Thank Governor Hobbs for vetoing the "Dry" wash bill. Urge Reps to OPPOSE bad appliance & transportation bills

 

Gov. Hobbs vetoed a bill that would have allowed owners to pollute "dry" washes on their own land. 

I want to thank those of you who weighed in on the many bills in the Request to Speak system this session. I know it was a lot. As this legislative session comes to an end, I have some good news and some bad news. Let's start with the bad... Some bills that we OPPOSED are still going for a vote in the house.  You can find information on the petitions the Sierra Club supplied below. (Or my last Call to Action.) I recommend that you email or call your Reps - as some are more inclined to consider personal messages.  Contact links can be found at the bottom of this Call to Action.   

Now the good news... This week, Governor Hobbs inked up her veto stamp and among the bills she vetoed were two bills that we had opposed. The first was HB2056 dry washes; permit program exemption (Diaz: Carbone, Dunn, et al.), which says dry washes, arroyos, swales, etc. and other similar features are not considered protected surface waters. Water is too precious in our state to risk it with this type of bill. YES! 

 Please thank Governor Hobbs for this veto.

The Governor also vetoed HB2437 transmission lines; applications; exceptions (Griffin), which exempts a transmission line that is entirely on private land from being required to obtain a certificate of environmental compatibility from the Arizona Power Plant and Line Siting Committee, so there would be no environmental review. We appreciate this veto, but unfortunately she then signed  HB2496 transmission lines; definition (Griffin), which exempts transmission lines one mile or shorter from that same process, so no environmental review. The reasons outlined in her veto message on HB2437 could equally apply to HB2496.

Please send a message to your Representatives asking them to oppose the strike-everything amendment on SB1278. It could come to the House floor at any time. This measure would take away local control on home appliances and limit local leaders’ ability to establish local building code provisions related to affordability, energy, and public health. 

 

Please tell your Arizona representatives to vote NO on SB1278.
 

Several of the bills to undermine public transportation, hinder accommodation of bicycles, and limit any efforts to reduce traffic advanced in the Arizona House this week. 

Please contact your representatives and ask them to oppose SB1312, SB1313, SB1314, and SCR1018.

Your Representatives Contact information can be found here: 

https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=H

Look up your district by putting in your address here:

https://irc-az.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=424810a4667049388ef6df4f0c73098b

Push back on the AZ Legislature's Bad Plan for Arizona!

AZ Legislature's plan for Tucson!

Only the Appropriations committees and Rules committees will be meeting next week, so I am only recommending four bills to weigh in on with Request to Speak. (See bottom of page.) This looks like a lot to do, but there are really only three other actions and the Sierra Club has included helpful links. (It looks long because I’ve included the description of the bills.)

Last week, there were several strike-everything amendments where they replace a bill with an entirely new bill via an amendment. Some of those did not advance, including SB1104 relating to a weak renewable energy standard. It was held and therefore is dead for the session.

The strike-everything amendment did get added to SB1278. This measure would take away local control on home appliances and limit local leaders’ ability to establish building code provisions related to affordability, energy, and public health.  

1) Help stop this bad striker by sending a message to your AZ representatives here. 

Lots of reasons to fight this bill:

·     It could prevent local governments from adopting codes and ordinances that improve indoor air quality. 

·     It could prevent the adoption of future building energy codes that require ventilation of gas stoves to improve public health. 

·    It could restrict the adoption of codes, plans, or ordinances that plan for all-electric homes to reduce the costs of building development. 

·     It could effectively prohibit the adoption of the International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) and regulate hazardous chemical release from appliances found in the International Bulk Chemical Code (IBC Code). 

·    It could apply to any appliances that use electricity and fuel regulated by local governments, such as smoke detectors, circuit breakers, and building exit signs while allowing HVAC or refrigeration systems to use high-explosive refrigerants if the manufacturer included them. 

·    It could prevent local governments from regulating appliances like gas stoves that emit a variety of toxic gasses, including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde. These can contribute to respiratory issues, harm children’s lung growth, and lead to heart disease and cancer. 

·    It could prevent water utilities from providing rebates for efficient sprinklers and faucets when Arizona is in a water crisis.

·     It could also prevent the adoption of several other codes, including the International Mechanical Code, portions of the International Fire Code, the International Plumbing Code, and the International Swimming and Spa code.

