GA 2024 Week 8 Recap: Nukes, Utilities, Agriculture
We are now on day 37 of the 60-day legislative session. The last day to file new bills in the House is this Monday February 26th. The last day to file new bills in the Senate will be this Wednesday, February 28th. You may call the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181 (Monday-Thurs. 7AM-9PM and Friday 7AM-6PM) to express your views on these bills below. You may also email your legislators.
What is a “Mule” Bill?
Because the deadline for filing new bills is fast approaching, we are now seeing a significant ramp-up of “placeholder” or “mule bills.” These are bills that in some cases are holding a place for legislative language that is still being worked on, but is running up against an established deadline. Mule bills are typically filed with minor language changes that are later amended in a bill substitute with the full language—allowing the lawmaker to extend their time to work on a bill. However, lawmakers have increasingly been using these to make major changes to a bill late in the process in ways that impede the ability for the public to review the legislation. (An example of this was 2018’s “sewer bill”- a mule bill on water and wastewater that was substituted at the last minute with a bill impacting teacher’s pensions and passed shortly after).
KCC reviews all bills, including “mules.” Each placeholder bill at minimum will reference a particular statute, and we review those statutes to see if they involve a particular environmental topic such as mining, water, conservation, etc. We then keep these on a separate list and watch for any bill substitutes as the session progresses.
Nuclear Legislation Moves Out of Committee
Senate Bill 198 (Carroll) Monitor. passed out of the Senate Natural Resources committee this past Wednesday and is already posted for passage in the Senate Regular Orders of the Day for Monday, February 26th. The bill establishes the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority to serve as the non-regulatory state government agency on nuclear energy issues and to support and facilitate the development of nuclear energy in Kentucky. This is the latest of Senator Danny Carroll’s ongoing interest to explore nuclear energy in the Commonwealth, following legislation in 2017 (SB11) that repealed the state’s construction moratorium on nuclear power. If Senate Bill 198 is passed in its present form, the Kentucky Conservation Committee will be included as one of the listed voting members on an advisory board.
KCC remains concerned about the substantial environmental and financial risks of nuclear development, especially in light of Kentucky's pernicious management of nuclear sites in the past, and the potential to shift those risks to Kentuckians and utility customers instead of utilities and their shareholders.
Many companies have been exploring small modular reactor (SMRs) technology in recent years, such as NuScale Power, who presently held the only small modular nuclear reactor design certified for use in the United States. However in November of 2023, NuScale terminated their demonstration project for this developing technology. There have also been recent discussions about utilizing new nuclear technology to convert recently retired or retiring coal plants into ones powered by nuclear. However the concept of converting coal plants to other energy sources is not a new one—Illinois, for example, has been advancing a Coal-to-Solar program at several sites in their state as a way of achieving their 100% Clean Energy by 2050 goals. Also, the New York Times published a feature this week on Britian’s recent struggles with nuclear power.
So while the state’s recent report to the legislature on nuclear development found there were “no insurmountable barriers” to developing nuclear energy in Kentucky, there most certainly are challenges—both for its future development, and for addressing the industry’s previous environmental impacts. We will continue to be engaging on this issue to ensure that the concerns of energy communities are well-represented as this discussion continues.
In Case You Missed It
See video link. WKYT covers Rep. Upchurch and Mike Proctor from EVolve (Left) while Gov. Andy Beshear joined reps from Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and several state and local officials at the Circle K in Richmond to break ground on the first electric vehicle (EV) fast charging station in the southeastern United States
House Bill 581, (Upchurch) Oppose. One of the late bills we added to our list for the week was a bill relating to retail filling stations. The bill prevents local governments from adopting zoning regulations that treat fossil fueling stations different from EV charging stations. However, the bill needs improvement, as an EV charging station, under the current definition can include any typical 110 V outlet that the public can access. The bill was recently highlighted in a segment on WKYT featuring Rep. Upchurch and Mike Proctor from Evolve KY, a KCC partner group. We thank our partner groups for continuing to educate the public on the details of emerging issues like this.
ACT: House Bill 581 (Oppose) already has fourteen co-sponsors, but has not yet been assigned to a committee. Contact your Representative to oppose.
Senate Bill 183 (Armstrong) Strong Support. Requires employers who provide services in agriculture, construction, landscaping, and transportation to maintain a written heat illness prevention plan informing employees of policies and procedures to be followed when an employee is suffering from a heat illness. Establishes penalties for violations. The bill is now in the Senate Economic Development & Tourism committee.
ACT: Please call members of Senate Econ. Development committee to support SB183!
Other New Bills of Note This Week
House Bill 629 (L. Willner) Support. Requires retail electric suppliers to file monthly disconnection reports with the Public Service Commission and make those reports available to the public on the Public Service Commission's website.
ACT: This bill has not yet been assigned to a committee. Contact your Representative to support.
Senate Bill 220 (G. Williams) Oppose. Applies to any local government agency that operates a combined electric and water system, but is meant for the Frankfort Plant Board, taking operational authority away from Board among its provisions. See this Kentucky Lantern article from December on the early draft of this bill.
ACT: This bill has been assigned to the Senate Natural Resources and Energy committee. Contact them to oppose.
Senate Bill 233 (S. West) Strong Oppose. Among other provisions, prohibits any merchant plant, IOU, co-op, or municipal utility rom constructing a facility that generates electricity using solar energy if constructing the facility would result in more than 1% of the total land area of any county where the proposed construction is to be located being occupied by solar electric generating facilities.
ACT: This bill has not yet been assigned to a committee. Contact your Senator to oppose.
Continue to Oppose:
Senate Bill 16 (Schickel), Strong Oppose. This bill has passed the Senate and is now in the House. This is an anti-transparency bill, which will make it more difficult for employees and citizens from holding recalcitrant companies accountable for unlawful actions, and will make it more difficult for the public from being educated on where their food comes from. The driver for this bill is a focus on the poultry industry, which is reportedly the largest agricultural industry in the state. We believe the bill is overly broad and will cause harmful intended and unintended consequences to workplace and public safety.
ACT: The bill is now in the House Committee on Committees. Please contact your Representative and House Leadership to oppose this bill.
House Bill 445 (T. Smith) Strong Oppose. Would prohibit the Public Service Commission from approving the retirement of fossil fuel-fired electric generating units unless the commission finds that the utility has “no undepreciated investment in the unit and that the costs to operate the unit are greater than the revenue that it generates” - keeping old, dirty fossil power plants on line longer.
ACT: Contact House Leadership and your Representative to oppose this bill.