Request to Speak & Call Reps on bills that affect the environment

In addition to the Request to Speak Actions (below), there are three bad bills (HB2055, HB2101 and HB2536) that made it through committee. Please, take a few minutes to call your Representatives this week.

Keep calling your House members, asking them to oppose HB2055 Harquahala non-expansion area; groundwater transportation (Griffin: Bowers). The bill has not moved out of the House, so our efforts are making a difference. HB2055 allows private water companies to import water from the Harquahala Valley and into active management areas (AMAs) for development. Creating groundwater sacrifice zones and further privatizing water is a bad idea.

HB2101 electric energy; reliability; public policy (Griffin: Abraham, Blackman, et al.), which repeals provisions in the law that create parameters for retail competition of electricity, is likely to go to the floor of the House next week. We are still opposed as we have concerns about how it will affect community choice aggregation, rooftop solar in SRP territory, and have not seen what additional amendments they may be adding to it. Let your House members know you have concerns about this bill too. Its twin is up in the Senate Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee on Wednesday.

Please call and ask your representatives to oppose HB2536 corporation commissioners; qualifications (Griffin). It requires corporation commissioners to be at least 30 years old and have five years experience in business, accounting, finance, economics, administrative law, or professional engineering. This would disqualify a lot of people who have been or would be excellent commissioners. It is ready to go to the House floor.

You can find your representatives' phone numbers here.

Some of us have been experiencing great frustration with the Request to Speak System -- it has been super slow and sometimes will not allow you to sign in on a bill at all. It was supposed to be fixed today.

REQUEST TO SPEAK ACTIONS FOR THIS WEEK:

Monday, February 14th

House Committee on Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM

• HB2151 land division; acting in concert (Kavanagh) authorizes a county or the State Real Estate Department to deny a building permit or certificate of occupancy if a group is under investigation for attempting to violate land division laws. It increases penalties for selling or leasing subdivided lands without obtaining a public report. This is a way to crack down a bit on wildcat subdivisions. SUPPORT
• HB2181 technical correction; game; fish; facilities (Cook) will have a S/E amendment on game and fish; taking wolves that forbids the Arizona Game and Fish Commission from prohibiting anyone from killing a wolf that is actively threatening or attacking a person, livestock or other domestic animal. The first of these is clear cut, although not necessary. People can kill wolves if they are threatened -- which almost never happens -- but allowing endangered wolves to be killed for taking livestock or other animals is not appropriate. OPPOSE

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

• HB2591 border security fund; administration (Grantham) is an emergency measure to authorize the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to use up to $250,000 from the Border Security Fund to pay for additional full-time equivalent positions. This is more border militarization. OPPOSE

Tuesday, February 15th

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

• HB2128 rulemaking; exemption; limitation; corporation commission (Griffin: Carroll) subjects the Arizona Corporation Commission to the rulemaking process that is followed by agencies. This is an effort by the legislature to assert more control over the ACC. OPPOSE
• HB2560 appropriation; DWR; water efficiency projects (Dunn) appropriates $1 million to the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to identify water efficiency projects that have significant potential for water savings and that also have legal impediments hindering implementation. SUPPORT
• HCR2038 supporting proper forest management (Griffin) contains revisionist history regarding the history of national forests. It fails to recognize the impacts of commercial logging on forest health -- most of the larger trees were logged in Arizona, leaving more opportunities for the dense growth of smaller trees -- fire suppression, and livestock grazing. There is no mention of climate change. It seeks to repeat the mistakes of the past that have contributed to unhealthy forests. OPPOSE

Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM

• SB1032 border fence construction; appropriation (Rogers) appropriates $700,000,000 to the Border Security Fund for the construction and maintenance of a physical border fence. OPPOSE
• SB1718 appropriation; border security fund (Gowan) appropriates $1,140,800 and 14.5 full-time equivalent positions from the state General Fund to the Border Security Fund. OPPOSE

Wednesday, February 16th

House Committee on Judiciary at 8:00 a.m.

• HB2750 prisoners; forest restoration projects; expungement (Cano: Abraham, Andrade, et al.) allows prisoners who participated in forest restoration projects to petition for expungement of their record. SUPPORT

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

• SB1631 electric energy; public policy; reliability (Kerr: Fann, Gray, et al) eliminates the requirements for retail competition. The bill may have a negative impact on rooftop solar in SRP territory. OPPOSE
• SB1656 water and energy; improvement district (Pace: Shope, Abraham, et al) establishes a property assessed clean energy program for commercial property. This provides a mechanism for financing energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. SUPPORT

House Committee on Transportation at 2:00 PM

• HB2728 appropriations; ADOT; tier 2 studies (Wilmeth) appropriates funding for various freeway studies, including $25 million for I-11. OPPOSE

REQUEST TO SPEAK DIRECTIONS: 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: SB1032). 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.

Community Choice Energy (CCE) for Tucson and Pima County

Community Choice Energy (CCE) for Tucson and Pima County Petition

Community Choice Energy (also called Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA) is a powerful tool that enables communities to choose their own sources of energy and to rapidly transition to renewables. We're calling on the City of Tucson and Pima County to incorporate CCE as a key component of their climate action and sustainability plans, and to advocate for CCE at the state level. Please consider signing our petition via the link below.

 
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/community-choice-energy-for-tucson-and-pima-county

How do CCEs work?

Once CCEs are enabled at the state level (the Arizona Corporation Commission has jurisdiction in this case), a city or county can form a nonprofit CCE entity, which is comprised of community members and CCE industry experts. The CCE determines the community's energy mix (kind of like picking a stock portfolio) and purchases power wholesale from energy producers. Renewable energy is considerably cheaper than fossil fuel generation currently, and cost savings are passed on to ratepayers saving them 2-9% on their energy bills. The pre-existing energy utility continues to handle energy transmission infrastructure and billing.

What would CCE mean for Tucson and Pima County?

If CCEs were enabled at the state level, establishing one locally is likely the most impactful action the City or County could take to reduce carbon emissions in Southern Arizona, since it would affect residential and commercial customers across this community, and going beyond local government operations. Tucson is the 3rd fastest warming city in the US, and we're already experiencing the effects of the climate crisis with longer, hotter summers and extreme weather events becoming increasingly commonplace. Our regional energy monopoly, TEP, continues to build expensive oil and gas facilities, pushing a transition to renewables further down the line and leaving ratepayers on the hook when these fossil facilities will need to be retired.

We need the City of Tucson and Pima County to champion CCE at the state level, since it's currently under attack by Republican Legislators who're in the pocket of the large energy monopolies. Please help us send a message to our local elected officials that we want cheaper, cleaner renewable energy in Southern Arizona, and we want it now.

Contact us at energychoice4soaz@gmail.com.
For more information on CCEs, visit Arizonans for Community Choice or Lean Energy.
This campaign is an initiative of the Tucson Climate Coalition