2) This week, two harmful transmission line siting bills passed out of the Senate along party lines and are on their way to the Governor's desk.

HB2437 transmission lines; applications; exceptions (Griffin) exempts a transmission line that is entirely on private land from being required to obtain a certificate of environmental compatibility from the Arizona Power Plant and Line Siting Committee, so there would be no environmental review. 

HB2496 transmission lines; definition (Griffin) changes the definition of a transmission line to include only those lines that are one mile are longer. This means the siting of the lines that are less than one mile would have no review by the Arizona Power Plant and Line Siting Committee. 

Please contact the Governor and ask her to veto both HB2437 and HB2496!

3) Keep up the pressure to oppose bills that undermine public transportation, accommodation of bicycles, and any efforts to reduce traffic.

Please ask your representatives to oppose SB1312, SB1313, SB1314, and SCR1018.

It is irresponsible to not include ways to reduce motor vehicle traffic and accommodate other transportation, including bicycles, in our planning. It runs contrary to our air quality plans, which include goals for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Unfortunately, the Arizona Legislature is seeking to limit local government and the Arizona Department of Transportation's (ADOT) ability to plan for transit and bikes and reduce vehicle travel. Already, the Arizona Senate passed the following two bills along party lines (16-13-1). All four of these bills are still in the House.

·     SB1313 general plan; transportation; independent study (Hoffman) prohibits general plans from including policies or projects that reduce vehicle traffic and removes element from the general plan regarding multimodal transportation. 

·    SB1314 transportation system performance; ADOT (Hoffman) changes performance factors to de-emphasize congestion relief and connecting with multi-modal transportation, plus prohibits adopting a motor vehicle travel mile reduction target or any other demand-management policy or project. 

·     SB1697 highways; bicycle paths; walkways; prohibition (Hoffman) prohibits the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) from planning, designing, or constructing bicycle paths or pedestrian walkways and accepting federal monies conditioned on the design and construction of a bicycle path or pedestrian walkway. 

·   SCR1018 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle (Hoffman) refers to the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit any fees based on vehicle miles traveled. As we reduce reliance on gasoline and gasoline-powered vehicles, gas tax revenues will decrease and other ways to fund road maintenance are needed such as looking at vehicle miles traveled.

SIGN ON TO REQUEST TO SPEAK (while the following bills are in committee)

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

Monday, April 3rd

House Committee on Appropriations at 10:00 AM

• SB1001 pronouns; biological sex; school policies (Kavanagh) prohibits a public school employee from knowingly addressing a student under the age of 18 by a pronoun that differs from the pronoun that aligns with the student's biological sex or a first name that differs from the student's official school records without written parental permission. A social justice issue and common courtesy. OPPOSE
• SB1244 appropriations; crime victim notification fund (Kavanagh) will have a strike-everything amendments on S/E: tax credit extension; affordable housing includes $10 million tax credits for affordable housing. SUPPORT

Tuesday, April 4th

Senate Committee on Appropriations at 1:00 PM

• HB2218 technical correction; power authority; monies (now: power authority; projects; energy storage) (Griffin) authorizes the Arizona Power Authority to acquire, build and operate facilities, projects and works to store electric power. SUPPORT
• HB2763 appropriation; Mohave wash recharge basin (Gillette: Biasiucci, Cook) appropriates just over $4 million for this project. SUPPORT

Push back on Legislative Overreach on Voting, Water and Environmental Protections

Two bills that cut the public out of the process for certain transmission lines advanced out of the Senate Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee and will likely go to the floor of the Senate next week.

 

HB2437 transmission lines; applications; exceptions (Griffin) exempts a transmission line that is entirely on private land from being required to obtain a certificate of environmental compatibility from the Arizona Power Plant and Line Siting Committee, so there would be no environmental review.

 

HB2496 transmission lines; definition (Griffin) changes the definition of a transmission line to include lines that are more than one mile. This means they would have no review by the Arizona Power Plant and Line Siting Committee. We tried to get this amended to address our concerns, to provide a way to trigger review, but the bill sponsor would not even consider it.

 

Please contact your senator and ask them to oppose both HB2437 and HB2496!

https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0383405

NOTE: a personal email or phone call is more effective with some senators. 

