Sign petitions to your legislators on bad bills for the environment

For this legislative update we are focusing more on some bills that we think might come to the floor next week, especially two referrals. The referrals cannot be vetoed, so need special attention. Please, sign these petitions from the Sierra Club to urge your legislators to vote "no" on these terrible bills.

Please take action and tell your representatives to oppose SB1221. It sets up an impossible process for establishing basin management areas and codifies current overpumping of rural groundwater.   Learn more and take action here.

HCR2040 public monies; prohibited expenditures (Smith: Biasiucci, Carbone, et al.) is one of those referrals. It would place a measure on the 2024 ballot to prohibit the state or any political subdivision, including universities, to do anything to help reduce global temperatures, have a climate action plan, participate in anything related to reducing meat consumption, etc. It wraps this up with a bow related to prohibiting "furthering Marxist ideologies." It is clearly intended to connect all of these issues and motivate voters who fear that there is a vast conspiracy to make this a better world.    Tell your senator to vote no on HCR2040!

HCR2050 energy source; restriction; prohibition (Griffin: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al) passed out of the Senate Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee along party lines on Thursday. It would put on the 2024 ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit a city, town, county or any other political subdivision of the state from restricting the manufacture, use or sale of a device based on the energy source that is either used to power the device or consumed by the device. Device is not defined, but this is clearly intended to preclude any limits on fossil fuel "devices," including gas. This will make it harder to protect our air, our water, our health, and our communities.    Please send a message to your senator asking them to oppose HCR2050.

Arizona has roughly 28 million acres of federal public lands. These places provide extensive opportunities for recreation and key habitat and corridors for numerous animal species. Public lands provide us with clean air and clean water, and they, like other lands in our state, are all Indigenous lands -- that should be part of the context of what happens with them. The AZ Legislature has frequently sought more control of our federal public lands, attempting to privatize and eliminate or weaken protections for the land, water, and wildlife. These bills have been vetoed by Republican governors and also defeated overwhelmingly on the ballot. Arizonans love our public lands. Please tell your senator to vote no on bills that seek to hinder protection of public lands and waters. Read more about them and take action here. Take action to protect public lands: https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0426717

Urge your Reps to vote "No" on bills that hurt public lands

Bad bill from AZ heading to Washington?! 

After the super long list of bad bills last week, this week's Call to Action is much easier! We've earned it. 

I've included a condensed update taken from the Sierra Club (below) on what went on in the Arizona Legislature last week. But our Call to Action consists of signing the Sierra Club's petition and supporting one bill on the Request to Speak system.

The Arizona Legislature is again launching an attack on public lands and waters via a series of bills and memorials (messages to Congress and the President) asking that no more lands or waters be protected and that current protections be rescinded, and seeking to require legislative permission to protect any additional federal public land. Please send a message to your Arizona Representatives asking them to vote NO on all of these bills!

 
https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/Arizona?actionId=AR0419791

If you would also like to contact your Representative personally, you can find their contact information here: https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/ 

NOTE: Your Reps should be indicated on the petition. But you can look up your district here:  https://irc-az.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/lookup/index.html?appid=424810a4667049388ef6df4f0c73098b

Sign in on the Request to Speak System to support SCR1038.

SCR1038 Arizona state parks heritage fund (Kerr: Shope, Carbone, et al) refers to the ballot a measure to fund the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund from the state lottery for $10 million per year. This basically is reinstating the original funding for this program.

Sign onto the RTS app:
https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

Review RTS directions:
https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE:

This week was challenging as the Arizona Legislature advanced an incredible list of truly awful legislation, targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion; objecting to sustainability in all forms; undermining clean energy; sending messages to repeal a national monument and the law that allows them -- the Antiquities Act; and advancing bills to weaken our water laws.

On Thursday, the House Government Committee passed HB2788 United Nations; sustainable development; prohibition (Jones: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al.) prohibiting Arizona or any of its political subdivisions from adopting the sustainable development agenda of the United Nations, listed above, which means they are objecting to support for ending poverty, support for achieving food security, ensuring healthy lives, achieving gender equality, and protecting the planet and our ability to live on it by objecting to action on climate change and promoting water sustainability.  FYI see UN Sustainable Development Goals (below.) 

