Sierra Club's Environmental Report Card
Legislature Fails to Make the Grade on Environmental Protection
For immediate release
Monday, May 1, 2000
Contact: Sandy Bahr (602) 253-8633
(Phoenix) Today the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club issued its
2000 Environmental Report Card
for Arizona legislators and the governor.
"Unfortunately, the Arizona legislature once again showed disdain
for environmental protection by failing to adequately protect our air,
water, and land," said Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director
for the Sierra Club. "Legislators and the governor had a great
opportunity to at least address two critical areas -- growth management
and protection of state trust lands -- but they blew it on both counts."
The misnamed "Growing Smarter Plus" package passed by the
legislature included a bill that actually gives developers more leverage
with local government and a referendum for a constitutional amendment
that significantly limits the amount of state trust lands that could
be preserved. In the meantime, a coalition of groups including the Sierra
Club is working to put the Citizens' Growth Management Initiative --
a strong and effective growth management proposal -- on the ballot,
and most of Arizona's conservation groups are opposing the state trust
lands constitutional amendment.
The Sierra Club gave special recognition to Representative Allen and
Senator Cummiskey for their efforts to improve Growing Smarter Plus,
and a failing grade to Senator Bowers for leading the efforts to produce
weak bills that will do little to protect Arizona's natural heritage. "Representative Allen withstood enormous pressure from Republican
leaders, big business interests and developers, to do the right thing
on Growing Smarter Plus and for that, we commend her," said Bahr.
Particularly disappointing this session was Governor Hull's lack of
leadership with respect to environmental protection. She supported a
weak Growing Smarter Plus package and even undercut the efforts of people
like Representative Allen who attempted to improve the state trust lands
measure. The governor also signed several other negative environmental bills including one to weaken recycling efforts.
Even though it was meaningless, she signed a memorial to congress that
denounced the establishment of two new national monuments in Arizona.
Governor Hull says she wants preservation, but her actions belie her
words.
Regarding water quality, legislators did pass a bill to raise the fee
cap for aquifer protection permits; that should help the Arizona Department
of Environmental Quality address the backlog of permits, and get these
facilities operating under more stringent protections. Unfortunately,
that work was undercut to some degree by other measures.
"Legislators have assured that we will continue to have more polluted
water in Arizona by passing a bill that allows the use of pesticides
in Arizona before they have gone through adequate monitoring and testing,
and a measure that makes it difficult to establish pollutant limits
for our state's already impaired lakes, rivers and streams," said
Bahr. "They also neglected restoration efforts and showed they
cannot be trusted to fulfill commitments by failing to fund the Arizona
Water Protection Fund."
A high point in the session was Representative Loredo's work on environmental
justice. A low point was the chilly reception it received from leadership.
And one bright ray of sunshine was passage of a bill that will help
promote solar energy use.
"We want to commend Representative Loredo for his work to advance
the cause of environmental justice," stated Don Steuter, local
conservation chair for the Sierra Club. "We also want to challenge
next year's legislature, the governor, and local elected officials to
get behind efforts to ensure that all Arizonans have a safe and clean
environment and that poor and minority groups are not saddled with the
bulk of this state's toxic and hazardous waste."
Representative Cheuvront and Senators Cunningham, Mitchell, and Richardson
received the highest number of points in the House and Senate respectively.
Other members receiving A's included Representatives Brotherton, Cardamone,
Gonzales, Landrum, Nichols, Norris, and Weason. At the bottom of the
class this year were Representative Johnson and Senate President Burns.
The Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter is a grassroots environmental
organization with more than 12,000 members in Arizona. At the end of
each legislative session it develops the report card in order to inform
Arizonans about how their legislators are voting on environmental issues.
This year's grades were based on 20 House votes (19 bills and one amendment)
and 14 Senate votes on issues ranging from growth management to citizens'
ability to engage in the initiative process. Each vote was assigned
points proportionate to its significance to the Sierra Club; the growth
management bills and the measure to undercut citizens' ability to change
wildlife laws through the initiative process had the most points associated
with them. Unlike other years, this year the Sierra Club used plus and
negative points and counted absences as zero. Attached are the bills
used to develop the grades, as well as a spreadsheet for the House and
the Senate.
Page updated: 05/01/00
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Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E.
McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633
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