Urge your AZ Reps to Oppose Harmful Power Plant, Transportation & Water Bills

Happy Earth Month!

Heads up for a bunch of veto requests coming next week and throughout the rest of April. There are numerous bills that have passed out of one house or the other along party lines and that are likely to get voted out and land on the Governor's desk. They include bills to weaken the limited groundwater protection we have, bills to give giant gifts to electric utilities and keep coal plants running longer -- or require coal to be replaced by gas, and numerous bills to make voting more difficult or to limit citizen ballot measures.

The Sierra Club has provided handy forms you can fill out to urge your legislators to vote against a bill coming up for a vote. When using these forms, please edit the pre-filled text to reflect your own viewpoint. The following bills are all coming up for floor votes this week.

There are also two harmful transportation bills that are making their way through the Arizona Legislature. SB1086 and SB1092 have already passed out of the Senate along party lines and are about to go to a vote in the House. Please take action and let your representatives know you oppose both bills.

SB1086 transportation system performance; ADOT prohibits the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) from considering or adopting a motor vehicle travel mile reduction target or any other demand management policy or project to reduce traffic. SB1086 limits ADOT's authority to consider integration of roads and vehicles with other forms of transportation, including rail, transit, bicycles, and pedestrians. It states that ADOT must weight ridership on each route for transit so it is no lower than 70 percent of the system average, which could force cities to significantly reduce the number of transit routes. SB1086 is short-sighted and harmful and should be rejected.

SB1092 vehicle mileage; tracking; tax; prohibitions prohibits limits on vehicle miles traveled or any travel reduction program, contrary to air quality requirements. It also prohibits any kind of fee based on vehicle miles traveled, which has been considered as an alternative to gas taxes. Reducing traffic and also integrating planning for roads with accommodating pedestrians and bikes would make our streets safer and could help reduce the high pedestrian death rates in cities like Phoenix and Tucson.

Help Stop Harmful Transportation Bills!

SB1538 corporation commission; non-thermal generating unit (Carroll: Gowan, Shamp, et al) is teed up to come to a vote in the House as well. It requires wind and solar to undergo additional reviews and changes the trigger for the need to get a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility (CEC) from 100 to 200 megawatts (MW). With the 200 MW trigger, most gas plants would no longer need a CEC, allowing for siting of polluting power plants right next to communities without any opportunity for further analysis or for the community to seek conditions to limit the impact.

Stop polluting power plants: Ask your Representatives to Vote No on SB1538!

Help Limit Groundwater Pumping in Arizona!

Arizona’s Groundwater Management Act put in place strong protections by establishing Active Management Areas (AMAs) and Irrigation Non-expansion Areas (INA's) 

Unfortunately, groundwater pumping in areas outside of AMAs and INAs was largely left unregulated. This has allowed massive agricultural and sometimes industrial entities to move in and further deplete precious water resources, contributing to land subsidence (especially in Wilcox), earth fissures, and ever lower groundwater levels that contribute to wells drying up. 

SB1520 Now: Rural Water (Dunn) adds a new third kind of management area that is weaker than the two existing areas. An area designated as a Basin Management Area (BMA) can NEVER be converted to an AMA or IMA in the future. The bill will repeal the already established Wilcox Active Management Area which is the strongest groundwater protection you can have and make it a Basin Management Area.   

Take Action to Protect Rural Water: Tell Your Representatives to Oppose SB1520.

NOTE: The Sierra Club form goes to your Representatives. We suggest that you use their form but edit it to reflect the critical points above. 

