Update on bills that weaken our Democracy at AZ Legislator: Call Governor to veto SB 1451

Monday night - well actually very early Tuesday morning, the first session of the 54^th Legislature (FINALLY!) adjourned sine die. This session saw some egregious attacks on democracy, but also glimpses of progress and hope for expanding access to the ballot and fighting corruption. In the coming days, we'll be putting together a full analysis of democracy issues this session. For now, here are some quick updates on bills that were alive until the bitter end.

SB1451 - (Sen. Leach)

On top of the myriad rules that already exist, SB 1451 places technical requirements on paid petition circulators for initiatives. This thinly veiled attempt to make it easier to toss disqualify otherwise valid signatures passed both chambers in the waning days of session and now sits on Gov. Ducey's desk. 

Contact Gov. Ducey: 

Email. engage@az.gov.
Phone. Phoenix: 602.542.4331. Tucson: 520.628.6580.
Address. 1700 West Washington Street. Phoenix, Arizona 85007

https://azgovernor.gov/engage/form/contact-governor-ducey

HCR2005/SCR1023 - (Rep. Kavanagh + Sen. Kerr)

These bills would have referred to the 2020 ballot a question requiring statewide initiatives to hit the statewide 10% threshold in each of the 30 legislative districts - making it nearly impossible for anyone with limited resources to qualify an idea for the ballot. Thankfully, both bills failed to receive a vote in their respective chambers.

 HB2616 - (Rep. Townsend)

Would have imposed unlimited civil fines of $25 per form per day and criminal penalties (up to a four-month jail sentence) on anyone who turned in a voter registration form after an arbitrary deadline. The bill failed to pass the House floor. Simply stated, we don’t think honest actors should face a potential criminal penalty for registering people to vote.

SB1188 - (Sen. Ugenti Rita)

Would purge Arizona voters off of their county's Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL) if they do not vote by mail for two consecutive election cycles. This would have taken the “permanent” out of permanent early voting, and thankfully did not receive a vote on the House floor.

If there's one thing we can say with certainty after this legislative session, it's that the job of protecting democracy is never over. 

- Arizona Advocacy Network 

Sign if you agree: Block Speaker Pelosi's handout to Big Pharma

Petition to House Democrats: "Reject Speaker Pelosi's Big Pharma-friendly plan for arbitration panels and support progressive plans to actually lower drug prices." Add your name:

Even though there are powerful progressive proposals to bring drug prices down, Pelosi's top health care aide spent weeks seeking to cut a deal with the Trump administration. And in a recent meeting of House Democrats, Pelosi officially announced her support for the proposal – and said the House would move on the legislation quickly after the Memorial Day recess.2,3 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just announced her support for a confusing, complicated prescription drug plan that will help Big Pharma continue making billions from high drug prices.1 Tell House Democrats: Don't help Speaker Pelosi reward Big Pharma. Stand with progressives to break Big Pharma monopolies. Click here to sign the petition. Earlier this year, Pelosi's top health policy aide assured industry executives they didn't need to worry about Medicare for All. Another advisor is a lobbyist for pharmaceutical benefit managers and represents many of the same companies running attack ads opposing Medicare for All. This is not a team capable of producing policies that put the American people above corporate interests.4,5 Under the Pelosi plan, the Department of Health and Human Services would negotiate with Big Pharma on only 25 drug prices each year. If they cannot come to an agreement, another agency would set a price through some undisclosed and potentially corporate-friendly process. The next year, Big Pharma could raise the price all over again.6 It's not like Pelosi doesn't have other options. CREDO members have spoken out in force in support of several truly progressive plans to break the power of Big Pharma monopolies and lower drug prices. Sen. Warren's plan would direct the government to manufacture generic drugs. Sens. Sanders and Merkley and Rep. Ro Khanna would force companies to follow international average prices or face tough consequences. Rep. Lloyd Doggett's bill would allow Medicare to negotiate discounts, and let the government issue a license to a competitor to produce a generic version of the drug if Big Pharma refuses to negotiate in good faith.7,8 Pelosi's preferred plan is a giveaway that would allow Big Pharma to maintain its bloodsucking grip on our medical system – and she needs to hear immediately from progressives and her fellow Democrats how terrible her approach is. Can you add your name today to tell House Democrats not to help Speaker Pelosi reward Big Pharma? Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/pelosi-pharma-house-dems?t=9&akid=32730%2E3130208%2EMRU7Ph - Heidi Hess, CREDO Action Add your name: References: David Dayen, "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Drug Prices," May 24, 2019. Ibid. Zach Carter and Daniel Marans, "Nancy Pelosi Plans To Go Easy On Big Pharma," HuffPost, May 23, 2019. David Dayen, "Nancy Pelosi's Drug-Pricing Talks with the Trump Administration Are About Mediating Fights Between Corporate Interests," The Intercept, April 22, 2019. Carter and Marans, "Democrats Ran On Lowering Drug Prices. Now They Could Cut A Bad Deal With Donald Trump." Dayen, "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Drug Prices." Dayen, "Nancy Pelosi's Drug-Pricing Talks with the Trump Administration Are About Mediating Fights Between Corporate Interests." Carter and Marans, "Democrats Ran On Lowering Drug Prices. Now They Could Cut A Bad Deal With Donald Trump."

