Bad bills that won't die at the AZ legislature

Governor Doug Ducey continues to drag Arizona into a gutter relative to democracy and human rights. This week he signed a bill to hinder voting that could result in a purge of thousands of voters, signed two bills to cause harm to trans youth, and signed a bill to implement a 15-week abortion ban, infringing on a basic right to privacy. There is already a legal challenge to the voting bill, HB2492 voter registration; verification; citizenship. Thank you Mi Familia Vota!

Unfortunately, that is not the end of the bad voter bills. Remember they already referred a bad voter ID bill to the ballot and there are still bills to ban voting centers, prohibit automatic voter registration, and more.

Here are some bad bills that could still make it to the floor for a vote. Below are the Sierra Club's petitions on these bills. Please, sign them if you haven't. Also, find the link to the senators' contact numbers.   

In other news, HB2101 electric energy; reliability; public policy (Griffin: Abraham, Blackman, et al.) will be hanging over the session like a dark cloud as they are allowed to reconsider it at any time. HB2101 repeals provisions in the law that create parameters for retail competition of electricity. This bill could negatively affect community choice aggregation of electricity which allows cities to purchase or generate electricity for their residents, as well as rooftop solar in Salt River Project (SRP) territory. SRP brought this to the legislature without any kind of stakeholder process or thorough review of the impacts of the bill. Call your senator and tell them to vote No on HB2101!

You can find senators phone numbers here.

HB2055 Harquahala non-expansion area; groundwater transportation (Griffin: Bowers) is now ready for Senate Committee of the Whole. HB2055 allows private water companies such as EPCOR to import water from the Harquahala Valley and into the active management areas (AMAs) for development. This exacerbates creation of this groundwater depletion sacrifice zone and gives private water interests more control of water. The legislature should be placing additional limits on groundwater pumping not facilitating more.

Use this petition to contact your Senator. Ask them to Vote NO on HB2055!

HB2411 coal combustion residuals program (Griffin) will be voted on in a Third Read in the Senate early next week. It authorizes the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to seek assumption of the coal ash program from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Coal ash is toxic and can result in contamination of our waters if not adequately regulated. We are concerned that ADEQ is too cozy with the utilities and that it would not properly enforce this program, plus ADEQ is already not properly implementing some of the federal programs it already has.

Use this petition to contact your Senator to oppose HB2411!

This week, the US Fish and Wildlife Service came out with the official count for Mexican gray wolves. The good news is the number of wolves is up. The bad news is that those numbers are not up nearly as high as they should be due to, among other things, unlawful killings. The last thing Mexican wolves need is a bill that encourages killing them. HB2181 Now: game and fish; taking wolves (Cook) forbids the Arizona Game and Fish Commission from prohibiting any person from killing a wolf that is actively threatening or attacking a person (unnecessary as anyone can kill an animal if they feel threatened), livestock, or other domestic animal. These latter provisions will invite baiting of wolves and sends a message that it is okay to kill these highly endangered animals.

Use this petition to tell your Senator to vote No on HB2181!

Until the legislature gets to the budget or takes action in a special session, there will not be any Request to Speak actions, but please use this time to sign up for it, if you have not. Civic Engagement Beyond Voting (CEBV) will sign you up. Just go to this link.

To view bills we are tracking go here.

To find your legislators' email addresses and phone numbers, go here.

- Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter

Urge your legislators to vote NO on bills that kill wolves, sustainable water and voting rights

 

Below is the Sierra Club update on what is happening at our state legislature along with some petitions and phone call actions on voting suppression, water rights, and other environmental issues - including killing wolves!

While the state legislature is in session, I share abbreviated versions of the Sierra Club's Legislative Report and post Request to Speak actions separately. If you would like to recieve these actions sooner, you may want to sign up for their report.