Contact information here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=S

Please, sign in on the Request to Speak system to push back against legislative overreach including bills that make it more difficult to vote or enact environmentally sound policies on transportation and water conservation.

 

Sign in on Request to Speak system here:  https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

Tuesday, March 14th

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

•  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 of water from other locations and instate storage. This would put even more resources into augmentation versus conservation. Why not have this person focus on that? Or on adjudications of water rights? Or on establishing additional active management areas or irrigation non-expansion areas? Or any of the myriad water issues that would help us better be prepared and help address our water shortages. This bill has no additional funding for this position either. OPPOSE
• SB1390 water infrastructure finance authority; amendments (Kerr) is a "trailer" bill for last year's massive bill on the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority that set up an augmentation program and provided some funding for water conservation. SB1390 changes the definition of eligible entities for the conservation grants to private entities and to natural resource conservation districts (NRCDs). The bill should be amended to add Tribes, but not to add NRCDs or private water companies. NRCDs represent industrial agriculture and large ranches, not the broader public and many have advocated against environmental protection. Private water companies are for profit entities, so they should not be accessing these public dollars to bump up their profits. OPPOSE

Wednesday, March 15th

House Committee on House Ways and Means at 9:00 AM

• SCR1018 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle mileage (Hoffman) refers to the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit any fees based on vehicle miles traveled. As we reduce reliance on gasoline and gasoline-powered vehicles, gas tax revenues will decrease and other ways to fund road maintenance are needed such as looking at vehicle miles traveled. OPPOSE

House Committee on Government at 9:30 AM

• SB1021 attorney general; legislature; legal challenges (Kavanagh) requires the attorney general to defend all laws passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. OPPOSE

House Committee on Municipal Oversight and Elections at 2:00 PM

• SB1074 election; contest; technical correction (NOW: tabulating equipment; standards; source codes) (Borrelli) prohibits the use of electronic voting equipment as the primary method for tabulating votes election unless certain requirements are met – and the requirements were written by someone who obviously has no knowledge or experience with cybersecurity or voting systems. Or, perhaps that’s the point: no electronic voting system could possibly meet the requirements of this bill. OPPOSE
• SB1095 early ballot envelope; notice (Carroll: Gowan: Livingston) requires an early ballot envelope to include a statement that says the election will be delayed if you return your ballot after the Friday before the election, which could discourage people returning early ballots. OPPOSE 
• SB1170 ballot drop boxes; prohibition (NOW: ballot drop boxes; requirements; appropriation) (Hoffman: Borrelli, Farnsworth, et al.) prohibits unmonitored drop boxes. OPPOSE
• SB1565 ballot processing; electronic adjudication; limitation (Carroll: Bennett, Gowan, et al.) prohibits the use of machines, devices, firmware or software that contain artificial intelligence or learning hardware, firmware or software for an election. This seems to be too broad since the AI may be part of the system to ensure ballot markings are more accurately tabulated. OPPOSE

Thursday, March 16th

Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 9:30 AM

• HB2056 dry washes; permit program exemption (Diaz: Carbone, Dunn, et al.) says dry washes, arroyos, swales, etc. and other similar features on private property are exempt from state permitting relative to dredge and fill and are not considered protected surface waters. While the state does not currently have a dredge and fill program for washes, prohibiting these ephemeral waters from being protected is a bad idea as it could send a confusing message to those with washes through their property and it sends a very bad message about desert washes, failing to recognize their significant values, especially here in the Desert Southwest. OPPOSE
• HB2440 electric energy; power companies; priorities  (Griffin) requires electric utilities (both public service companies such as Arizona Public Service and Tucson Electric Power and public power entities such as Salt River Project) to prioritize grid reliability and affordability in planning, procurement, etc. It requires that they provide electric service at just and reasonable rates. The latter requirement is unnecessary for public service corporations and also may create constitutional conflicts as the Arizona Constitution in Article 15, section 3, requires the Arizona Corporation Commission to establish just and reasonable rates. There is no reason to limit planning and procurement to just these two factors as there are significant other issues to be considered in planning, including sustainability. The ACC also has extensive integrated resource plan rules with which this provision may conflict and certainly will create confusion. OPPOSE
• HB2441 state tree; residential planning (Griffin) prohibits cities and counties from adopting or enforcing a land use regulation that prohibits or restricts the use of palo verde in a residential housing development. SUPPORT