Tell Legislators: Don't weaken environmental protections on plastic recycling facilities

Recycling plastics isn't the solution.  We need to reduce our use. But if we are going to recycle, it is important to have strong environmental protections in place for recycling centers. SB1156 weakens environment regulations on certain types of plastic recycling facilities.  

It is likely to go for a vote in the state legislator today (Monday, Feb. 8th). Please, call your senator now!  

SB1156 forfeiture of office; technical correction (now: solid waste; advanced recycling facilities ) is being promoted by the plastics industry and is making the rounds throughout the U.S. It seeks to masquerade the processes outlined as “advanced recycling” and part of a “circular economy,” but instead they are producing more of the same, including the production and burning of fossil fuels, as well as pyrolysis. It exempts these plastics processes, including pyrolysis and conversion of plastic to fuel, from the definition of solid waste, so they are more lightly regulated, and also includes them in the acceptable uses for grants for the Recycling Fund monies. Please call your senator and ask them to vote no. 

 
If you don't know who your Senator is, you can find out what district you are in by putting your zip code in here:  https://azredistricting.org/districtlocator/

Then look up their numbers here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=S

Learn more about our plastic problem:

Solving Microplastic Pollution Means Reducing, Recycling—and Fundamental Rethinking - Scientific American

LEARN ABOUT PLASTIC POLLUTION: THE PROBLEM WITH PLASTICS - Greenpeace 

Request to Speak: On bills that impact the environment and citizen advocacy - ACT NOW for on those for Monday

This past week saw a plethora of bad public policies advance in various committees -- attacks on voting rights, ballot measures, human rights, the Arizona Corporation Commission and clean energy, water, and more. This week promises more of the same. 

REQUEST TO SPEAK ACTIONS

Directions: Sign into your Request to Speak account, click the blue Request to Speak button, click on New Request, then simply cut and paste the bill number (found below) into Search Phrase. (For example: HB2372) 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 SUMMIT. Do it again for the next bill.  

Note: You might wanna go ahead and do Monday's RTS actions NOW - since you must weigh in before or while the are still in committee. 

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 we will have to help you activate it as it requires going to the Capitol. Contact me directly about that or reach out to Civic Engagement Beyond Voting.

Coming Up This Week at the Arizona Legislature

Monday, February 15th House Committee on Military Affairs & Public Safety at 10:00 AM HB2309 violent; disorderly assembly; public order (Roberts: Barton, Biasiucci et al.) increases the penalties for acts committed during a violent or disorderly assembly, including blocking a roadway. It says they lose public benefits too. This is clearly intended to target Black Lives Matter protests. OPPOSE. . House Committee on Land, Agriculture, & Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM  HB2372 agricultural operations; nuisance; liability (Dunn) significantly increases the requirements for bringing a nuisance action against an agricultural operation -- must bring the action within one year of the facility beginning operation and the person must be the property owner -- and it preempts local ordinances relative to regulation of these facilities as a nuisance. This is likely in response to complaints and actions against large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that have significant smell, noise, and excessive lighting. OPPOSE. HB2817 appropriation; hazardous vegetation removal (Lieberman) appropriates $2 million to the Department of Forestry for "hazardous vegetation" removal. Hazardous vegetation is undefined, so we are concerned that this could be used to do harm to habitat that might arbitrarily be deemed "hazardous." HCR2036 clean air act; agriculture; exemption (John: Cook, Dunn, et al.) asks the Congress to exempt agriculture from Clean Air Act requirements related to particulate pollution. Agriculture already has to do much less than other entities relative to its pollution and there are real public health issues associated with particulate pollution. OPPOSE. Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM. SB1102 electric vehicle omnibus; appropriations (Steele) directs the Arizona Department of Administration to conduct a two-year Electric Vehicle Ready Homes Pilot Program and Electric Vehicle Charging Station Pilot Program. It would also appropriate, $500,000 for each of these from the state General Fund. SUPPORT. SB1152 zero emission vehicles; plans; fleet (Steele) requires the Arizona Department of Transportation to develop a Zero Emission Vehicle Plan and a State Zero Emission Motor Vehicle Fleet Plan. Appropriates $500,000 from the state General Fund to acquire telematics technology to develop the State Zero Emission Motor Vehicle Fleet Plan. SUPPORT. SB1713 early ballots; identification; mailing (Mesnard: Ugenti-Rita) requires including date of birth or voter ID or driver's license number and additional ID to be inserted in the return envelope. This is unnecessary and will likely result in additional voters being disqualified. OPPOSE. Senate Committee on Transportation and Technology at 2:00 PM SB1650 transportation tax; election; gas tax (Livingston: Carroll) establishes a new 20-year transportation excise tax in Maricopa County subject to voter approval. Increases, beginning January 1, 2022, and ending December 31, 2045, the statewide gas tax by 1 cent annually and indexes the tax to annual inflation. Requires an annual tax on electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid electric vehicles. The fees on EVs are too high in this bill and not fairly established. OPPOSE. Tuesday, February 16th House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, & Water at 2:00 PM HB2691 groundwater permits; technical correction (Griffin) has a strike-everything amendment on ADEQ; water quality programs; WOTUS that creates an extremely weak surface water quality program that leaves out nearly all ephemeral waters such as desert washes and provides limited protections overall. OPPOSE. HCR2034 Arizona's outdoors; recreation; supporting (Cobb) is a resolution in support of outdoor recreation. SUPPORT. Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM SB1384 state parks; lottery; heritage fund (Shope) appropriates $10 million from the state lottery funds to the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund for local parks, trails, and protection of historic and cultural resources. SUPPORT. House Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM HB2716 licensing; building permits; temporary permits (Griffin) requires cities to approve a building permit within seven days if it is administratively complete and places additional limits on the cities. It would force approval of projects that need more work. OPPOSE. Wednesday February 17th House Committee on Government & Elections at 9:00 AM  HB2373 voter registration groups; forms; identifiers (Dunn) says that anyone who requests or receives 10 or more voter registration forms to place their unique identifier on each form. This will likely cause issues for those who register people more casually such as at high schools and in their neighborhood. It is unnecessary and punitive as it will make the registration invalid if someone forgets to include the identifier. OPPOSE. HB2543 state permitting dashboard (Wilmeth: John, Kaiser, et al.) establishes a state permitting director who would have undue influence on permitting decisions. It would also now refer those decisions to the Governor's Regulatory Review Council, an entity that is basically set up to favor big businesses. Agencies have already had their hands tied relative to ensuring that permits are strong or in actually denying one. We should oppose this new mechanism for making the process even less accountable to the public. OPPOSE. HCR2016 initiatives; supermajority vote requirement (Dunn: Barton, Biasiucci, et al.) refers to the ballot a measure to require a 60 percent vote to approve any ballot measure. OPPOSE. Senate Committee on Finance at 9:00 AM SB1309 property classification; gasoline manufacturing equipment (Shope: Borrelli, Contreras) is a new tax break for facilities that manufacture zero-sulfur gasoline from natural gas. Could we just stop subsidizing fossil fuels already? OPPOSE.  Senate Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM SB1156 forfeiture of office; technical correction (Mesnard) will have a strike-everything amendment on solid waste; advanced recycling facilities. I am quite sure this will be a measure to promote pyrolysis, which is not recycling, but is exposing plastics to very high temperatures. This is making the rounds in other states. OPPOSE. Thursday, February 18th Senate Committee on Judiciary at 9:00 AM SB1459 agency decisions; administrative reviews (Petersen) seeks to treat the Arizona Corporation Commission, a constitutionally established branch of government, the same as other agencies when it comes to appeals of decisions to the courts. OPPOSE.