They also advanced SB1195, SCR1015, and HCR2040 to prohibit spending dollars on climate, reducing traffic, and a lot more. SCR1015 and HCR2040 would go to the ballot..

Three exceptions to this bad policy blitz, include the following good bills that passed in committee: SCR1038 Arizona state parks heritage fund (Kerr: Shope, Carbone, et al) refers to the ballot a measure to fund the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund from the state lottery for $10 million per year. This basically is reinstating the original funding for this program. SB1346 appropriation; schools; trees (Epstein: Alston, Bravo, et al.) appropriates $400,000 to the Arizona Department of Education for trees to distribute to public schools. HB2367 solid waste; fees; rules (Griffin) authorizes the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to establish various solid waste fees via rulemaking. The current fees in statute are far too low and don't properly fund the programs.

Tell BLM: Protect public lands by stopping to its coal mining plans

END COAL’S TOLL ON OUR PUBLIC LANDS

In April, the Trump administration’s decision to reopen our public lands for coal mining leases was ruled illegal in federal court because it did not consider any science or public input. Now the administration is once more trying to hawk our public lands, but is again ignoring the science and attempting to shut out public input.

The science is clear on the devastating impact that coal mining has on our air, our water, and our climate, and an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose destroying our priceless public lands for the dirtiest form of energy. We need you to speak up now: We only have until June 6 to tell the Bureau of Land Management that our public lands aren’t for sale to coal mining companies.

The Obama administration froze coal leasing on public lands in 2016. When President Trump reversed the moratorium shortly after taking power, Earthjustice took his administration to court and won.

But the administration did not respond to the court’s ruling with a sincere analysis of the harmful impacts of federal coal leasing and of the clean and safe alternatives for meeting our energy needs. Instead, BLM launched a rushed and superficial process which concluded that reopening our public lands to coal mining has “no significant impact.”

The administration’s conclusion is not only willfully wrong — it’s dangerous: 11% of all U.S. climate pollution comes from federal coal production, and burning coal continues to harm our air, our water, our families, and our wildlife — all while cheaper, renewable energy options abound.

Tell BLM to protect people, public lands, and our future by putting a stop to its latest coal mining plans.

- Earth Justice

MORE INFORMATION:

Judge Rebukes Trump's Attack on Public Lands, Rules Coal Mining Push Illegal - Eco Watch, April 22, 2019

Under Trump, Coal Mining Gets New Life on U.S. Lands - New York Times, August 6, 2017

TELL CONGRESS: A DIRTY ENERGY LOBBYIST SHOULDN’T BE TRUSTED WITH PUBLIC LANDS

Urge your senator to reject David Bernhardt

When Ryan Zinke resigned as Secretary of the Interior amid scandal, he walked right into a job at a D.C. lobbying firm. Now another scandal-ridden polluter lobbyist is poised to take his place at the helm.

David Bernhardt, Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Interior, has dedicated his career as a lobbyist and government official to fighting for the worst polluters in the country. Since taking the reins as Acting Secretary of the Interior, he has worked overtime to make it easier for the timber and fossil fuel industries to pillage our public lands and oceans for obscene profits.

We need your help to stop Bernhardt. Tell your senators to oppose this dangerous nomination and demand a nominee who will steward our lands, oceans, and wildlife.

Bernhardt’s tenure at Interior during the Bush administration was marred with scandal. In congressional testimony, he swapped independent government analysis with reports funded by the oil industry. He hasn’t changed at all. Just this week, it was reported that he blocked the release of government analysis that found two pesticides to be so toxic that they “jeopardize the continued existence” of more than 1,200 endangered species, and instead pursued a plan supported by the pesticide industry. Bernhardt’s conflicts of interest run so deep that he carries a notecard to keep track of which former clients he can talk to, and which ones would be ethics violations.

During the government shutdown, he kept our national parks unstaffed even as he diverted resources to approve over 50 offshore drilling permits for a former client. He has launched attacks on the Endangered Species Act, including a shameless attempt to remove federal protections for wolves across the lower 48 states. Worst of all, he marches in lockstep with the administration’s climate denialism, refusing to accept the clear science showing the threat climate change poses to our future.

The fight to stop Bernhardt will come down to just a few key votes in the Senate. Every letter matters — take action and write to your senators today.

More Information:

David Bernhardt as Interior Secretary may be one of the worst things for Arizona - AZ Central