Push back on bad bills for our environment, water & voting rights

Here we go. The Arizona legislature is off and running proposing a lot of really bad bills that make it more difficult to protect the environment, conserve water, or even vote. Please, weigh in on these bills on the Request to Speak app.   https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon You can weigh in on these bills anytime while they are still in committee. Since there are so many bills you might want to do the ones earlier in the week first and then do the ones that are being heard later in the week. For example, go ahead and weigh in on SB1068 before it is heard on Monday at 2pm and the bills being heard Tuesday. Or prioritize the ones that are most important to you. (For me that would be water bills. See my NOTE below.)   If you haven't signed up for the system, you can find the form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdjBMoAJrjHD57GGegmdUCKAowcr93K4vQA6a7_AjyElBtrQ/viewform Directions on how to navigate the system: https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html NOTE: From her comments at previous committee meetings, it is clear that Griffin is trying to tie the hands of the ADWR who are just trying to do their job (for example monitoring how much groundwater there is in certain areas.) Developers need to demonstrate a 100 year water supply. Being a realtor, Griffin is always trying to lower that standard.  As you may be aware, Arizona's water laws are really lax. Rural areas are suffering from over-pumping for new development and industrial farms - leaving no water for small family farms and even causing sinkholes in the Wilcox area. New Active Management Areas (AMAs) were enacted to protect Wilcox and Douglas. Griffin has several bills that weaken or even end the AMAs. The Sierra Club also discourages augmentation (bringing water from other locations) because of the environmental impact and the creation of sacrifice zones (hurting the people who live on that land.) I personally agree with them and prefer conservation efforts.  If you would like to learn more about AMAs you can watch this Sierra Club presentation:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cviFTa-nSE Coming up this Week at the Arizona Legislature... Monday, January 27th Senate Federalism Committee at 2:00 PM  Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. Presentation • State and Federal Lands, Danny Martinez SB1068 federal government; land acquisition; consent (Finchem: Angius) requires that the governor and legislature approve any sale or transfer of private land to the federal government. This is ridiculous and has been introduced many times and vetoed many times by both Republican and Democratic governors. OPPOSE Tuesday, January 28th Senate Natural Resources Committee at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. Presentation • Overview of Central Arizona Project, Brenda Burman, General Manager, Central Arizona Project SB1115 demand calculator; rules; conservation code (Dunn) requires the Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) to adopt rules to update ADWR's project demand calculator every five years. This is the spreadsheet used by developers when they apply for a certificate of assured water supply.  The language is very vague. But it appears to be a bill to force ADWR to adopt the Homebuilders' calculations. OPPOSE SB1116 groundwater model; receipt; written findings (Dunn) requires the Director of ADWR to provide notification of receipt within five days and a written response within 60 days to applicants who submit alternative groundwater models. Again, this is a bill for the developers who cannot seem to believe there is not enough water for them to keep sprawling on. OPPOSE SB1119 residential utilities; consumer office; definition (Dunn) defines "represents the interests of" as advocating for the safest and most reliable utility service achievable at the lowest retail electric rate possible. This is a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry. OPPOSE SB1128 air quality; causation; state boundaries (Carroll: Dunn, Kavanagh, et al) While we don't disagree that the attorney general should be allowed to sue any entity outside Arizona when their emissions result in damages to Arizona's air quality, we do disagree with the bill requiring that the Director of ADEQ consider the best interests of taxpayers, transmission of emissions from outside of Arizona, and effects of solar radiation and any associated heat increases when revising a state implementation. This is contrary to the Clean Air Act, which requires the focus to be on public health, not all of these outside factors. OPPOSE SB1134 ADWR; application; review; time frames (Shope) establishes licensing time frames for ADWR to make determinations for applications for new or modified certificates, designations or analyses of assured water supply. These licensing time frames will rush the necessary analysis for these certificates and designations. OPPOSE House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2084 domestic water improvement districts; hauling (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) allows for formation of a domestic water improvement district for purposes of hauling water. Sadly, they focus on providing for water hauling rather than protecting groundwater so they don't have to haul it. OPPOSE HB2086 water improvements program; water hauling (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) allows for water improvement grants to be used for water hauling and storage. OPPOSE HB2088 subsequent AMA; director; removal (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) authorizes