KCC Action Alerts

HOT Bills for action NOW (check often for updates!)

SEE BELOW for KCC “Hot” bills. (Also check our complete list of House and Senate bills)
Legislative message line at 1-800-372-7181 (Monday-Friday 7AM-6PM)
You may also email your legislators if the phone lines are closed.

*House Bill 398- Energy Decommissioning- Has already passed the House and Senate but with different versions that must go through concurrence. Contact the House and ask them “not to concur” with the Senate.***

Affirms that the Public Service Commission maintains its authority to approve a utility's right to recover, prior to retirement authorization, any electric generating unit's decommissioning, removal and salvage costs, and depreciation expenses through rates over the electric generating unit's estimated depreciable life.

Senate Bill 199 -Passed the House with House Committee Sub 1 and House Floor Amendment 4. This bill has now been delivered to the Governor. Contact the Governor and ask him to “Veto.”

This bill removes accountability for chemical companies, even if they are negligent or fail to warn about known risks, protecting them from compensating injured parties.

Makes it more difficult for a plaintiff to recover from a pesticide manufacturer for a "failure to warn" tort. Establishes that any pesticide registered with the Department of Agriculture, with an EPA-approved label for use pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act is deemed sufficient warning for the purposes of an action concerning duty to warn. This would put more risk on the people that are harmed, rather than the manufacturer.

HFA4 - Adds section that states the bill only applies to pesticides for which the EPA has approved a master label that includes an "Agricultural Use Requirements" label in conformance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). There are some pesticides that qualify for Agricultural Use, but still may be applied for residential uses. By also limiting the use to only production agriculture, HFA3 narrows immunity more than HFA4, providing more consumer protections.

See Testimony on this bill at this link

Also see KET Segment on this bill, Link Here

House Bill 900 (Appropriations for Government Agencies) Request Funding for Land Conservation-See Detailed Instructions Below

The state senate has now passed its version of the budget, and also passed a bill that would spend $810 million from the Budget Reserve Trust Fund on one-time appropriations. Previous versions of these bills have already passed in the House, meaning that this work will soon go to the conference committee.

What the $810 million would be spent on was not specified other than to say that it would be in the following broad categories:

Water and sewer project pools
Economic Development investments
Smaller one-time local infrastructure projects and investments

Now is the time to weigh in with state legislators and ask them to “Please support another strategic investment in the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund as part of HB 900.”

Outreach to any legislators is helpful and appreciated, and especially if you are represented by or have a relationship with the following lawmakers in leadership roles:

Senate Bill 100- (EPIC Commission) Exempting certain records from the Open Records Act, Prioritizes Fossil Fuels, Expands Powers. Senate refused to concur with the House version. Now headed for a “Conference Committee” to reconcile differences. Contact Leadership in the House and Senate to “Oppose.”

Senate Bill 100 would exempts certain records created by the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission, or EPIC, although the adopted House Committee substitute is an improvement.
The Kentucky Senate approved a bill that would exempt a taxpayer-funded commission that state lawmakers are looking to for advice on energy policy from Kentucky’s Open Records Act, and would also grant the Executive Director of EPIC full authority to act on behalf of EPIC, with the board and executive committee now only serving in an advisory capacity.
The bill grants EPIC the authority to conduct its own bidding and procurement without requiring approval from the Finance and Administration Cabinet.
Allows the executive director to have standing either jointly or separately with the executive committee to intervene in any case before the Public Service Commission.

More Information on SB100 Here

Senate Bill 57 - Nuclear Energy Development - Now on the Governor’s Desk. Contact the Governor to Veto.

Establishes the Nuclear Reactor Site Readiness Pilot Program to annually submit recommendations to the General Assembly for awarding grant funding to eligible applicants for up to 1/3 of the actual costs incurred in applying for and procuring an early site permit, construction permit, or combined operating license from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, not to exceed $25,000,000 per grant, among its provisions.

More Information on Senate Bill 57 Here

KCC Nuclear Page- Includes info on upcoming public hearings

Senate Bill 195 - Civil Actions - Passed the Senate and House with different Versions. Call Senate leadership and ask them “not to concur” with the House.

This bill is another attempt at tort reform in Kentucky, which would make recovery for environmental harm more difficult in Kentucky. Introduces several significant changes to civil causes of action, primarily focusing on motor vehicle safety, insurance claims, timber trespass, consumer protection, public works contractor liability, medical malpractice, and comparative fault standards.