Legislative Update for the week of March 20th

It appears that the Arizona Legislature has killed most of the handful of positive bills that were advancing, including three electric vehicle bills sponsored by Senator Victoria Steele. There are still a few good ones in the mix, however, including one sponsored by Senator Paul Boyer -- SB1246 expedites acquisition of electric school buses. It will likely go to the House floor next week. SB1270 is another. It was amended to increase the funding for the State Parks Heritage Fund to $5 million per year, still short of the $10 million the voters intended, but closer.

Thankfully, a number of the bad elections bills are hitting speedbumps in the Senate and have been voted down, but there are still plenty to go around. See below and the committee agendas for more on that.

There was another question and answer session on the House floor regarding the proposed Arizona Water Augmentation Authority. The bill is getting a lukewarm response from many and strong opposition from others. They are not planning to move it until they have the votes and they do not have the votes for it right now.

HB2492 voter registration; verification; citizenship (Hoffman: Blackman, Carter, et al.) is likely to go to the Senate floor this week. It requires people who register to vote with a passport, birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or a tribal ID to submit additional documents proving residency. It also includes new restrictions for federal-only voters, including that they may not vote by mail, and it requires those who have previously registered to vote to provide additional identification. Tell your senator to oppose HB2492!

Send a message to your Senator here.

HB2289 will have a strike-everything amendment on elections; identification; revisions; tabulation; mail-in that prohibits all in-person early voting and eliminates vote by mail, except for people who are visually impaired, are serving in the military overseas or who are hospitalized or out of the state on Election Day. This would affect most Arizonans as more than 70% of us vote by mail. Many people will be showing up at the Senate Government Committee on Monday to oppose this bill.

HB2101 electric energy; reliability; public policy (Griffin: Abraham, Blackman, et al.) will likely be up for reconsideration in the Senate this week. HB2101 repeals provisions in the law that create parameters for retail competition of electricity. We are opposed to the bill as we have concerns about how it will affect community choice aggregation of electricity overall and rooftop solar in Salt River Project (SRP) territory. SRP brought this to the legislature without any kind of stakeholder process or thorough review of the impacts of the bill. Tell your senator to please vote No on HB2101 and also reach out to Senators Alston, Contreras, Gabaldon, and Rios and ask them to vote No!

You can find senators phone numbers here.

HB2055 Harquahala non-expansion area; groundwater transportation (Griffin: Bowers) will also come to the Senate floor this week. This bill allows private water companies such as EPCOR to import water from the Harquahala Valley and into the active management areas (AMAs) for development. Currently only cities can do that. This exacerbates creation of this groundwater depletion sacrifice zone and gives private water interests more control of water. The legislature should be placing additional limits on groundwater pumping not facilitating more.

Send a message to your senator to oppose HB2055!

HB2411 coal combustion residuals program (Griffin) will also likely come to the floor of the Senate this week. It authorizes the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to seek assumption of the coal ash program from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Coal ash is toxic and can result in contamination of our waters if not adequately regulated. We are concerned that ADEQ is too cozy with the utilities and that it would not properly enforce this program, plus ADEQ is already not properly implementing some of the federal programs it already has. Call your senator to oppose this too!

You can find senators phone numbers here.

HB2181 Now: game and fish; taking wolves (Cook) will likely result in additional unlawful killings of wolves. It forbids the Arizona Game and Fish Commission from prohibiting any person from killing a wolf that is actively threatening or attacking a person (unnecessary as anyone can kill an animal if they feel threatened), livestock, or other domestic animal. These latter provisions will invite baiting of wolves -- the last thing these endangered animals need is less protection or more people gunning for them.

Tell your Senator to vote No on HB2181 here.

Contact State Legislators regarding Bad Water, Electric Energy and Voting Bills

Imagine sacrifice zone needed to transport desalinated water 

Our GOP legislators (with a small majority) are trying to bulldoze through voter suppression bills and other bad bills that will make it harder for Arizona to have an environmentally sound water supply and just transition to solar.