Send a Public Comment to EPA: No Water Polluter Loophole

EPA wants to make it easier for polluters to poison our nation’s water. Help us stop the latest assault on our water and health!

Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Trump's EPA have a complete disregard for our water. The latest assault comes on the heels of the Dirty Water Rule and is another handout to polluting industries.

On Monday, April 15, 2019, EPA announced that it would not protect surface waters contaminated with pollution that first moves through groundwater. This is a complete reversal from how EPA and states have acted in the past. The agency has required permits for this type of pollution for decades and it’s reckless to reverse course now.

It makes no sense for the Clean Water Act to cover pollution dumped from a pipe into a river, but not pollution that flows through groundwater into that same river.

Pollution from livestock feedlots, coal ash impoundments, sewage injection wells, pipelines, and other industrial sources can all enter surface waters by way of groundwater first. We can’t protect our surface waters if we allow them to become contaminated by nearby polluted groundwater. This decision ignores the fact EPA has required permits for this type of pollution for decades. And less than three years ago EPA said sewage injected in a well that reaches the ocean through groundwater requires a Clean Water Act permit.

Click here to submit a comment through Clean Water Action here. 

Please, consider personalizing the sample message below by following this link. 

Send to: Administrator Wheeler, Environmental Protection Agency 

Subject: Re: Docket ID No. EPA- HQ-OW-2019-0166

Dear Administrator Wheeler,

I strongly oppose the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision not to protect surface waters contaminated with pollution that first moves through groundwater. EPA and states have required permits for this type of pollution for decades and it’s reckless to reverse course now. It makes no sense for the Clean Water Act to cover pollution dumped from a pipe into a river, but not pollution that flows through groundwater into that same river. 

Your decision is nothing more than a handout to heavy polluting industries and will create a dangerous new loophole in the Clean Water Act. EPA must continue to hold industries accountable for dumping chemicals and other pollutants into groundwater that contaminates our nation’s rivers, lakes, and bays.

Public Comment period ends in June 7, 2019. 

Submit a formal public comment here

Tell Costco: protect the boreal forests. Use recycled pulp in your toilet paper

Toilet paper is destroying Canada’s vast and majestic old-growth Boreal forests, worsening climate change, endangering wildlife, and affecting hundreds of Indigenous communities across the country, and there’s no good reason this should be happening.

According to a new report from NRDC and Stand.earth, Costco’s Kirkland brand is one of the worst offenders. It uses 100% virgin pulp when it could be using recycled materials and protecting the forests instead.

Other major tissue producers like Kimberly-Clark, who make Cottonelle, have plans to cut virgin pulp content in half by 2025 and stop millions of acres of pristine boreal forest from being flushed down the toilet. So why is Costco doing nothing?

Toilet paper is Costco's biggest selling item so committing to more recycled content would make a major difference to the boreal forests. Not only that, it would pile on the pressure for stubborn tissue giants like Proctor and Gamble to get on board with making the change. Together we can change the entire tissue industry and protect the precious boreal forests.

Tell Costco to be responsible to the planet and switch to minimum 50% post-consumer recycled materials!

The Canadian boreal forest is the largest intact forest in the world, covering almost 60% of Canada and home to 600 Indigenous communities. The forest is a critical proponent in the fight against climate change, as it stores the carbon equivalent of nearly twice the world’s recoverable oil reserves in its soil.

Over the last twenty years, 28 million acres of Canadian boreal forest have been cut down to make toilet paper, roughly the size of Pennsylvania.

Toilet paper companies don’t have to use virgin pulp. Corporations like Seventh Generation make 100% post-consumer recycled toilet paper and provide a great alternative. It’s time that Costco did the same.

