Push Back on Bills that Target Tucson: Our Water, Solar & More

HB2263 would empty our recharge ponds in Avra Valley

This week many of  the bills at the AZ Leg are targeting what many Tucsonans value.

There are bills that attack renewable energy, while propping up fossil fuels. (Hmm... I wonder who is donating to these legislators?) There are bills that waste money on immigration enforcement (that's a federal responsibility anyway) and two on AI (a faulty tool for enforcement.) But the bills that really get my goat are the ones prohibiting Tucson Water from doing its good work on Colorado River water management.  (HB2263 and HB2099) Rep. Griffin is trying to get her hands on Tucson's water!   

Sign into the Request to Speak system: 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

NOTE: One of the bills that passed out of the House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee this week was HB2267. It establishes that any utility-scale solar or wind project that is built within four miles of a residence is automatically considered a public nuisance, meaning these are automatically considered harmful. It would also define other renewable energy projects as public nuisances, regardless of location, unless they obtain a certificate of environmental compatibility from the Arizona Corporation Commission. The bill has been revised so it no longer outlaws residential rooftop solar. Yay! I wonder if our comments helped get that removed.  Use this link to send a message to your two House representatives and ask them to vote NO on HB2267! https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0600920 REQUEST TO SPEAK BILLS FOR THIS WEEK

Please use the Request to Speak app to weigh in on the bills (below) before they are heard in their respective committees. After signing into the system and clicking on New Request, you can simply copy and paste the bill number into SEARCH PHRASE, SEARCH then click on ADD REQUEST.  

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

Keep an eye out for the four bills we support: SB1598, HB2843, HB2845, and SB1677.

Monday, February 16th House Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee at 2:00 P.M. Members of the public may attend in person or access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2845 appropriation; Del Rio Springs; park (Bliss) appropriates $750,000 to the Arizona state parks board for development and necessary infrastructure at Del Rio Springs for a state park. I am sure they will need more funding for this, but it is definitely worth protecting. SUPPORT House Public Safety and Law Enforcement Committee Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2416 appropriation; DPS; local border support (Nguyen) appropriates $20 million for more border enforcement activities. As if we have not already spent enough or militarized the border enough. OPPOSE Tuesday, February 17th   Senate Natural Resource Committee at 1:30 PM Members of the public may attend in person or access a livestream of the meeting here. SB1200 assured water supply; certificate; model (Shope) requires the Arizona Department of Water Resources to review an application for a certificate of assured water supply if requested and requires it to use models that will misrepresent the available water. This is to allow those without assured water supplies to get a designation within the Phoenix AMA. OPPOSE SB1785 water storage facility; withdrawals; area (Petersen) requires the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to assume that a recovery well for stored water is within the area of impact if the applicant does not submit a hydrologic study and adds some additions to allowable locations for recovery wells. Not requiring a hydrologic study and allowing recovery wells outside of the storage facility boundaries seem to be loopholes that allow for pumping water that is not actually in the storage facility. OPPOSE Senate Appropriations, Transportation, and Technology Committee at 1:30 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. SB1088 appropriation; Arizona homeland security; cybersecurity (Carroll) appropriates $2.5 million to the Arizona Department of Homeland Security and requires $500,000 go to generative artificial intelligence for cybersecurity. In addition to the huge environmental impacts of generative AI, it has proven to be very bad at creating secure systems. OPPOSE SB1156 appropriation; short-term detention holds (Rogers: Finchem) appropriates $20 million for short-term detention holds. Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. Why are we paying $20 million of our limited state funds for this? OPPOSE SB1332 light rail expansion; participation; prohibition (Kavanagh) prohibits the state from participating in any light rail expansion until they do this economic feasibility study. The timeline makes it appear that this bill is trying to stop the (already in progress) Rio East-Dobson streetcar extension. If this project is stopped we will lose $15.9 million in federal grants. OPPOSE SB1598 appropriation; schools; community gardens (Alston: Connolly, Sandoval) appropriates $500,000 for grants for community gardens at schools. SUPPORT SB1677 appropriation; salt cedar mitigation (Dunn) appropriates $500,000 for salt cedar mitigation along the Gila River. Getting rid of water thirsty salt cedar is a good thing. SUPPORT SB1707 appropriation; artificial intelligence; border security (Rogers) appropriates $5 million for using AI on border security. AI has proven to be very ineffective in policing and has a huge environmental footprint. OPPOSE House Natural Resources, Energy, & Water Committee at 2:00 PM Members of the public may attend in person or access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2099 long-term storage credits; shortage; prohibition (Griffin) prohibits municipal water providers from getting credit for stored Colorado River water during times of shortages. This prohibits Tucson from getting long-term storage credits for water left in Lake Mead. This is a blatant attack on Tucson Water for wisely managing our Colorado River resources.  OPPOSE  HB2263 Colorado River water; replenishment; restriction (Griffin) limits replenishment of Colorado River water to that associated with the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District. This bill would appear to prohibit Tucson Water from storing CAP water in the Avra Valley, which is how they serve Colorado River water to Tucson Water customers. OPPOSE HB2492 urban growth boundaries; prohibition (Taylor) says no city, county, or other state entity can implement or enforce directly or indirectly any act that would limit urban sprawl or limit extension of services. This is just to accommodate even more runaway sprawl -- as if we did not have enough. OPPOSE HB2757 Butler Valley; La Paz; groundwater (Griffin: Blackman) allows the interbasin transfer of groundwater from Butler Valley to any place in La Paz County. Essentially this will be draining one groundwater basin to provide water for another basin that doesn't have enough groundwater. OPPOSE HB2843 portable solar power devices; requirements (Contreras P: Aguilar, Cavero, et al) allows customers to install and use "portable solar generation devices" or balcony solar without utility approval, fees, or additional equipment requirements if the devices meet national safety and electrical standards. Prohibits cities, towns and counties from requiring permits, inspections or additional local approvals for compliant portable solar generation devices. SUPPORT HB2889 appropriation; uranium monitoring; mine inspector (Tsosie) appropriates a million dollars for the mine inspector to monitor uranium mining impacts in Arizona. The mine inspector is not the one to look at soil and water contamination. That office has no expertise with this. It's a good idea, but perhaps have the environmental (ADEQ) and health agencies do this. OPPOSE  HB2915 tax reduction fund; renewable energy (Marshall: Heap) is a nonsensical bill that establishes a fund related to a "property value reducing renewable energy project" to pay property owners, but it just assumes that any solar or wind project of 100 MW or more reduces the value of property, which is not the case. OPPOSE HB2918 renewable energy equipment; valuation; depreciation (Marshall: Heap) establishes punitive taxes (an increase from 20% to 100%) for renewable energy equipment. It's an attempt to make solar energy more expensive so fossil fuels can compete. OPPOSE HB4025 study committee; gas; petroleum; refinery (Carter P) establishes this committee to look at the availability of gas and oil and to look at the feasibility of constructing refineries. OPPOSE Wednesday, February 18th Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee at 1:30 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. SCR1027 general election day; all offices (Mesnard) is a proposed constitutional amendment that would go to the ballot. It requires that a general election for city, town and school district officials must take place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even numbered year -- at the same time as the state general elections. This is a direct attack on Tucson, which holds their city office elections on odd years. OPPOSE