"Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so."
~ Belva Davis
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January 23, 2015

credit:  Dale Volz

Dear Conservation Friends,

Thank you to everyone who came out for Environmental Day at the Capitol on Thursday. We had about 150 people from 25 different legislative districts attend, most of whom met with their legislators. Arizona Interfaith Power and Light hosted a nice interfaith gathering at noon that was well-attended. Thank you also to all of the groups that helped with planning and participation. We really appreciate everyone taking the time to be there and to speak up for environmental protection. Please feel free to join us down at the Capitol on other days throughout the session.

Below is the schedule for next week. As you will see, not that many bills have been assigned yet, but we are expecting a flood in the coming weeks. They have filed several bills to weaken citizen initiative and referendum rights, resurrected bad ideas from previous sessions on wildlife management and public lands, and more. We are evaluating the Governor's budget and will have more details next week.

Next week, we will have action items for you!

•  Presentation on Revenue Forecast Development by JLBC staff and OSPB staff
  

• Presentation by APS on coal generation in Arizona

•  Presentation on Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission 

•  Presentation by Mark Ourada, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
  
•  HB2395 weights and measures; biofuels (Pratt, Cardenas, Shope, et al.) states that marine and locomotive fuel is exempt from the low-sulfur diesel requirements and makes other technical changes.  

• Presentations 
• Impacts of the EPA's New Carbon Rule - Mark Ourada, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
• Overview of Arizona's Electric Cooperatives - Philip Bashaw, Grand Canyon State Electric Cooperative Association
• Overview of Arizona's Conservation Districts - Steve Barker, AZ State Association of Conservation Districts

• SCM1005 proposing regulation freedom amendment: Congress (Barton, Allen, Farnsworth D, et al. ) asks Congress to  propose a Constitutional amendment to require Congress to approve any regulation if one-fourth of the House or the Senate has expressed opposition to the regulation, in writing, to the President. Apparently they are not keen on the whole separation of powers on which our system is based.

• Presentations
• Mining Update from Arizona Mining Association
• Briefing on R.S.2477 Rights-of-Way

•  Presentation by Arizona Transit Association 
• Presentation by County Supervisors Association 

• SB1079 solid waste collection; multifamily housing (Griffin, McGuire, Mitchell, et al. ) prohibits local government from restricting private enterprise to provide recycling and solid waste management services to the municipality and to multi-family dwellings. I am guessing that some company has an ax to grind with one of the cities. What we really need is recycling for multi-family dwellings in our communities.