the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources to remove designation of a subsequent active management area. Currently, that would just apply to Douglas and Willcox. There is no need for this and once these areas are established the groundwater protections should stay in place. OPPOSE HB2089 subsequent AMA; voters; removal (Griffin: Diaz, Hendrix, et al) allows for removal of a subsequent active management area by the voters ten years after it is established. OPPOSE HB2202 subsequent AMA; previously nonirrigated land (Griffin) allows for previously unirrigated lands to be irrigated, thus increasing groundwater pumping in these active management areas. OPPOSE HB2203 historical water use;  subsequent AMA (Griffin) allows acreage to be irrigated in a subsequent active management area that was irrigated at any time in the last ten years rather than the last five years. It is retroactive so it would apply to the Douglas AMA and would be extremely difficult to prove, plus would likely result in more groundwater pumping.  It is widening the window to pump more groundwater and making it retroactive. (It's more like 13 years.) OPPOSE HB2549 appropriation; subsequent AMA; assistance grants (Diaz: Griffin) appropriates an undetermined amount of money to those in subsequent active management areas for attorneys and such, thus picking the taxpayers' pockets to fund lawsuits to challenge groundwater protections. OPPOSE HB2551 grandfathered right; Willcox AMA; extension (Diaz: Carter P, Griffin) extends the amount of time someone has to file an application for a certificate of grandfathered right with the Department of Water Resources. This was already proposed in the last session, so they've already had sufficient time. OPPOSE HB2570 temporary non-expansion area (Griffin) allows for establishment of temporary non-expansion areas that would limit new irrigated agriculture, but that would expire after ten years. There is also a high bar for even establishing them. We don't need temporary measures that create the illusion that we are really doing something to address the serious groundwater issues we have. OPPOSE  House Regulatory Oversight Committee at 2:00 PM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2056 geoengineering; prohibition (Fink) is a bit over the top relative to how it approaches concerns about geoengineering and seems to go down the conspiracy theory road. We wish they would focus on the climate manipulation that is actually happening -- all the carbon, methane, and other greenhouse gases that are being put into the atmosphere. OPPOSE Wednesday, January 29th   House Government Committee at 9:00 AM Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here. HB2099 governor; attorney general; duties; immigration (Martinez: Biasiucci, Carbone, et al.) requires the governor and attorney general to cooperate with the federal government on immigration issues, read deportations. OPPOSE HB2319 private property; design; regulations; prohibition (Gillette: Carbone, Hendrix, et al) significantly limits cities' ability to adopt regulations that affect individually owned single family lots. The language is overly broad and could undermine protections for the larger community putting property rights above all else. OPPOSE Senate Government Committee at 9:00 AM SB1092 vehicle mileage; tracking; tax; prohibitions (Hoffman: Chaplik, Hendrix, et al) prohibits limits on vehicle miles traveled or any travel reduction program, contrary to air quality requirements. OPPOSE SB1093 government investments; products; fiduciaries; plans (Hoffman: Hendrix, Keshel) prohibits the state treasurer from considering any social factors in state investments. OPPOSE SB1094 business; discrimination prohibition; social criteria (Hoffman: Keshel) prohibits banks, insurance companies, and credit reporting agencies from considering any social or environmental factors. OPPOSE SCR1004 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle mileage (Hoffman: Chaplik, Keshel) refers the provisions of SB1092 to the ballot. OPPOSE House Federalism, Military Affairs, & Elections Committee at 2:00 PM HB2004 voter registration cards; mailing limitation (Gillette) limits county recorders from mailing voter registration cards to people out of state. OPPOSE HB2673 early ballots; deadlines; foreign money (Kolodin: Montenegro) makes it easier to remove people from the active early voting list. OPPOSE HCR2013 early ballots; deadlines; foreign money (Kolodin: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al) refers the provisions of HB2673 to the ballot. OPPOSE House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at 2:00 PM HB2234 Interstate 11; environmental; engineering; study (Martinez: Carter P, Gress) directs the Arizona Department of Transportation to conduct the Tier 2 engineering study for I-11. This freeway would cause great harm by fragmenting habitat and opening up more areas for development. OPPOSE Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee at 2:00 PM SB1052 voter registration; temporary absence (Rogers: Gillette) takes away US citizens' eligibility to vote if they have never resided in the US. It makes no sense that they keep further restricting who can vote. OPPOSE Senate Public Safety Committee at 2:00 PM SB1086 transportation system performance; ADOT (Hoffman: Keshel) de-emphasizes congestion management and promotes mobility as a performance standard and includes specific provisions for how these and other factors are considered. It prohibits ADOT from considering or adopting a motor vehicle travel mile reduction target or any other demand management policy or project to reduce traffic. This is short-sighted and harmful and should be rejected. OPPOSE

