|
|||
| Political Action |
Legislative Updates 2006"A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing but together can decide that nothing can be done." — Fred Allen. Sierra Club 2006 Legislative Update #22 June 9, 2006 Hello Conservation Friends! The legislative session continues to drag on with no end in sight. The one thing they absolutely must do each session, the budget, is far from getting the necessary votes to pass and be signed by the Governor. It is looking like they may go to the end of June and possibly force a special session on the budget. Meanwhile, I hope you will continue to call them and ask them to pass an environmentally friendly budget that includes funding for the Arizona Water Protection Fund, adequate funding for State Parks so the agency does not have to rob Peter to pay Paul, and the proper lump sum appropriation for the Department of Environmental Quality, so they do not have to severely reduce environmental protection programs. Meanwhile, I want to encourage you to go see An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s new movie on global climate change. It’s a good way to beat the summer heat and learn more about the dangers associated with global warming as well as the solutions. It opens in Phoenix tonight at the Harkins Camelview 5 Theater. It opens in Tucson on June 16 at the El Con. To find out more about the movie and where it is playing go to http://www.climatecrisis.net/ Speaking of global warming, one of the things we can do to limit greenhouse gas emissions is to promote the use of clean renewable energy sources and also to use energy sources as efficiently as possible. This week, please ask Senators to support HB2429 solar energy tax incentives (Mason, Boone, Chase, et al). It establishes commercial solar tax credits that allow a 10% credit for the installation of solar energy devices for commercial or industrial purposes in a trade or business located in Arizona, which is limited at $25,000 with respect to the same building annually and $50,000 annually per company. There is an annual cap of $1.5 million on the commercial tax credit. The bill also changes the law so the value of solar systems will not be added to property tax valuation. SUPPORT. Please also ask your House members to support SB1323 S/E: tax credit; cogeneration (Bee, Aguirre, Bennett, et al). It provides a new individual and corporate income tax credit for 2008 and 2009 for a taxpayer who produces and sells electricity from combined heat and power. The credit is equal to one and a half cents multiplied by the total kilowatt hours of electricity or one and one tenths cents multiplied by the total horsepower hours of power. It includes an overall cap of $2 million dollars and a limit of $500,000 on the maximum tax incentive for any single installation. (This will be amended on the floor to reduce this to $150,000.) The tax credit for a 1 megawatt (MW) project would amount to about $100,000 and it is likely that most projects in Arizona would be less than 1 MW and would include facilities like hospitals, hotels, schools, and industrial users. The key to a more sustainable energy future is for us to become as efficient as possible and also invest heavily in renewable energy. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is a major efficiency measure and is significantly more efficient than generating electricity and thermal energy separately. Some CHP systems are capable of an overall efficiency of over 80 percent. This is double that for conventional systems. Rather than just have the thermal energy wasted, it is recovered and can be used for space heating, hot water, steam, air conditioning, water cooling, product drying, or other thermal energy needs. SUPPORT. Please ask your legislators to oppose SB1550 copper state park (Flake, Brown, Chase, et al) on final passage. This bill establishes a state park near Kearny, but is part of a very bad land swap deal. SB1550 is premature, at best. The measure to facilitate the congressional land swap has not passed out of the Congress. That land swap bill will allow a foreign-owned mining company, Resolution Copper Company (Rio Tinto—55% owner— headquartered in the United Kingdom, and Broken Hill Properties —45% owner—headquartered in Australia) that acquired the old Magma Mine near Superior and is planning to resume mining in the area, to acquire Oak Flats Campground via a congressionally legislated land swap so that they can mine in the area. Oak Flats is an important recreation and cultural area. The land swap is opposed by many environmental organizations as well as the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache tribes. As written, SB1550 would allow Asarco to retain its mining lands in the middle of the park. What kind of park has mining lands in its midst? OPPOSE. To find your legislators’ contact information, just go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MemberRoster.asp For more information on these and other bills go to http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/. Quick Updates: SB1441 S/E: wildlife habitat restoration fund; appropriation (Allen, Arzberger, Bee, et al) gives money to the Game and Fish Commission, but it comes with strings including requiring them to use it for the pet projects of the bill supporters. OPPOSE. It still awaits House Rules action. I have heard it is back in the mix for the budget, but there really is no budget, so who knows. SB1468 Arizona trail (Allen, Arzberger, Flake, et al) appropriates $500,000 for the Arizona trail and memorializes Bob Stump. SUPPORT. It looks like they will get $100,000 for it in the budget. SCR1019 NOW: Private Property Rights Protection Act (Bee, Bennett, R. Burns, et al) refers to the ballot a measure that requires governments to compensate property owners for nearly every zoning or land use decision they make. OPPOSE. It is still unclear what they are going to do with this, but there was a lot of discussion this week about referring something on eminent domain. They would likely also include some bad regulatory takings language as well. HCR2045 state trust land reform (Nelson, Boone, Brown, et al) is a measure to counter the Conserving Arizona’s Future Initiative. While we are not supporting the initiative, we do not think it is appropriate for the Legislature to try and confuse voters in order to defeat it. HCR2045 protects very little land and does not adequately protect the identified lands. OPPOSE. It still awaits action by the Senate Rules. There are still are a few executive nominations awaiting Senate action, including the Game and Fish Commission appointment. Thanks for your help and support! To email legislators go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MemberRoster.asp If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to http://www.vote-smart.org (You will need your 9-digit zipcode.) or call the House or Senate information desks. If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your legislators’ offices toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 926-3559 (Senate) or (602) 926-4221 (House). Correspondence goes to 1700 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890. For more information on legislation go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/. Sandy Bahr Back to 2006 Legislative Updates page Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |