Actions for Week of 3/15
There are now four working days remaining in the General Assembly, plus ten days for the Governor to consider a veto of any bill. The General Assembly meets this Monday and Tuesday to work on bills that require concurrence between the House and Senate, and then returns on the 29th to address bills that have been vetoed by the Governor. The session concludes on March 30, 2021. See calendar here.
Budget: Just this Saturday, we were finally able to see the conference committee work on the executive budget bill. While at this time, we see no significant changes of concern from an environmental or land conservation standpoint, We do note the following inclusion:
“American Rescue Plan Act: Notwithstanding KRS 48.630, Part III, 2. of this Act, and any statute to the contrary, the state portion of the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 shall not be expended or appropriated without the express authority of the General Assembly.”
Since there are only four days remaining in the General Assembly, lawmakers would have to move quickly to implement that authority. See Herald-Leader article for details.
· Contact House and Senate Leadership and let them know your concerns.
Other bills for final action:
You may call the Legislative Message Line to act (1-800-372-7181) or follow the links for email contact.
HB207 (Gooch) (KCC Strong Oppose) Fuel Switching. Prohibits local governments from taking any legislative or executive action that impairs a consumer's ability to use a gas service.
The bill is currently posted for passage for concurrence in Senate Committee Substitute and committee amendment 1. Contact House Leadership and ask them “not to concur” with the Senate Substitute.
SB255 (Smith) (KCC Strong Oppose) Commercial mining of cryptocurrency. States that Kentucky should "become a national leader in emerging industries which use substantial amounts of energy" by including cryptocurrency facilities with a minimum capital investment of one million dollars in Kentucky's energy-related business incentives program. KCC strongly opposes due to the huge carbon impact of these facilities. See this Fortune story for more background on this kind of initiative. This bill has passed the House and Senate but has not yet been enrolled but is expected to move to the Governor’s desk. This is part of a package of several bills (including, among others, HB230 described below) designed to support this emerging industry.
HB230 (Rudy) (KCC Oppose) Tax Incentives for cryptocurrency mining. Part of a series of bills, including SB255 above, that would include incentives and support for cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and highly energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining industry. This bill passed the House and is posted for passage in the Senate for Monday, March 15.
Contact the Governor and ask to Veto both bills based on carbon footprint and risk of this emerging industry.
HB312 (Rowland) (KCC Strong Oppose). Open Records. Proposes significant changes to the state's public records law. Creates a residency requirement for open records requests. Allows lawmakers to have a final say over whether to release records relating to themselves. While some small modifications were made to improve the bill, it still remains very problematic with regard to transparency and accountability. The bill passed both chambers, and the House concurred with the Senate modifications on Friday. We expect the bill to be enrolled on Monday, but you may still contact House and Senate leadership to oppose and then you may begin contacting the Governor’s office to veto. See Herald-Leader story here.
SB211 (Carroll) (KCC Strong Oppose) Riots/Protests: Raises prison terms, fines, and allows people to use "defensive force" against those who "riot" without criminal liability. Definition of “riot” we believe still remains ambiguous and we have concerns with the potential impact to legitimate protests. The bill passed the Senate but has not yet been assigned in the House. Please watch KCC’s Facebook page and Twitter feed for any fast-changing developments on this bill.
Contact your Representative and ask them to oppose this bill.
HB386 (Freeland) (KCC Strong Oppose) Bioaccumulative chemicals/Mixing Zones: This bill would interfere with the Cabinet's authority to exercise its best professional judgment on a permit-by-permit basis to prevent pollutants from accumulating rather than dispersing in Kentucky waterbodies. While the Energy and Environment Cabinet had been engaging with the single company driving this bill, to work out solutions that this law is proposed to impact, the bill, nevertheless, continued to move forward and is now on the Governor’s desk.
Contact the Governor’s office and ask him to veto this bill.
Contact House and Senate Leadership and ask them “not to override” the veto, and express your concern on a bill that favors a single company rather than continue to negotiate with the Energy and Environment Cabinet to resolve.
HB465 (Koenig) (KCC Oppose) Water System Acquisition. Allows utilities (and Kentucky American Water in particular) to change how they value water systems they are seeking to acquire, allowing the utility to require ratepayers to foot the bill for those increased purchase costs. Allies negotiated improvements to the bill, however we will continue to oppose. The bill passed the House and is now in the Senate.
HB272 (Bray) (KCC Oppose) Water District Late Fees. Would have allowed water districts and water associations to charge a late payment charge of 10% of the amount billed and would prohibit the Public Service Commission from modifying, rejecting, or suspending late payment charges established by tariff. We want to THANK all of you who made calls and sent emails to oppose this legislation that would place additional burdens on water customers during a pandemic. The bill passed the House and has been through two readings in the Senate, but had not yet been passed by the Senate Natural Resources Committee. More information about this bill.
Contact members of Senate Natural Resources to continue to oppose this bill.
SB5 (Stivers) (KCC Oppose) COVID Emergency: Provides liability protection to companies that have to deal with COVID emergencies. Passed the House and has had two readings in the Senate, but has not yet passed Senate Judiciary.
SB75 (Wheeler), (KCC Oppose) Bill Switch from SB75 to HB188: Off Highway Vehicles, now incorporated into HB188 (Riley) which was a simple bill to rename the Louie B. Nunn Parkway.
You may recall that Senate Bill 75 would have allowed local government to pass a pilot project, by ordinance, to allow off-highway vehicles on certain state roadways, with the intent of allowing OHVs to utilize these state roads to access off road trailheads. We received concerns from two communities near Off Road Vehicle parks on this legislation and have opposed, although we thank Senator Higdon for adding improved language to address some issues of safety and transparency.
Contact House Leadership and ask them to “not concur” with Senate Floor Amendment 2 on HB188.
We also ask you to thank Senator Higdon for his attempts to respond to local communities to improve the original bill, SB75.
The good news this week:
HJR11 (Osborne) Directs the Energy and Environment Cabinet to study the economic impact and feasibility of adopting an electronic waste disposal program in Kentucky. The resolution was brought to Rep. Marzian by a young constituent of hers, and was adopted unanimously on 3/12 by the House.
Thank Speaker Osborne and Rep. Mary Lou Marzian for their work on this resolution.