SumOfUs has helped force corporations to use environmentally friendly solutions before. When Starbucks didn't keep its promise to serve a 100% recyclable paper cup, almost 400,000 members just like yourself pressured the world’s largest corporate coffee chain to make good on their promise. And it worked! Working alongside groups like Stand.earth, Starbucks committed to producing a fully recyclable and compostable cup within the next three years.

With Costco, there’s no time to lose. It’s time for it to end its wasteful and destructive practices, and finally put the people and the planet ahead of its own profits.

Will you call on Costco to switch to minimum 50% post-consumer recycled materials?

- Sum of Us

More information

The Issue with Tissue: How the U.S. Is Flushing Forests Away - NRDC. 20 February 2019.

Wiped out: America's love of luxury toilet paper is destroying Canadian forests - The Guardian. 1 March 2019.

Sign petition: Dems, don't increase wasteful military budget

Petition to House and Senate Democrats: "Do not put war profiteers ahead of our local communities. Reduce the budget for the military and oppose any further cuts in spending on domestic priorities." Add your name: House Democrats recently abandoned plans to release a budget proposal after the caucus could not reach an agreement. Corporate Democrats wanted to increase military spending and cut domestic priorities in the process. But progressives held strong and demanded no more damaging cuts. More than half of the federal budget goes to military spending, much of which is wasteful and unnecessary. But corporate Democrats in the House of Representatives want to spend even more.1  We need to stand with progressives and demand that Democrats reduce America's out-of-control military spending. Tell Democrats: Cut military spending. Click here to sign the petition. Democrats must get out from under the thumb of war profiteers and cut at least $200 billion from wasteful military spending. House Democrats are seeking to end years of right-wing austerity. But the corporate wing of the party only wants to end austerity for the military – making even worse cuts to education, transportation, health care, safety and more in the process. That is unacceptable. We will be less safe. More than 120 generals wrote a letter opposing Trump's cuts to the State Department and international aid that would make future wars and conflict more likely. As Trump’s former Secretary of Defense James Mattis once argued, “if you don’t fully fund the State Department, then I need to buy more ammunition.”2 Americans disapprove. A recent poll found that 58% of Americans oppose the Trump plan to increase wasteful military spending. Democrats afraid of their own shadows must realize that redirecting some military spending to higher priorities is a political winner.3 Helps war profiteers, not everyday Americans. Some military families need food stamps to survive. American children face crowded, crumbling schools. Our infrastructure is falling apart. Flint still does not have safe water, and Puerto Rico is still struggling to rebuild. Meanwhile, under the influence of war profiteer lobbyists, Congress repeatedly funds weapon systems that even the military says it does not want.4,5 Some Democrats face the temptation to increase military spending and slash domestic funding in order to show their friends at Washington cocktail parties that they are “serious.” Doing so would leave Democrats complicit in making America sicker, poorer, less prosperous and less educated. We need to declare in no uncertain terms that Democrats must reduce military spending, not increase it. Tell Democrats: Cut military spending. Click here to sign the petition. We do not have a spending problem. We have a wasteful military spending problem. The United States spends more on the military than the next seven countries combined, while priorities that make America safer and more prosperous – like education, health, transportation, housing, veterans’ benefits, diplomacy and dozens of others – must compete for the remaining scraps. Safety net programs like Social Security have their own sources of funding and can be shored up for decades with small fixes and no benefit cuts. The majority of the rest of the budget, so called "discretionary spending," goes to the military. Redirecting war-profiteer handouts to investments that make us safer and more prosperous long term is both common sense and has popular support. Democrats cannot offer a true alternative to Trump if they endorse more wasteful military spending. It’s up to us to drive that point home before it is too late. Tell Democrats: Cut military spending. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/democrats-budget-military-spending?t=10&akid=32673%2E3130208%2ExeUNCS - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Sarah Ferris, Heather Caygle and John Bresnahan, "House Dems cancel vote on budget plan amid internal revolt," POLITICO, April 9, 2019. Alex Morash and Craig Harrington, “Economists And Experts Hammer Trump's Plan To Increase Military Spending At Expense Of Nearly Everything Else,” Media Matters, Feb. 28, 2017. Curt Mills, “Poll: Americans Oppose Defense Budget Increases,” U.S. News & World Report, March 8, 2017. Krissy Clark, “Military families turn to food stamps,” Marketplace, May 25, 2015. William Hartung, “Why Can't We Rein In This Ridiculous Military Spending?” Mother Jones, Oct. 30, 2016. More Information: US Military Budget, Its Components, Challenges, and Growth: Why Military Spending Is More Than You Think It Is - The Balance

Ask Arizona Corporation Commission to increase current renewable energy standard & energy efficiency standards

Ask the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to increase the current renewable energy standard and energy efficiency standards and to actually require that utilities meet them.