Call Legislators on bad transportation and investment bills

 

Next week, few committees are meeting as well as the House and Senate continue to move bills from one chamber to the other. And a bit of good news from this week, SB1502 corporation commission; electric generation resources (Carroll: Kerr, Griffin), which seeks to pre-empt the renewable energy standard or any subsequent clean energy standard at the Arizona Corporation Commission by codifying a weak standard, failed on Third Read in the Senate 14-15-1. It may come back for reconsideration, however, so we are keeping an eye on it.  Both HB2471 and SB1500 (government investments; plans; fiduciaries; products) are moving in the House and Senate. They require a fiduciary to take into account only pecuniary factors when evaluating an investment, so they cannot consider environmental, social, or governance factors. The bills also prescribe requirements and prohibitions relating to the State Treasurer's investments, again prohibiting consideration of anything social or environmental. If you have not done so already, please send a message to your state senator and representatives and ask them to oppose HB2471 and SB1500 by using this link. NOTE: Some legislators may be more inclined to open personal emails or keep tabs of their phone messages.  Here are the links for reaching out to them.  How to find out who your new legislators are: 1) Look up your district by putting in your address here: https://irc-az.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=424810a4667049388ef6df4f0c73098b 2) Use that district to find your state Senator and contact info here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=S 3) Use that district to find your two state Representatives and contact info here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=H It is irresponsible to not include ways to reduce motor vehicle traffic and accommodate other transportation, including bicycles, in our planning and 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) this past week. 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.  Still coming up are the following two bills. Please ask your senator to oppose both of these bills by using the link below. Or you can call or email them. Make sure to mention that you are from their district. 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. https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0382066&id

Ask your senator to oppose bills to hinder reduction of vehicle travel!

It is irresponsible not to include ways to reduce motor vehicle traffic and accommodate other transportation, including bicycles, in our planning and it runs contrary to our air quality plans, which include goals for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT).

Today, the Arizona Senate is considering bills to hinder transit and accommodations for bikes and pedestrians in planning, or any effort to limit vehicle travel. Say no to this cars only approach. Contact your Senator today!

Vehicles in the Phoenix area particularly contribute to air quality issues and reducing VMTs is a key part of our state implementation plans for ozone. In the Phoenix area, more than 50 percent of the ozone is created from vehicles. Cities and counties need to be able to use this tool to reduce VMTs and accommodate bicycles and pedestrians as a way to address reducing emissions. Children, elderly and people with asthma or other respiratory diseases are most vulnerable to ozone pollution. Reducing vehicle travel can make a difference for all of these folks and even those who are otherwise healthy and are not in an at-risk category.

https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0381747

At Environmental Day, my Representative mentioned that she only reads personal emails, not petitions. You might want to contact yours individually.

(To find out who your your new legislators are and their contact info, use links below the bills.)

It can be a quick call to their staffer. Just say your name, and that you are in their district and to vote "No" on the following bad transportation bills.

Please contact your Arizona State Senator and ask them to oppose the following bills.

• 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.

Please use the link and form to send a message to your senator or give your senator a call.

