Senate votes to pass S.B. 70-contact these legislators

HEAL Utah has sent this out:

By a vote of 21-5, the state Senate this afternoon voted to pass Senate Bill 70. The bill will now move towards a final vote in the senate and, if passed again, go over to the House. As bad as it is when over two-thirds of our state senators vote to make it easier for nuclear and toxic waste dumps to expand or develop in Utah at the expense of our health, this fight is still far from over.

I want to thank everyone who has called and emailed their legislators, and especially those who have helped to flyer, gather petition signatures, and do other outreach. Keep it up. The best way we can defeat this bill is to continue to get the public involved and we will need your help even more over the remaining four weeks of the legislative session.

As the bill moves towards a second senate vote, we will be going out in targeted senate districts with a simple message: “Your state senator voted to put the interests of nuclear and toxic waste dumps above your health. Please call and tell him/her how you feel.” Some of our senators may decide they want to put the interests of their constituents first, and then change their vote. We will also be organizing in key House districts to work to defeat the bill there.

If you’re interested in helping with this effort, we will be going out to flyer this Thursday at 6:00pm and this Saturday at Noon. You can either meet us in a district or arrange to meet us in our office to carpool. Please contact me if you want to get involved.

The news today wasn’t all bad. Sen. Scott McCoy (D-SLC) offered an amendment to SB 70 that said if the bill becomes law, then any company that has a license application currently pending would have to proceed by the old law and obtain regulatory, legislative, and gubernatorial approval before expanding or developing. Therefore, if Envirocare proceeds with its existing license application, it still needs approval from the governor to expand (although it could potentially withdraw its license and start again). After some telling hesitation and debate, Sen. Stephenson accepted the amendment and it passed with the bill.

Sen. McCoy needs to be thanked for his opposition to this bill and for his work on behalf of the public to try to prevent the legislature from passing a bill for the benefit of one company at the expense of all Utahns. You can thank him at 538-1035, home 359-2544, or smccoy@utahsenate.org.

Below are the 21 senators who voted to pass SB 70 and the 5 senators who voted against it. You can reach them all at (801) 538-1035 or at their home numbers listed below. If you’d like to find your state senator on this list, follow the link on our homepage (www.healutah.org).

Thanks to your involvement in this campaign, we have already generated hundreds of calls and emails to legislators and dropped thousands of flyers. We’ve engaged citizens at their doorsteps from Bountiful to Draper and we’ve really just begun. The news today was bad but there’s a lot more we can do to stop this dangerous bill and make sure the interests of people, not polluters, are represented at the legislature.

John Urgo
Outreach Director
HEAL Utah
68 S Main St, Suite 400
SLC, UT 84101
(801) 355-5055
john@healutah.org

Here are the 21 senators who voted to pass SB 70 and put the bottom-line of nuclear and toxic waste dumps above your heath.
Sen. Gene Davis gdavis@utahsenate.org (801) 484-9428
Sen. Michael Waddoups mwaddoups@utahsenate.org (801) 967-0225
Sen. Carlene Walker cwalker@utahsenate.org (801) 733-4599
Sen. Al Mansell amansell@utahsenate.org (801) 942-6019
Sen. Howard Stephenson hstephenson@utahsenate.org (801) 576-1022
Sen. Brent Goodfellow bgoodfellow@utahsenate.org (801) 968-0626
Sen. Mark Madsen mmadsen@utahsenate.org (801) 864-0766
Sen. John Valentine jvalentine@utahsenate.org (801) 224-1693
Sen. Parley Hellewell parley@parleyhellewell.com (801) 226-3034
Sen. Curtis Bramble cbramble@utahsenate.org (801) 226-3663
Sen. Peter Knudson pknudson@utahsenate.org (435) 723-2035
Sen. Dave Thomas dthomas@co.summit.ut.us (801) 479-7479
Sen. Allen Christensen achristensen@utahsenate.org (801) 782-5600
Sen. Scott Jenkins sjenkins@utahsenate.org (801) 731-5120
Sen. Sheldon Killpack skillpack@utahsenate.org (801) 773-5486
Sen. Greg Bell gbell@utahsenate.org
Sen. Dan Eastman deastman@utahsenate.org (801) 295-5133
Sen. Darin Peterson dpeterson@utahsenate.org (435) 623-2271
Sen. Beverly Evans bevevans@ubtanet.com (435) 454-3719
Sen. Mike Dmitrich mdmitrich@utahsenate.org (435) 637-0426
Sen. Thomas Hatch thatch@utahsenate.org (435) 676-2214
Sen. Bill Hickman bhickman@utahsenate.org ((435) 673-2671

Here are the five senators who voted against SB 70 and in the public’s interest. Please thank them:
Sen. Fred Fife ffife@utahsenate.org (801) 521-7383
Sen. Scott McCoy smccoy@utahsenate.org (801) 359-2544
Sen. Patrice Arent parent@utahsenate.org (801) 272-1956
Sen. Ed Mayne emayne@utahsenate.org (801) 968-7756
Sen. Lyle Hillyard lhillyard@utahsenate.org (435) 753-0043