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Legislative Updates 2009Sierra Club 2009 Legislative Update #12 “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” ~William Shakespeare April 10, 2009 Hi all! I am sorry I did not get you an update last week, but I had to leave town on a family emergency. The Legislature did not do much in my absence, however. The House continues to do a few bills in Caucus and Committee of the Whole (COW), but not much, and the Senate is confirming executive appointments. On Monday, the Senate Natural Resources, Infrastructure and Public Debt Committee confirmed Jack Husted to the Game and Fish Commission. I don’t know too much about him, but it appears that as long as you are not a young woman with a young child and no hunting license, you will have no trouble getting confirmed. Legislative leaders are talking about the budget too, mostly via the media and behind closed doors. I expect at some point they will actually have to talk to the rest of the body and the Governor. It continues to look as if it will be June before they finish. This week please call House members and ask them to pass the renewable energy and energy efficiency measures including HB2141, HB2329, HB2335, HB2336, and HB2337. These bills will help reduce energy consumption, promote renewable energy resources, and be good for our economy in that they can help provide jobs. For details on the bills, see the list below. To email your House Members or find their direct phone numbers, click on Arizona House or paste http://www.azleg.gov/memberRoster.asp?Body=H into your browser. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to http://www.vote-smart.org or call the House information desk. 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) 926-4221 (House) and ask them to connect you with your legislators. 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) is on the Rules Committee Agenda for Monday. 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. HB2088 NOW: public conservation monies; transfer; parks (Nichols) appears to be dead, at least for now, as they have been unable to round up a three-fourths vote. It awaits a Third Read in the House. The bill diverts $20 million from the Public Conservation Account in the Land Conservation Fund established by the voters in 1998 when they approved the Growing Smarter Act referred to the ballot by the Arizona Legislature. This amendment is clearly unconstitutional as it in no way furthers the purposes of the “Growing Smarter” measure that went before the voters in 1998. By diverting dollars from this fund, the Legislature hurts both conservation efforts and education – dollars from the Land Conservation Fund go into the Trust to benefit the Trust beneficiaries. The primary beneficiary is public education. OPPOSE. HB2141 homeowners’ associations; sun screens (Ch. Campbell, Meyer, Sinema, et al) awaits action by the House Rules Committee. 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 action in House Rules. 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. SUPPORT. HB2181 dust control practices; technical correction (Konopnicki) has a strike-everything on agricultural best management practices; dairies. 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. There is an amendment, but I do not think it addresses the key problems with the bill. 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. There are many rules that might have an additional cost up front, but save us money later, plus many that have a minimal cost associated with them but have enormous benefits. Prevention is cheaper than trying to clean up or fix things after the fact – consider groundwater contamination, for example. While there is an exemption in the bill for rules that are aimed at preventing an imminent threat to public health and safety, it does not address general threats to public health and safety. Considering the poor air quality in several of urban areas, should we really wait to clean it up? Considering the importance of water in our arid state, shouldn’t we do everything, and as soon as possible, to ensure that it is protected? 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 action in the House Committee of the Whole. 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) was held in the Majority (Republican) Caucus. 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 community facilities districts; renewable energy (Mason) was also held in the Majority Caucus. It has a strike everything amendment on county renewable energy incentive districts. HB2337 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. HB2337 enables schools to install energy and water saving measures, reduce their total utility costs, and use the money saved to pay for the energy and water saving projects. It extends the goal for state agencies to reduce energy use in public buildings to 15% by 2011 (existing goal), 20% by 2015 and 30% by 2020. HB2337 also requires all school districts to reduce energy use by 10% per square foot of floor area by July 1, 2012; 15% by July 1, 2016; and 20% by July 1, 2019; and it requires school districts, community colleges and universities to use products that are certified as Energy Star or certified by the Federal Energy Management Program, unless the products are not cost-effective. By July 1, 2015, all state agencies, universities and school districts must use or purchase at least 10% of their energy from renewable and non-polluting sources. The bill updates Arizona’s appliance standards by adding two new energy efficiency standards not currently covered by federal standards: pool pumps and portable electric spas. SUPPORT. HB2341 renewable energy production tax credit (Mason) awaits action in the House Rules Committee. It establishes a tax credit for renewable energy production. With the state’s budget problems, we should take great care with expanding tax credits. The definition of renewable energy includes some things we have concerns about including animal waste and municipal solid waste. It has proven impossible for industry to develop a combustion process for municipal solid waste, even with a large biomass proportion, that does not produce unacceptable toxic and hazardous air emissions. OPPOSE. HB2373 taxation; biogas facilities (Murphy) was held in the House COW. 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. 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. There were good reasons that Governor Hull vetoed a bill to keep the AROC around – no one has really missed it since. Governor Napolitano vetoed an identical bill last session. The entity is duplicative as there are many mechanisms for resolving issues with the rules currently. Rules are reviewed by assistant attorneys general for compliance with the laws and must go through the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council. 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 initiative and referendum; voter approval (Stevens, Gowan: Antenori, et al) awaits action in the House COW. It has a strike everything on Arizona’s water protection. This is not about 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. Here is what is coming up this week. Monday, April 13, 2009 Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Infrastructure & Public Debt at 1:30 p.m. SHR 109 Executive Nominations Presentations Arizona Department of Agriculture Arizona Department of Transportation – Public-Private Partnerships To email your legislators or find their direct phone numbers, click on Legislators or paste http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp into your browser. If you are not sure who your legislators are, please go to 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. For more information on bills we are tracking, go to http://arizona.sierraclub.org/political_action/tracker/ Thank you!
Sandy Bahr |
2009 Legislative Updates Bill Tracker
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