If you haven't already, please take a moment to send a message to the ACC in support of requiring 50% clean renewable energy in Arizona by 2028! The current standard of 15% electricity from renewable sources by 2025 is far too low and well below our neighboring states. We also are supporting an increase of the energy efficiency standard to 35% by 2030, an increase of 15% about the current 20% by 2020 standard.

https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/lets-bring-more-clean-energy-to-arizona?promoid=7010Z000001aMrEQAU&ddi=719ESAFB13&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=beyondcoal

For more information on this and how you can help, contact Sandy Bahr at (602) 253-8633 or sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org.

The Sierra Club Energy Program is going to be making a presence at an important upcoming ACC Staff meeting at the Arizona Corporation Commission this Wednesday, where they'll be deciding on whether our Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Standards will be "goals" or real standards, and what that standard (we hope) will be. This will be affecting the rules they are setting now, which will govern Tucson Electric Power's ongoing Rate Case.

We are looking to have a few Tucson people come to Phoenix with us for the meeting, if available, that afternoon, in solidarity with Tucson's clean energy interests. I will be personally be driving up a carpool and I do have a couple more seats open. We will be leaving around 11:30am and returning by 8pm, though hopefully sooner, depending on the proceedings of the ACC open meeting just prior.
Please get in touch with me if you're interested, by office or cell number, listed below.

- Catalina Ross, Energy Coordinator
Sierra Club || Grand Canyon Chapter
Office: 520.867.8683
Cell: 520.312.2849

More reasons for transitioning to clean energy:

It's a social justice issue...

South Tucson disproportionately suffers the consequences of fossil fuel pollution as it is home to all of the dirty industries in that city, including the refurbished gas-fired H. Wilson Sundt Generating Station, which used to burn coal, plus a Superfund site. As a consequence, its Latino community, especially the young, is plagued by pollution-related illnesses, such as asthma and other respiratory issues. Transitioning to clean energy is vital for this area.

Clean Energy Changemakers: Tucson video:

https://youtu.be/mfPfa6TsoYE

Learn more at http://www.beyondcoal.org

ASK GROCERY STORES TO PHASE OUT SINGLE-USE PLASTIC CHECKOUT BAGS

Workers removing plastic bags from recycling machines

As some of you know, Tucson is having a recycling crisis. Because of the contamination in our recycling, it is becoming cost prohibitive to keep the program running. First, they will cut back recycling pickups to twice a month and could raise the cost from the current range of 15 cents to 45 cents per household monthly. That is particularly due to the plastic bags that people try to recycle or bag their recycling items in. Every 2-3 hours, the recycling people have to stop the machine and remove the plastic bags wrapped in the gears by hand!

It is time that we ask grocery stores to take responsibility for getting us hooked on plastic bags in the first place! 

PLEASE, TAKE A MINUTE TO ASK GROCERY STORES TO PHASE OUT

SINGLE-USE PLASTIC CHECKOUT BAGS!

Add your name now

https://petitions.signforgood.com/StopPlasticPollution?code

Every minute, the equivalent of an entire garbage truck of plastic gets dumped into our oceans. That’s 8 MILLION tons entering our oceans each year. We have to act now.
Plastic never goes away – it breaks down, poisoning our environment and marine life. And the situation is dire: Researchers are finding plastic pollution at the deepest depths of the ocean. Vulnerable species like sea turtles and blue whales are being pushed closer to extinction. And without drastic action, by 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish. It’s a recipe for disaster of the highest magnitude.

But we can do something to stop this. Up to 80% of plastic in our oceans comes from land-based sources, including single-use plastic checkout bags: Shoppers worldwide use 500 BILLION checkout bags – and right now, we need your help to pressure corporations to take action and phase-out these single-use plastics. If big grocery chains take action, they can make a huge dent in this crisis.

We’ve already started to make progress: The nation’s largest grocery chain has already committed to phasing out plastic checkout bags. But to truly make a difference, we need grassroots advocates to demand their competitors do the same. Can we count on you to add your name now to demand Albertson’s and Safeway end single-use plastic checkout bags in their stores? The health and vitality of our oceans depend on it – we can’t afford to wait a single moment. Sign the petition and help protect our marine life from deadly plastic pollution!
Petition sponsors:

Clean Water Action
California League of Conservation voters
Daily Kos
Friends of the Earth Action
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Sierra Club

More Information on recycling in Tucson: 

City of Tucson to cut back on recycling pickup in cost-cutting measure

New Rules for Recycling in Tucson