|
|
Legislative Updates 2009Sierra Club 2009 Legislative Update #18 "Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." - John Muir May 29, 2009 Hi all! On Monday, it will be June --- and still no budget. This past week the Democrats in the Legislature presented a budget that includes a broader, but lower sales tax, uses the federal stimulus dollars fully, and restores funding to several important environmental programs, including at State Parks. While it may be dead on arrival, as House Minority Leader David Lujan indicated, it has as many votes as any other budget proposal put out. The Republicans have indicated that they plan to vote on their budget, but they still need to round up enough votes to actually pass something. The Governor has no budget (just five talking points), but is planning to spend $225,000 to convince recalcitrant Republicans that they should work with her. I expect the legislative session will continue through the end of June. This week, please contact your legislators and ask them to oppose the substantive policy measures in the Budget Reconciliation Bills (Commonly referred to as BRBs) including the language in the striker on SB1035 that could undermine the Arizona Corporation Commission’s ability to implement good energy policies such as an Energy Efficiency Standard. Ask them to oppose the moratorium on rule-making – that is just another talking point to promote the idea that our economy is in the tank because of regulation. Our economy is in the tank because of lack of regulation. Ask them to oppose the moratorium on development impact fees as well as diverting the impact fee revenue for other purposes. Taxpayers should not have to further subsidize sprawl development. Finally, ask them to restore funding for environmental programs including the Heritage Fund at both Parks and Game and Fish, and to ensure that Parks has an operating budget that allows them to care for the Parks properly as well as keep them open. To email your legislators or find their direct phone numbers, click on HYPERLINK "http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp" Legislators or paste HYPERLINK "http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp" http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp into your browser. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to HYPERLINK "http://www.vote-smart.org" http://www.vote-smart.org 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) and ask them to connect you with your legislators. There are no scheduled committee hearings as of this morning and no floor calendars posted. Here are some bill updates: HB2352 aquifer protection permits; natural gas (Mason) awaits a Third Read in the House. HB2352 exempts Class I and Class II injection wells for natural gas storage from getting aquifer protection permits. It will allow millions of gallons of briny water to be pumped into a deep aquifer thus writing off that aquifer for drinking water in the future. OPPOSE. HB2064 wildlife; guides; wasted meat (Konopnicki) awaits a Third Read in the House. It allows the Game and Fish Commission to suspend a license for up to five years for wasting of game meat. It adds in a definition of wildlife guide. SUPPORT. HB2141 homeowners’ associations; sun screens (Ch. Campbell, Meyer, Sinema, et al) awaits action in the House Committee of the Whole. It prohibits homeowners’ associations and condo associations from preventing the installation or use of solar screens or shade structures that are intended to act as an energy saving device. This will make it easier for homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient. SUPPORT. HB2157 wildlife; aquatic invasive species (McLain, Goodale, Jones, et al) awaits a Third Read in the House. It allows the Game and Fish Department to establish a program for limiting the introduction of nonnative invasive aquatic species such as the Quagga Mussel. This is a good idea, although the floor amendment weakened it a bit. SUPPORT. HB2181 dust control practices; technical correction (Konopnicki) has a strike-everything on agricultural best management practices; dairies. The bill awaits action in the House Committee of the Whole and was retained on the calendar this past week. The striker adds two people the agricultural best management practices committee – someone representing a cattle feedlot and someone representing a dairy – and shifts the regulation of these from the county to this state best management practices committee. The Agricultural Best Management Practices Committee is a classic fox guarding the henhouse committee that is entirely made up of agricultural interests. Members are appointed by the Governor and are responsible for adopting an agricultural general permit that outlines best management practices for regulated agricultural activities in order to reduce particulate (PM-10) emissions. As drafted, the bill will mean backsliding on our state implementation plan for particulates and violates the Clean Air Act. We have always supported requiring more of agriculture. These best management practices are unenforceable, generally speaking, but the state has trouble requiring anything of agriculture. OPPOSE. HB2240 rule making; state agencies; moratorium (Tobin) passed out of the House 36-20-4, so awaits action in the Senate. It puts a moratorium on any rule making until June 30, 2010, if the rule would have any additional costs associated with it for other agencies or for anyone else. This provision is also in the majority budget bills. OPPOSE. HB2259 local development fees; procedures (Biggs) awaits action in the House Committee of the Whole, but they may just let it die as they have the provisions they want in the budget bills. It amends the procedures for the implementation of municipal and county development fees to make it more difficult for communities to assess development impact fees. It also prohibits new municipal development fees for 24-months after final approval of the development and prohibits counties from assessing development fees to schools, except for street, water and sewer utilities improvements. OPPOSE. HB2278 technical correction; state trust lands (Jones) awaits action in the House COW. It has a strike everything amendment on tires; abandoned mines that allows waste tires to be used to fill abandoned mines. This is a recycled bad idea from last year that was rejected. Last year’s bill did allow the filling of these abandoned mines with inert waste materials, however. There are several environmental concerns with filling abandoned mines with tires. First of all, tires are flammable and create a fire hazard. Tire fires produce a lot of smoke and toxic chemicals that are produced when rubber compounds break down via combustion. Tires present a threat to water quality. Many abandoned mines were abandoned because they filled with water. Tires leach hazardous substances into the soil and water as well, especially subsequent to burning. Abandoned mines also provide habitat for bats and other wildlife. Before filling them, we should do an assessment. If bats are utilizing the mine, then a bat-friendly gate should be installed rather than filling with materials. OPPOSE. HB2329 solar energy; permit fees (Boone, Mason) awaits a Third Read in the House. It establishes a maximum fee that can be charged for various solar systems including solar hot water ($150) and solar photo voltaic ($375), plus it includes an inflation factor for the fee and provisions for charging more if it is a more complicated system. The fee cap sunsets in 2013. Right now it is difficult for those who are installing solar panels or solar hot water to know what the fee will be from city to city – it can vary from nothing to $1000. This bill will bring some consistency to that and remove one more barrier to promoting distributed solar energy generation. SUPPORT. HB2332 schools; energy contracts (Boone) awaits a Third Read in the House. It requires the state board of education to adopt rules for energy performance contracts and renewable energy power purchase contracts to purchase energy saving and renewable energy measures. It allows schools to establish an energy and water savings account that consists of a designated pool of capital investment monies to fund energy or water saving projects in school facilities. This bill will help schools save energy, water, and money. SUPPORT. HB2335 improvement districts; renewable energy (Mason) awaits a Third Read in the House. It allows improvement districts to be formed in order to acquire, install, and improve energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements as well as for water conservation. These can include solar energy systems, combined heat and power, rainwater harvesting equipment and systems, and gray water systems. SUPPORT. HB2336 NOW: county renewable energy incentive districts (Mason) awaits a Third Read in the House. It authorizes county boards of supervisors to designate renewable energy incentive districts in any unincorporated area of the counties, provided the areas consist of vacant or underused parcels, or other property the board deems suitable for renewable energy equipment, and are the appropriate size for the construction and operation of renewable energy equipment. It must also be compatible with the surrounding uses. SUPPORT. HB2337 energy standards; buildings; contracting (Mason, Ableser, Ch. Campbell, et al.) awaits action in the House Rules Committee. It includes several of the provisions from last year’s omnibus energy bill. It makes changes and additions to statute relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy, including performance contracting for school districts and state buildings, and building energy goals. It requires cities, towns and counties to collect information as part of their standard permitting process regarding whether a residential or commercial building will meet energy efficiency standards. SUPPORT. HB2373 taxation; biogas facilities (Murphy) awaits a Third Read in the House. It provides a sales tax exemption for pipes and valves included in the construction of pipelines used to transport biogas. It also provides a property valuation reduction for biogas facilities. Biogas facilities would be valued in the same manner as renewable energy equipment. This bill is being promoted for Sempra Energy. Do we really need to be providing massive tax breaks for these large established companies? MONITOR. HB2401 administrative rules oversight committee (Williams, Barnes, Burns, et al) passed out of the House 39-16-5 and awaits action in the Senate. It reestablishes the Administrative Rules Oversight Committee (AROC), a committee that has oversight on rules and consists of 10 legislators and a representative from the governor’s office. This committee was an ineffective mechanism for addressing concerns about rules when it existed previously and merely adds more bureaucracy to an already cumbersome process. OPPOSE. HB2467 western climate initiative; prohibition (Biggs) awaits action in the House COW. It prohibits the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality from participating in the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). The WCI was formed in February 2007 by Governor Napolitano and the governors of California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. The purpose of the WCI is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through regional strategies that address climate change. This is a silly silly bill. OPPOSE. HCR2030 NOW: Arizona’s water protection (Stevens, Gowan: Antenori, et al) was heard in the House Committee of the Whole this week. It has nothing to do with protecting water and in fact is contrary to protecting Arizona’s rivers, streams, and washes. It sends a message to Congress opposing the Clean Water Restoration Act, a measure that would help ensure that the original intent of the Clean Water Act is clear and that Arizona’s rivers and streams continue to have protection under the act. Without it, there is a great deal of fuzziness on whether or not streams that do not run year-round have the kinds of protections they need. OPPOSE. There are no committee hearings that include environmental bills next week, but of course that could change by the end of today. For more information on bills we are tracking, click on HYPERLINK "http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/" Legislative Tracker or paste HYPERLINK "http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/" http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/ into your browser. Thank you for all you do and all of your great support!
Sandy Bahr |
2009 Legislative Updates Bill Tracker
|
|
Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 Sierra Club® and One Earth, One Chance® are registered trademarks of the Sierra Club. |