Request to Speak Actions on Bad Bills on Water & Good Bills for State Parks

This week at the Arizona State Legislature there are some good bills and some bad bills being heard in committee. Please, sign into the Request to Speak system to weigh in on them while they are still in committee. The good bills include those that support recreation and state parks. Most of the bad bills have to do with water management or unfettered development without an adequate water supply. 

Sign into your RTS account here: 

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

Directions for navigating the RTS system here: 
 
http://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html

Helpful hint: Copy the bill number (ex. HB2505) and paste it into the SEARCH PHRASE box. 

NOTE: Three bills from last week's RTS action have moved on to other committees. If you have already weighed in on them, your position is already in the system. No need to do that again. If you haven't, it's even more important that you weigh in now as they are closer to a vote on the floor. I have indicated those bills in red. 

HB2411 hadn't been posted yet when I weighed in on the RTS system last week, so I took this opportunity to OPPOSE it.   

Also, there are also some bills that make it difficult to vote. You can find them here: 

NOTE: Three bills from last week’s Request to Speak action have moved on to another committee. If you have already weighed in on them your response is still in the system, so there is no need to do that again.  If you haven’t, it is even more important that you weigh in now since those bills have moved even closer to a vote on the floor.  I will indicate the repeat bills in red.

There are also some bills that make it more difficult to vote. You can find them here:

https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2023/02/request-to-speak-on-more-bills-that.html

 

Monday, February 6th House Committee on Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM HB2505 outdoor recreation coordinating commission; continuation (Diaz) continues this until 2029. This commission reviews and provides comments on statewide recreation issues for state parks. SUPPORT HB2506 Arizona state parks board; continuation (Diaz) continues state parks until 2029. SUPPORT HB2518 appropriation; Glassford Dells regional park (Bliss) appropriates $3.5 million to the State Parks Board for Prescott and Prescott Valley to establish the Glassford Dells regional park, provided the cities and county provide a match. SUPPORT HCM2002 federal lands; housing shortage (Griffin) sends a message to Congress seeking to open up more public land to development. OPPOSE HCM2004 urging Congress; national forest health (Griffin) has a lot of misinformation about national forests and asks Congress to change the management. OPPOSE Tuesday, February 7th House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2535 private property; wells; regulation; prohibition (Smith: Carter, Chaplik, et al.) says private wells cannot be regulated by cities when property with private wells is incorporated into a city. OPPOSE  HB2561 city water provider; requirements; service (Kolodin: Chaplik, Griffin, et al.) tries to require that Scottsdale continue to provide water to Rio Verde. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM   SB1224 state parks; lottery; heritage fund (Shope) restores the $10 million from lottery dollars for the State Parks Heritage Fund for trails, protecting cultural sites, education, etc. SUPPORT Wednesday, February 8th   House Committee on Government at 9:00 AM . HB2547 zoning ordinances; property rights; costs (Toma) requires cities to adopt individual property rights cost of housing impact statement regarding the impact of any zoning ordinance. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Government at 9:30 AM SB1093 city water provider services (Kavanagh) requires the cities to provide water via standpipes if they have been providing it previously to areas outside the city if certain conditions are met. This is again trying to force Scottsdale to provide water to Rio Verde. OPPOSE House Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here: HB2026 appropriation; on-farm efficiency fund (Dunn) appropriates $30 million to the On-Farm Irrigation Efficiency Fund. Increasing irrigation efficiency is a worthy goal. Unfortunately, no change in the type of crop is allowed, no switch to something less water intensive.  Neutral with comment House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2411 water supply; elimination; reduction; damages (Cook: Martinez, Toma, et al.) tries to make Scottsdale liable for termination of water service to Rio Verde. What they really should be doing is tightening regulation, not proposing this kind of bill to reward wildcat development. OPPOSE Thursday, February 9th Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 9:30 AM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. SB1257 water resources; assistant director (Petersen) requires the Department of Water Resources director to appoint an assistant director that only works with the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority on augmentation. This would put even more resources into augmentation versus conservation. Why not have this person focus on that? OPPOSE SB1392 appropriation; state park; Verde River (Kerr) appropriates an undesignated amount for a state park at the headwaters of the Verde River. It is good to see legislators supporting parks again. SUPPORT SB1714 appropriation; Arizona trail fund (Gowan: Shamp, Shope) appropriates $250,000 for the Arizona Trail Fund. SUPPORT

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 Actions (3/7- 3/9)

Coming Up at the Arizona Legislature this Week

Monday, March 7th Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM HB2237 same day voter registration; prohibition (Hoffman: Barton, Blackman, et al.) prohibits same-day voter registration, even though we don't have it. We should have it. OPPOSE HB2379 election procedures manual; statutory conflict (Bolick) requires the Legislature to provide personnel who are experts in electronic voting system procedures and security to field check and review electronic voting systems and recommend changes. Any provision of the Elections Procedures Manual that conflicts with statute is unenforceable. This is another attempt by the Legislature to grab control of elections from the Secretary of State. OPPOSE House Committee on Military Affairs and Public Safety at 2:00 PM SB1718 appropriation; border security fund (Gowan) appropriates $1,140,800 and 14.5 full-time equivalent positions to the border security fund. Do we really need more border militarization? OPPOSE Tuesday, March 8th House Committee on Education at 2:00 PM SB1246 school buses; electrification; contracts (Boyer)  allows a school district to select preapproved carriers or private parties to provide electric school buses and related infrastructure and services. Adds a member to the School Bus Advisory Council who has expertise in electric transportation. SUPPORT  Senate committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM HB2591 border security fund; administration (Grantham ) is an emergency measure that allows the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to use up to $250,000 from the Border Security Fund each fiscal year to administer the Fund and hire additional staff. OPPOSE  Wednesday, March 9th House Committee on Judiciary at 8:00 AM SB1092 product liability; civil action; limitation (Leach) limits product liability against a product seller that is not also the manufacturer of the product. This will weaken consumer protections. OPPOSE House Committee on Appropriations at 1:30 PM SB1175 noncustodial federal monies; appropriation (Gowan) authorizes the Legislature to appropriate noncustodial federal monies. OPPOSE SB1718  appropriation; border security fund (Gowan) appropriates $1,140,800 and 14.5 full-time equivalent positions to the border security fund. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM  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. Sierra Club does not support groundwater depletion sacrifice zones as was established by this carve out in the Groundwater Management Act. OPPOSE HB2126 hazardous waste program fees (Griffin: Burges) repeals the prohibition on the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) increasing permit fees for hazardous waste facilities and fees for generating and disposing of hazardous waste. This is good because these fees are currently artificially low. SUPPORT HB2129 (now: ADEQ; direct potable reuse; rules) (Griffin) authorizes ADEQ to adopt rules for the direct potable reuse of treated effluent and appropriates $1,500,000 for it. SUPPORT HB2406 water quality fee fund (Griffin) broadens the activities financed by the Water Quality Feed Fund and repeals provisions limiting ADEQ to one-time increases in fees for the Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program and Aquifer Protection Permit Program and allows ADEQ to set fees for these programs' expenses. While we think these programs should at least in part be financed by general funds, ADEQ should be able to raise fees to cover costs. SUPPORT HB2408 Arizona game and fish; continuation (Griffin) continues Arizona Game and Fish for eight years. While we would like to see this agency be more conservation focused, it is a good idea to keep it around. SUPPORT  HB2411  coal combustion residuals program (Griffin) authorizes ADEQ to seek assumption of the coal ash program from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that can be no more stringent than federal regulations. Using federal regulations as the ceiling rather than floor is inappropriate. Arizona should always seek the maximum protections for our waters and public health. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM HB2731 regulatory sandbox; expansion (Kaiser) expands this regulatory sandbox program that allows entities to operate without permits, licenses, or authorizations required by law. Currently, it applies to financial products or services only. This bill opens it up to everything, so we are concerned about the implications for environmental protection and protection of consumers, plus the bill disadvantages those who are operating lawfully and fully complying with permits and licenses. OPPOSE 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: HCR2014). 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.