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Legislative Updates 2007Sierra Club 2007 Legislative Update #13 "We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road—the one "less traveled by"—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth." — Rachel Carson March 30, 2007 Hello Conservation Friends! They are finally finished with most of their committee work at the Legislature. They will continue to hear bills in Appropriations and executive nominations in one or two other Senate committees, but other than that they will be focusing on moving bills through the Committee of the Whole and to final vote. Legislators are also supposed to be getting serious about the budget, the only thing they really have to do each year. This week, please call your senator and ask her/him to support the following energy measures: HB2491 solar energy tax credit; application (Mason, Boone: Anderson, et al.) is merely a technical correction bill to clarify the commercial solar energy tax credit program established last year, so the credit can be claimed by a third party who finances the solar installation. This will help to support installation of more solar on state buildings, schools, etc. HB2496 schools; energy and water savings (Mason, J. Burns, Aboud, et al.) creates an energy and water savings mechanism which allows schools to use the cost savings in maintenance and operations portion of their budgets to pay for capital investments in energy or water saving measures and to use dollars from utility companies to pay for water and energy saving measures. This provides an opportunity for schools to invest in cost-effective measures that save money, energy, and water over time. HB2638 local energy plans (Cajero Bedford, Bradley, Mason, et al.) adds an energy element to cities’ general plans and counties’ comprehensive plans to encourage and reward efficient use of energy. Go to http://azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp?Body=S to email Arizona Senators or to find their direct office phone number. If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your Senator’s office toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 926-3559 and ask to be connected to your Senator. Please also continue to call your Arizona State Representatives and ask them to oppose SB1119 overlapping service area providers (C. Gray, Aguirre, Harper, et al.). This bill will undercut water conservation efforts in many cities and towns, but is particularly aimed at Gilbert. If this passes, it means that anyone who is part of the irrigation district is not subject to any of the city or town’s ordinances or regulations relative to water. It is a terrible bill and bad precedent. Legislators should reject it. To contact your representatives, go to http://www.azleg.gov/memberRoster.asp?Body=H or in the Phoenix area call (602) 926-4221, in Tucson you can call (520) 398-6000 or for any area outside the Phoenix area, call toll free 1-800-352-8404 and ask to be connected to your legislator’s office. The good news: HB2338 initiative and referendum; disclosure (Adams: Anderson, Crandall) would have made it more difficult for grassroots entities to participate and promote citizen initiatives. It was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee 1-5. Please thank Senators Cheuvront, Gould, Hale, Miranda, and Waring for voting no on this measure. Jennifer Martin was finally confirmed by the Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee. The full Senate must still take action on her confirmation, however. The bad news: HCM2008 urge protection; Kofa herd (JP Weiers, Nelson, Aguirre, et al) passed out of the Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee with just one no vote. Thank is a “postcard” to congress asking them to affirm that Game and Fish should be able to kill mountain lions in the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge. They are trying to once again blame the decline in bighorn sheep on lions, despite no evidence to support that. While these postcards do not change law, it is a bad idea to just let this inaccurate information stand. OPPOSE. HB2369 NOW: temporary signage; preemption; abatement (Robson) is still moving through the process, although it was retained on the Senate C.O.W. calendar this week. It preempts municipalities from regulating these advertising schemes via sign walkers on and along our public rights-of-way while at the same time mandating a permitting system whose proceeds would not cover the cost of the service delivery but would be deposited in a "beautification" fund. OPPOSE. HB2692 water supply development revolving fund (Mason, Ableser, Saradnik, et al.) establishes a water development revolving fund for the purpose of providing financial assistance to water providers for water supply development. This bill is another mechanism for fueling urban, suburban, and rural sprawl. It does not provide any protections for stream or river flows and therefore could be used by Prescott or Prescott Valley to pipe from the Big Chino and dry up the upper portion of the Verde River. OPPOSE. HB2019 county insurance; technical correction (McClure) S/E Upper San Pedro Water District and SB1001 general election ballots; technical correction (Bee) S/E: Upper San Pedro Water District both establish a district for a portion of the upper San Pedro groundwater basin. Neither strike-everything amendment actually mentions the San Pedro River, however, nor do they include specific language to protect the river flows. Even the findings do not mention the importance of keeping the San Pedro flowing. The goal of the district in the strike-everything on SB1001 is to achieve the goal specified in the 2005 report to congress titled "Water Management of the Regional Aquifer in the Sierra Vista Subwatershed, Arizona" from the United States Department of the Interior in cooperation with the Upper San Pedro Partnership. While the report makes it clear that the goal is sustainable yield, the definition of sustainable yield is unclear. OPPOSE. The “it’s too soon to tell” news: SB1552 air quality program (Allen, Huppenthal) includes very limited provisions to improve air quality including some minimal regulation of leaf blowers, alternative work hours, and no burn expansion provisions. It was amended to require a dust-free development certification program and to limit off-road vehicle activities on high pollution days, but a lot of the really big issues have not been addressed. We support adding an amendment that will protect public health by expanding the nonattainment area, requiring developers to do more to limit dust via indirect emissions impact fees, requiring agriculture to limit tilling on bad air days, and placing further limitations on leaf blowers; as well as measures limiting ozone pollution. We also would like to see the cumulative impacts analysis included in this bill to address issues with sand and gravel operations. HCR2039 NOW: state trust lands; public use (Nelson) refers to the ballot a constitutional amendment which represents an attempt by various interests to try and conserve some of the urban state trust lands, including lands in Scottsdale, Pima County, Coconino County, etc. It includes about 195,000 acres, all of which would have to be bought at true value, but without auction. This measure would not be comprehensive reform or address rural lands, but could conserve the urban state trust lands that communities have been trying to protect. The pre-1968 easements can be conveyed without the trust receiving any compensation per this measure. New rights-of-way could also be conveyed without auction. Some of the proponents of the bill are attempting to work out concerns with the Arizona Education Association. We are monitoring this and trying to ensure that the bill is not a Christmas tree of bad ideas for the Trust and that it actually conserves some land. HB2312 state air quality rules; hearing (Barnes) had a strike everything on state trust land conservation lands. It moves the specific lands addressed in HCR2039 into session law. There is a reference to this in HCR2039. Here is what is coming up in Committee this week: Tuesday, April 3 Senate Appropriations Committee at 1:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 109 HB2443 NOW: user fee; off-highway vehicles (JP Weiers) establishes a user fee for off-road vehicles. While we support increasing funding for law enforcement and the safety provisions in the bill as well as the language that prescribes where these vehicles are allowed and where they are not allowed, we still have some concerns about the allocation of the 60 percent of the dollars that will go to grants administered by Arizona State Parks. Our main concern is that these grants will be used to open new areas to off-road vehicle activities and to promote a use on the land that is decimating wildlife habitat, destroying vegetation, and promoting soil erosion. We would like to see the dollars for these grants targeted to mitigation and restoration and used for trails only in areas that are currently used and appropriate for ORV use. For more information on bills we are tracking, go to http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/. To email legislators go to http://www.azleg.gov/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.gov.
Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |