Ky GA 2024 Week Eleven: Time Running Out-Act for Affordable Energy
We have now completed day 52 of the 60-day legislative session. Lawmakers only have 4 more legislative days plus two days for “concurrence” before the Governor’s veto period begins on March 29th. And then after the veto period, lawmakers will come back for two more legislative days. 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.
Senate Bill 349 Will Impact Energy Affordability by Holding on to in Dirtier, More Expensive Power
CALLS NEEDED BEFORE THIS THURSDAY! SPREAD THE WORD! This bill will only serve to benefit the coal industry—not the consumer—by continuing to lock us in to older, dirtier, and increasingly inefficient fossil generating plants. And don’t just take our word for it— The investor-owned utilities such as Duke and LG&E/KU AGREE. It has been reported that coal industry was lobbying lawmakers heavily on the floor this past week. See our memo on this bill as well as the letter from the Energy and Environment Cabinet on the impact of this bill.
Amy Spillar, President of Duke Energy’s operations in Kentucky and Ohio, testified: “This is a bill that would create needless review by a new governmental authority, comprised of many members having pre-existing biases, an authority that cannot accomplish its predetermined operational objective, without jeopardizing reliability, affordability and blunting Kentucky’s economic growth.”
Call the legislative message line at 1-800-372-7181 (Monday-Thurs. 7AM-9PM and Friday 7AM-6PM) to tell the HOUSE to OPPOSE SENATE BILL 349. You may also email your legislators if the phone lines are closed.
Budget Debate Moves to a Conference Committee. ACT to support conservation funding
Budget House Bills 1, 6, and 263 are all now heading to a conference committee to work out differences between the House and the Senate. Lawmakers will need to work out differences by March 28 if they want time to override any vetoes from the Governor before the general assembly adjourns.
We appreciate elements that added more resources in the Senate Committee Sub 1 to House Bill 6, including, for the first time, an appropriation of $1 million dollars each year from the General Fund to the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund — An issue that KCC and all of YOU have been working on for many years now to try to restore some of the $18 million in funding that was "swept" in previous years! THANK YOU for supporting KCC on this work to restore some of this funding!
ACT: Contact members of the Senate Conference Committee (see below) and “thank them” for supporting Heritage Land Conservation funding in the budget. And then ask the House Conference Committee to support the Senate Budget for the Heritage Land Conservation Fund in order to replace the program’s previously swept funds.
Senate Conference Committee members include: Senators McDaniel (Chair), Stivers, Givens, Thayer, Raque Adams, Wilson, Nemes, Mays Bledsoe, Neal, Thomas and Webb.
House Conference Committee members include: Representatives Petrie (Chair), Osborne, Meade, Rudy, Miles, Bowling, Bray, Graham, Stevenson and Roberts.
As for the Revenue side:
We were glad to see that language in House Bill 8 (the House Revenue bill) now has language that is proposing to amend KRS 186.050 and 138.475 to remove hybrid vehicles from the electric vehicle ownership fee that was added during the last budget session. You may recall during the 2022 session, lawmakers added new fees involving electric and hybrid vehicles that began its implementation on January 1st of this year. This was in part to address the fact the road fund relies on a gas tax and EVs obviously do not use gas. However— while we worked to negotiate a reasonable fee to replace the gas tax for electric cars in 2022, we argued that hybrid vehicles should not have been included (since they are still a gas-driven vehicle and should not be confused with an EV). KCC has been working since that budget session to have these fees removed as they create an inequity between an efficient hybrid car and an efficient non-hybrid internal combustion engine car. We are very happy to see that the current language in House Bill 8 finally recognizes what we have been telling lawmakers for the past two years.
We also have been working all this year to have the additional $0.3 cent per kWh on public chargers modified to only apply to chargers over 50kw. We have not seen that this has been incorporate.
ACT: Ask Lawmakers to consider Incorporating the provisions of House Bill 398 to eliminate the electric vehicle power tax on chargers 50kw or less into House Bill 8.
Bills on the Move and Actions to Take:
Senate Bill 3 (KCC Oppose) Impacting Fish and Wildlife. Moves the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources from the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet to the Department of Agriculture. Authorizes the Commissioner of Agriculture to appoint members of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission (subject to Senate confirmation) rather than the Governor. The bill worked its way through. See article from the Kentucky Lantern on the history of the controversy. ACT: Contact the House to Oppose.
House Bill 5 (KCC Oppose) the so-called “Safer Kentucky Act” that is a wide-sweeping “tough on crime” bill includes provisions that criminalizes street camping, targeting the unhoused among its provisions. The bill had already passed the House and has now passed the Senate this week. Be prepared to ask the Governor to Veto.
Senate Bill 6 (KCC Oppose) This bill was being hotly debated late in the day on Friday over an extreme bill substitute, which calls for an end to “Diversity Equity and Inclusion” initiatives at Kentucky colleges and universities. The far-ranging bill would forbid differential treatment of individuals based on protected classes like race and sex. The bill would prohibit campuses for expending resources on DEI trainings and offices, among many other provisions. The bill has now passed both the House and Senate and is now in the Senate Rules Committee. See Kentucky Lantern story on the rewrite of this bill.
Senate Bill 198 (KCC Monitor) 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. Establishes the membership and responsibilities of the advisory board to govern the authority. The bill has passed the Senate and has had two readings in the House.
Senate Bill 220 (KCC Oppose) A preemption bill that particularly targets the Frankfort Plant Board, fundamentally changing its governing body and financial structure. Plant Board Chairman John Cubine also testified against the bill, saying they have had no governance issues to warrant the legislation, as the Frankfort City Commission has the authority to alter the plant board. This bill is opposed by the Kentucky League of Cities. ACT: The bill was reported favorably out of Senate Natural Resources with two readings. Ask the Senate to Oppose.
House Bill 509 (KCC Strong Oppose). Open Records bill. The bill passed the House earlier this week by a vote of 61-31 and is now in the Senate after a lengthy debate and seven House floor amendments that failed. House Bill 509 calls for public employees to use official agency email accounts when conducting official business, and it would ban the use of private email accounts for such matters. Agencies would only be required to search official email accounts in response to an open records request. The bill cleared the House floor this week and is now in Senate State & Local Government. ACT: Ask Senate State & Local Government to Oppose
Want Even MORE Gas Stations? No? Then Act Now!
Time is running out to act on HB581 (Oppose) K. Upchurch. has now passed the House and is now posted for passage in the Senate for this Thursday, March 21. The bill will impact where fossil fuel stations are allowed, under the guise of ‘equal treatment’ with EV chargers. The bill prevents local governments from adopting zoning regulations that treat fossil fueling stations different from EV charging stations. This bill basically interferes with local planning and zoning and creates a safety hazard issue with these flammable fuels.
ACT: The bill has now passed the house (78-14) and is now posted for passage in the Senate. Contact Senate Leadership and your Senator and ask them to “Oppose House Bill 581.” Legislative message line: 1-800-372-7181.