This week, the Governor shared a draft of his bill to establish the Arizona Water Augmentation Authority. It's terrible! The purpose is to seek water from other states or countries, including via desalination. It is really more of the same to continue unsustainable water policies and growth practices. In addition to that, the structure of the authority is undemocratic and gives the usual suspects all the power relative to water. The bill will likely be considered in the next two weeks.

The Arizona Legislature continues to move along bad public policy daily. Even though the number of bills to make it more difficult to register to vote, to register people to vote, and to actually vote has been whittled down and the Senate has rejected a few, there are still far too many out there advancing through the process. 

One such bill is HB2492 voter registration; verification; citizenship (Hoffman: Blackman, Carter, et al.), which passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee along party lines. This bill requires people who register to vote with a passport, birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or a tribal ID to submit additional documents proving residency. It includes new restrictions for federal-only voters, including that they may not vote by mail. It requires those who have previously registered to vote to provide additional identification. As if the bill itself was not bad enough, during the vote explanations in committee, the committee chair actually interrupted the only two people of color on the committee in the middle of explaining their votes. It was pretty outrageous. Call your senator and ask them to oppose HB2492!
 

You can find senators phone numbers here.

There was some good news this week. SB1629 failed on the Senate Floor 13-15-2. SB1629 registration; verification; images; audits; boxes (Borrelli: Barto, Fann, Gowan, et. al), creates unnecessary, difficult hurdles for nonprofits and volunteers who register citizens to vote. There was a motion for reconsideration of the bill, so that means they can bring it back for another vote at any time. Keep those calls coming. Tell your senators to oppose SB1629.
 

You can find senators phone numbers here.

HB2101 electric energy; reliability; public policy (Griffin: Abraham, Blackman, et al.) also failed on Senate Third Read 14-3-3, but will also be back as there was a motion for reconsideration. HB2101 repeals provisions in the law that create parameters for retail competition of electricity. We are opposed to the bill as we have concerns about how it will affect community choice aggregation of electricity overall and rooftop solar in Salt River Project (SRP) territory. Tell your senator to please vote No on HB2101. We could use some extra calls to Senators Alston, Gabaldon, and Rios.
 

You can find senators phone numbers here.

Also, this week, the Senate Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee advanced both HB2055 and HB2411. 

HB2055 Harquahala non-expansion area; groundwater transportation (Griffin: Bowers) allows private water companies such as EPCOR to import water from the Harquahala Valley and into the active management areas (AMAs) for development. Currently only cities can do that. This exacerbates making this area a groundwater depletion sacrifice zone. We also object to giving private water interests more control of water, something that is essential for life, as this bill allows. 
 

Oppose Groundwater Pumping Sacrifice Zones!

https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0355357&id=70131000001Lp1FAAS

HB2411 coal combustion residuals program (Griffin) authorizes the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to seek assumption of the coal ash program from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We are concerned that ADEQ is too cozy with the utilities and would not properly enforce this program, plus ADEQ is already not properly implementing some of the federal programs it already has and did not previously ask for the funding it needed to do so. Tell your senator to oppose this too! 
 

You can find senators phone numbers here.

-Sierra Club Action

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.

Request to Speak on: electric school buses, selling water, and zoning without conservation requirements

Besides the voter suppression bills (see a separate blog) we have three Request to Speak actions.

NOTE: It seems like the RTS system was especially slow on the weekend. Perhaps there are some better times (when it isn’t so busy) to weigh in.

This week, please take a minute to call your House members and ask them to oppose HB2055 Harquahala non-expansion area; groundwater transportation (Griffin: Bowers) because it is going to the floor for a vote. It 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. Be sure to tell them that you are their constituent.

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 on the House Rules agenda for Monday. We are still opposed as we have concerns about how it will affect community choice aggregation and have not seen what additional amendments they may be adding to it.