How to find out who your new legislators are:

1) Look up your district by putting in your address here:
https://irc-az.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=424810a4667049388ef6df4f0c73098b

2) Find your state Senator and contact info here:

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

Request to Speak to protect Tucson's Environmental Initiatives

Arizona Legislature's power grab       

This week at the Arizona State Legislature the agendas are much longer as it is the last week to hear bills in committee in the house of origin. That means that with the exception of bills that are assigned to Appropriations, any bill that is not heard in committee this week is dead. Sadly, that includes most of the good environmental bills with the exception of those that relate to parks and trails. But there are some new bills on financing solar, water and energy capital improvements, and supporting a program that supplies produce for SNAP.

The agendas are also filled with amendments called "strike-everything amendments." These amendments cause confusion for many in the public as they allow legislators to take a bill and strike its entire content and replace it with a brand-new bill but keep the same bill number. If you see S/E, that means a strike-everything amendment will be offered.

This week there are several bills that are direct attacks on environmental initiatives. They include bills that would prohibit cities from putting in walking and biking paths or more public transportation. It would outlaw all the effort the city invested in Move Tucson. Another bill prohibits utilities from installing charging stations for electric vehicles. This is crazy! Please, sign into the Request to Speak system to weigh in on them while they are still in committee.

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: At least five 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.

Also, there are also some bills that make it difficult to vote or allow the state legislature to grab power from municipalities and other government agencies. You can find them here:  https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2023/02/request-to-speak-to-save-our-democracy.html

Monday, February 13th

Senate Transportation and Technology at 9:00 AM

• SB1122 transportation tax; election; Maricopa county (Farnsworth: Cook) directs Maricopa County to hold an election for the sales tax for transportation and prescribes how much it will be and what it will be used for, including that 80% will go to freeways. OPPOSE
• SB1245 VLT; cities and towns; counties (Farnsworth) diverts vehicle license tax distributions from counties to the State Treasurer to be apportioned to counties by population and requires distributions to incorporated cities and towns to be used for any purpose related to transportation. This is another erosion of local control and priorities.  OPPOSE
• 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. This in outrageous restriction on the ability for municipalities to reduce vehicular congestion and plan for public transportation.  OPPOSE 
• 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 transportation demand-management policy or project. It would outlaw all the effort that has been put into Move Tucson. OPPOSE
• SB1340 toll roads; conversion; prohibition (Mendez: Burch, Anna Hernandez, et al.) prohibits the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) or a county board of supervisors from converting a publicly funded or maintained street or highway into a toll road. SUPPORT
• SB1697 highways; bicycle paths; walkways; prohibition (Hoffman) prohibits 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. OPPOSE
• SCR1018 prohibit tax; monitoring; vehicle (Hoffman) refers to the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit any fees based on vehicle miles traveled. What a dumb proposal! OPPOSE

House Committee on Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs at 2:00 PM
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2142 produce incentive program; annual appropriation (Dunn: Carbone, Gress, et al.) appropriates $5 million to the Arizona Department of Economic Security to implement the Produce Incentive Program which helps those receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to purchase produce at farmer's markets and similar venues. SUPPORT
• HB2376 agricultural land; foreign ownership; prohibition (Biasiucci: Bliss, Cook, et al.) prohibits selling, leasing or subleasing agricultural state land to a foreign entity. This is not the answer to the water issues on state trust lands. We need to prohibit over pumping by any entity leasing state land, not just foreign.   Neutral with comment
• HB2441 state tree; residential planning (Griffin) says cities and counties cannot limit by ordinance the planting of our state tree, the blue palo verde. Is any community actually doing this? Perhaps it should be directed at HOAs? SUPPORT
• HB2644 appropriation; wolf depredation investigator (Cook: Smith) appropriates an unspecified amount to have a "peace officer" investigate the killing of livestock by wolves. Why would you have someone who knows nothing about wolves or livestock investigate this? OPPOSE
• HB2806 state parks heritage fund; appropriation (Carbone: Biasiucci, Blattman, et al.) makes a one time appropriation of $10 million to the State Parks Heritage Fund. While we support this, we would rather see SB1224 adopted as it includes ongoing funding for the Heritage Fund from the lottery. SUPPORT

