscaping (Dunn) Overall this is a good bill. It doesn't allow cities to require turf (except for recreational use) or plants that aren't included on the low-water, drought tolerant plant list. But the bad part is that  you can't require a minimum number of trees (like the Mayor's Million Trees Initiative), open space, or detached sidewalks. OPPOSE

House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2087 appropriation; groundwater recharge facilities; maintenance (Griffin: Diaz, Gowan, et al) appropriates an unspecified amount for cleaning and restoring underground storage facilities for flood control in a subsequent AMA. It is unclear what that would mean. The bill doesn't designate what department will be responsible for doing this and doesn't define what the artificial groundwater recharge facility is. Essentially it doesn't fill in the details. OPPOSE  
• HB2127 hazardous substance release; notice; liability (Bliss) includes notification and disclosure requirements for property that has been contaminated by hazardous substances when it is sold. SUPPORT
• HB2270 groundwater model; stormwater recharge; AMAs (Griffin) requires the AZ Department of Water Resources to offset a portion of future groundwater use as a result of infrastructure development when they update the groundwater models. It is the model that should determine groundwater availability, not the legislature. OPPOSE
• HB2272 municipal separate storm sewer system (Griffin) This weakens the protections for surface water in the state from small municipal storm sewer systems. OPPOSE
• HB2574 small land subdivision; requirements (Griffin: Lopez) allows counties to approve small land divisions of 6-10 lots with lots of 2 acres or more, thus getting around subdivision requirements and assured water supply requirements. This creates yet another loophole. OPPOSE
• HCR2046 Colorado River; cause of decline (Griffin: Diaz, Lopez) says forest mismanagement and salt cedars are the principal cause of Colorado River depletion despite no evidence to support that. Climate change and the associated drought and over-allocation of the river are the principal causes of depletion. OPPOSE

House Regulatory Oversight Committee at 2:00 PM

• HB2630 governor nominations; agency position; eligibility (Kolodin) says that if the senate rejects a nominee for a state agency director that person cannot serve in another position in the agency. This is just punitive. OPPOSE
• HB2632 regulatory costs; rulemaking; legislative ratification (Kolodin) says the legislature must approve any rule that will cost more than $500,000 within five years after the proposed rule's implementation. Voters just rejected a near identical measure in November. It would make it nearly impossible to implement programs. OPPOSE

Wednesday, February 12th
 

House Government Committee at 9:00 AM 

• HCR2042 preferential treatment; discrimination; prohibited acts (Montenegro: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al) refers a constitutional amendment to the ballot that prohibits the state from engaging in any diversity, equity, and inclusion measures, including training. OPPOSE

House Ways and Means Committee at 10:00 AM

• HCR2035 tax prohibition; vehicle mileage; monitoring (Weninger) refers a proposed constitutional amendment to the ballot that prohibits the state and local government from taking actions to reduce vehicle miles traveled. It also prohibits any kind of fee based on vehicle miles traveled. OPPOSE

House Federalism, Military Affairs, & Elections Committee at 2:00 PM

• HB2038 technical correction; accountants; investigations (Kolodin) will have a strike-everything amendment on S/E: voter registration; citizenship proof requires proof of citizenship for anyone who registered after 2005 if there is some reason to believe they did not provide it.  Why is it only valid through the next election?  OPPOSE
• HB2060  state sovereign authority; elections (Fink: Keshel, Powell, et al.) Declares the legally dubious sovereign authority doctrine to preempt federal law regarding federal elections. OPPOSE
• HCM2004 military bases; exemption from ESA (Griffin) asks Congress to exempt military bases from complying with the Endangered Species Act. The military is perfectly capable of complying with the law without compromising its mission. Besides, shouldn't the government be leading by example? OPPOSE

Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee at 1:30 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• SB1463 initiatives; existing laws; impact statement (Mesnard) requires citizen initiatives to include a statement about laws with which it might conflict and that may be impacted. This will become another way to find a technicality and kick a measure off the ballot. OPPOSE