You can find your representatives' phone numbers here: (https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=H)

If you don't know what district you are in you can find out here: https://azredistricting.org/districtlocator/

Monday, February 7th

Senate Committee on Education at 2:00 PM

SB1246 school buses; electrification; contracts (Boyer) establishes a process for a school district to select preapproved entities to provide electric school buses and related infrastructure and services. This can help expedite acquisition. SUPPORT

Tuesday, February 8th

House Committee on Commerce at 2:00 P.M.

HB2674 municipal zoning; by right housing (Kaiser: Chavez) preempts zoning and land use restrictions for most single- and multi-family construction. Makes cities' general plans meaningless. It also prohibits energy conservation requirements for residential construction unless the city or town shows clear and convincing evidence that the energy savings within five years will exceed the cost of the requirements. OPPOSE

This bill would have three big impacts:

• It would take away the ability of municipalities to mandate maximum housing density and building heights in their zoning codes.
• It would greatly reduce the time allowed for a municipality to review development applications and automatically approve the application if the city doesn’t reply in time.
• It would prevent municipalities from mandating energy conservation measures if the costs of those measures aren’t paid for within five years. (The breakeven point for solar, for example, is often greater than five years, so this would prevent a municipality from mandating solar panels on new construction.

DIRECTIONS FOR REQUEST TO SPEAK ACTIONS

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: HB2674). 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.

Request to Speak follow up... Good news for EVs, bad for water...

I wanted to thank those of you who persevered and weighed in on the Request to Speak actions this week. The system was especially slow this weekend. At the Request to Speak training they said it is slow when the system is especially busy. I thought you could use some good news. This week all four of Senator Steele's electric vehicle (EV) bills passed out of the Transportation and Technology Committee. Please consider thanking the senators who helped make that happen including Senators Boyer (voted no on SB1150, but yes on the rest), Gabaldon, Otondo, Pace, Rios, Shope, and, of course, Senator Steele. Be sure to mention if you are a constituent!

Unfortunately, I have some bad news as well. HB2055 passed in committee. This week, please take a minute to call your House members and ask them to oppose HB2055 Harquahala non-expansion area; groundwater transportation (Griffin: Bowers). It 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. This bill awaits floor action in the House. Be sure to tell them that you are their constituent.

 You can find your representatives' phone numbers here (https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=H)

If you don't know what district you are in you can find out here: https://azredistricting.org/districtlocator/

MORE INFORMATION

Arizona's water system for suburban growth heads toward 'train wreck,' Babbitt says - Tucson.com, Jan 26, 2020 Updated Jan 28, 2022

Investors are buying up rural Arizona farmland to sell the water to urban homebuilders - Arizona Republic, Nov. 25, 2021

Banking on Drought: Private Companies See Profits in Southwest Water Shortages - New Times, Feb. 28, 2019

With cutbacks imminent, Arizona and other states scramble to save Colorado River water - Arizona Republic, Nov. 20, 2021

Request to Speak Action: Say no to utility monopolies

The Arizona state legislature is back in session.  On Tuesday HB2101 will be heard in the House Natural Resources, Energy & Water Committee. The point of the bill is to allow changes to the public policy of the state of Arizona from one of competition to a monopoly for the utilities that already serve a particular area. Customers will have no choice on their utility – if they don’t agree with its policies regarding transitioning to clean energy or rate increases.

Please, sign into Request to Speak system and express your opposition for this bill.

HB2101 - electric energy; reliability; public policy – Sponsored by Rep. Gail Griffin

Natural Resources, Energy & Water Committee – Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022

This bill changes the Arizona Constitution that encourages competition and hands over the keys to existing utilities who already aren't factoring in the needs of their constituents.

Also… on the docket for the same committee meeting and worthy of comments in opposition are HB2126, which would eliminate the public comment period and legislative review of changes in hazardous waste disposal fees putting too much power in the hands of an appointed director and HB2055, which would allow utilities to pump groundwater from the Harquahala non-expansion area.

DIRECTIONS FOR REQUEST TO SPEAK ACTIONS

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:SB1150). 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.