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Legislative Updates 2002

To: Conservation Friends
From: Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director, Sierra Club
Date: May 14, 2002
Re: Legislative Update #19

Buenos días! Buenas tardes! Buenas noches! Yesterday the legislature wrapped up and approved the motion to sine die. This is good news for all Arizonans. Amazingly enough, the Heritage Fund survived the budget mess, our initiative and referendum rights are intact, and the legislature failed to undercut efforts in Pima County to develop a good conservation plan. The worst of the session involved the State Land Department. One can only hope that a new administration will bring a more responsible land department. This will be the last legislative update for this year, but we will be issuing the legislative environmental report card within the next couple of weeks and will pass that along to you. In the coming months, I encourage you to get involved with helping your favorite candidates for office, help those who are helping to protect Arizona's environment. Thanks for hanging with us for another session and for making those calls, sending those emails, and writing those letters. Your efforts do make a difference. Please take a moment to make a couple more calls.

HB2162 state land; planning and administration (Flake, Gleason, Guenther, et al), the state land department's sprawl bill, passed the House 31-27-2 after several members changed their votes. Please call the governor and ask her to veto this bill. Tell her that HB2162 will only encourage and accommodate sprawl and leap frog development on state trust lands and that this is inconsistent with the stated goals of her Growing Smarter program. You can reach her office at 602-542-4331 or toll free 1-800-253-0883, email her at azgov@azgov.state.az.us, or fax her at 602-542-7601. Any communications should be addressed to:

The Honorable Jane Dee Hull
Governor of Arizona
1700 W. Washington St., 9^th Floor
Phoenix, AZ 85007

Also, please thank the following members for voting no on HB2162: Avelar, Brotherton, Burton Cahill, Camarot, Cardamone, Cheuvront, Cooley, Foster, Giffords, Gullett, Hatch-Miller, Hershberger, Kraft, Landrum Taylor, Leff, Lopez, Loredo, Marsh, May, Miranda, Norris, O'Halleran, Poelstra, Sedillo, Soltero, Tom, and Weason. Special thanks to Representatives O'Halleran, Cardamone, and Giffords for their assistance with trying to fix and in lieu of that, defeat the bill.

On a different note, there is some good news from the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. After strong recommendations from the Department to drop this ill-conceived idea, the Commission voted to suspend efforts to examine the feasibility of predator and furbearer night hunting. Currently, hunting is limited to sunrise to sunset, except for hunting of raccoons. If this night hunting proposal would have moved forward, many species -- badgers, bobcats, beavers, otters, ringtail cats, coyotes, etc. -- could have been hunted with the use of artificial light well after the sunset. Please write and thank commissioners for doing the right thing. Write: Mr. Michael M. Golightly, Chairman, Arizona Game and Fish Commission, 2221 W. Greenway Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85023-4399, Fax (602) 789-3299, or email ljarrett@gf.state.az.us.

HERE IS AN UPDATE ON A FEW BILLS:

HB2032 NOW: county planning; land (Huffman) says that county plans may not prevent, restrict or otherwise regulate the use or occupation of land or improvements for railroad, mining, metallurgical, grazing or general agricultural purposes, if the tract concerned is five or more contiguous acres. It further modifies the provisions that allow counties to purchase or lease development rights. It was amended in a conference committee to include the provisions of SB1353 which establishes the Arizona Agricultural Heritage Commission and the Arizona agricultural heritage fund within the Department of Agriculture, for the purpose of purchasing agricultural easements. This passed in the House and Senate and awaits the governor's signature.

HB2560 air quality fund; control measures (Gullett, Huffman, Loredo, et al) continues the new vehicle emissions in lieu fee and puts it into the air quality fund. The funds can be used for improving or maintaining attainment status and specifically reducing emissions of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, volatile organic compounds, and hazardous air pollutants. The measures that are included in the bill include a voluntary lawn and garden equipment emissions reduction program, a voluntary vehicle repair and retrofit program, the diesel vehicle low emission incentive grant program, and other measures. The governor signed this bill.

HB2585 air quality; regional haze program (Huffman, Allen, Gullett, et al) was signed by the governor. The bill allows the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to begin a regional haze program designed to identify and reduce pollution around Class I areas including places like the Grand Canyon National Park.

HB2622 NOW: hazardous materials; planning; filing (Landrum Taylor, Giffords, Burton Cahill, et al) was signed by the governor. It allows facilities that are subject to the emergency response regulations in cities with 75,000 or more persons to file an electronic format hazardous material inventory statement and hazardous material management plans.

HB2693 NOW: renewable resource study committee (Graf, Chase, Flake, et al) establishes a renewable energy study committee to evaluate state and federal policies that hinder or encourage the use of renewable energy resources. The governor signed this.

Thank you for all your help!

To email legislators go to http://www.arizonasenate.org/members.html for the Senate and to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/members/45leg/house.htm for the House. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to www.vote-smart.org or call the House or Senate information desks. If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your legislator's office toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 542-3559 (Senate) or (602) 542-4221 (House). Correspondence goes to 1700 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890. For more information on legislation go to the web page at www.azleg.state.az.us.

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Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633