Changes comparative fault requirements - A claimant shall not be entitled to recover any damages if the claimant is fifty percent (50%) or more responsible for the injury or damages claimed. Allows a court to consider the degree of fault of a person not a party to the action, including a public entity entitled to immunity, in determining the percentage of fault of the parties.
Amends the collateral source rule. The collateral source rule is legal doctrine preventing a defendant from reducing compensation to a plaintiff based on payments the plaintiff received from ithird-party sources like insurance, worker's compensation, or disability. The prupsoe of the rule is to ensure that a wrongdoer does not benefit from the victim’s foresight in purchasing insurance or receiving benefits, and that they are held fully accountable for the harm caused. This bill limits evidence of the reasonable value of incurred or future medical/healthcare treatment to amounts actually paid or amounts necessary to satisfy financial obligations. This evidence excludes sums that exceed the amount for which charges could be satisfied if submitted to health insurance or a government-sponsored program. This has been declared unconstitutional twice since a previous attempt in 1988.
Prohibits third-party claimants from bringing an action against an insurer for unfair claims settlement practices and insurance bad faith.
Limits liability for utilities for cutting, sawing down, or removing timber of a property owner if the action is done based upon a good-faith belief that the action is (1) within the utility's authority for the creation or maintenance of a right-of-way clearing for its lines and equipment; (2) appropriate for clearances or other protection of its lines; and (3) within authorized permission to perform the action on the property. If a court finds that a utility removed timber in violation of these conditions based upon a good-faith mistake, the utility will only be liable to the property owner for the reasonable value of the timber and any actual damages caused to the property. Also limits liability to the reasonable value of the timber and actual damages for a residential or farmland owner who unintentionally cuts timber due to a good-faith mistake on an unmarked boundary line, and for a utility acting under a good-faith belief of authority.
Failure to wear a seat belt or proper child restraint shall not be considered negligence per se.
Requires a person asserting medical malpractice claims to provide written notice to each health care provider defendant at least 60 days prior to filing a complaint, and this notice must include a HIPAA-compliant medical authorization. An action filed without compliance with the notice requirement shall be dismissed without prejudice. Requires a claimant to file a certificate of merit with the complaint, which must be based on the written opinion of at least one qualified expert that there is a reasonable basis to commence the action.
Prohibits the admission of evidence and discovery of the limits of professional liability insurance coverage in civil actions against health care providers. Allows a named defendant to petition the court for a qualified protective order to obtain protected health information during interviews with treating physicians outside the presence of the plaintiff or plaintiff's counsel.
Amends the general one-year statute of limitations to explicitly include actions against physicians, surgeons, dentists, or hospitals for negligence or malpractice.
Acceptance of a public works project by the contracting entity creates a rebuttable presumption that the contractor followed plans and satisfied its responsibility. Makes a contractor not liable for damages unless the injury/death is established by clear and convincing evidence to be proximately caused by the contractor's failure to follow plans, resulting in a dangerous condition, or by a latent defect creating a dangerous condition. Requires a plaintiff to include a detailed specification and factual description of each act and omission in the complaint, subject to dismissal for failure to state a claim.
Creates a rebuttable presumption that a driver's prohibited conduct was the proximate cause of injury/death if the driver was under the influence or traveling at a rate of 25 or more miles per hour over the speed limit.
Requires a consumer to provide written notice to the prospective defendant at least 60 days prior to filing a civil action for an unlawful act or practice under the consumer protection act. Actions filed without this notice shall be dismissed without prejudice.

*House Bill 535- Securitization of Utilities - Call the “Full House” to “Oppose”***

Among its provisions, the bill allows more flexibility for utilities to refinance high-interest debt with lower-cost bonds, which are paid off by a special, separate charge on customer utility bill (the securitized surcharge). The intention is to reduce a utility's overall financing costs, which is intended to lower the burden on the ratepayer compared to traditional rate recovery. However, the bill also requires the construction of other “dispatchable” generation in-state in order to apply for securitization. The definition of dispatchable in Kentucky arbitrarily benefits coal and gas plants as opposed to renewable sources like solar and batteries. The bill also may be special legislation, as it is directed at a specific coal-fired power plant partly owned by the Kentucky Power Company located in West Virginia. Also, the bill requires a utility to freeze rates for two years if applying for securitization. That may have unintended consequences, as the utility's rates will likely jump much higher the next time they are allowed to apply for new rates, causing rate shock.

*House Bill 677- Carbon Sequestration Framework - Ask the Senate to Adopt Senate Floor Amendment 1.***

A good bill establishing legal and regulatory framework for the development and approval of underground carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) facilities that has now had problematic language added that will impact renewable energy siting. Senate Floor Amendment 1 improves the siting changes somewhat.

Senate Bill 197 Economic Development - Ask the Senate to Remove Net Metering Language
House Bill 593 Data Centers - Ask the House to Remove Net Metering Language

A pair of bills that both include provisions on data centers, however both bills also contain problematic language that would impact net metering for renewables: “provide that the load of a data center shall not be used for determining a retail electric supplier's peak load for the purposes of calculating the cap on the net metering service that the retail electric supplier must provide" This section of the statute allows electric utilities to stop offering solar net metering service to new customers once the total capacity of net metering customers reaches 1% of the utilities’“single hour peak load during a calendar year.”

KCC Action Alerts

HOT Bills for action NOW (check often for updates!)

SEE BELOW for KCC “Hot” bills. (Also check our complete list of House and Senate bills)Legislative message line at 1-800-372-7181 (Monday-Friday 7AM-6PM)You may also email your legislators if the phone lines are closed.

House Bill 398- Energy Decommissioning- Has already passed the House and Senate but with different versions that must go through concurrence. Contact the House and ask them “not to concur” with the Senate.