Tuesday, February 14th

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

• HB2440 electric energy; power companies; priorities (Griffin) requires electric utilities to prioritize grid reliability and affordability in planning. There is no reason to limit this to just these two factors. What about climate considerations?  OPPOSE
• HB2618 decommissioning; solar and wind; standards (Griffin) proscribes requirements for solar and wind facilities, including decommissioning. The bill revises ARS Title 30, but Title 30 has no provisions regulating the building or decommissioning of coal or gas facilities. Why are renewable resources being singled out?  OPPOSE
• HB2669 solid waste; sludge; water quality (Dunn) will have a strike-everything amendment on prohibition; biosolids; land application includes limits on the application of biosolids. SUPPORT
• HB2702 energy projects; grazing operations; compensation (Nguyen: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al.) says those with solar leases that affect grazing have to pay the livestock interests for various items (even on state lands). OPPOSE
• HCM2008 air quality; ozone standards; opposing (Carbone) asks Congress and the Biden administration to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing any sanctions on Arizona for not meeting clean air requirements. OPPOSE

Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM

• SB1714 appropriation; Arizona trail fund (Gowan: Shamp, Shope) appropriates $250,000 for the Arizona Trail. SUPPORT

Wednesday, February 15th

Senate Committee on Commerce at 8:30 AM

• SB1308 fireworks; aerial devices; retailers; licensure (Gowan) legalizes aerial fireworks. Just what we need, more fires and more distressed animals and people. Gowan is in the fireworks business, by the way. OPPOSE
• SB1501 electric vehicle charging stations (Carroll: Gowan, Kaiser, et al.) prohibits utilities from installing charging stations for electric vehicles. We need utilities to be part of the solution to transportation electrification. OPPOSE

Senate Committee on Government at 9:30 AM

• SB1500 government investments; fiduciaries; pecuniary benefit (Carroll: Bennett, Gowan, et al.) requires a fiduciary to take into account only pecuniary factors when evaluating an investment, so they cannot consider environmental or social factors. Prescribes requirements and prohibitions relating to the State Treasurer's investments. OPPOSE
• SB1611 public entities; contracts; prohibition (Kern) prohibits government entities from entering into contracts with an entity that might consider social and environmental factors. OPPOSE
• SB1651 water; energy; financing program (Borrelli) establishes a commercial property assessed clean energy program, which provides a financing mechanism for water, energy efficiency and other energy saving and renewable energy investments. SUPPORT

House Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM

• HB2142 produce incentive program; annual appropriation (Dunn: Carbone, Gress, et al.) See above.
• HB2374 state lake improvement fund; appropriation (Griffin) See above.
• HB2518 appropriation; Glassford Dells regional park (Bliss) appropriates $3.5 million for this park provided that Yavapai County, Prescott, and Prescott Valley come up with a match. SUPPORT

House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure at 2:00 PM

• HB2411 water supply; elimination; reduction; damages (Cook: Martinez, Toma, et al.) seeks to force Scottsdale to serve water to Rio Verde, thus rewarding irresponsible development. It requires a city that provided water to customers outside the city's service area and reduced or terminated that service to make the same reduction or termination of water supply to the mayor and members of the city council and says the city is liable for damages incurred because of the termination of service. OPPOSE

Thursday, February 16th

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

• SB1390 water infrastructure finance authority; amendments (Kerr) is a "clean-up" 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. It includes several provisions we are concerned about, including a conflict of interest and who is eligible for conservation grants. 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
• SB1502 corporation commission; electric generation resources (Carroll: Kerr, Griffin) seeks to pre-empt the renewable energy standard at the Arizona Corporation Commission with one that is weaker and requires the lowest cost resource. It includes nuclear power on the list of clean resources. OPPOSE