New Actions for the Week of 2/15
The original deadlines for lawmakers to file bills has been extended again to this Tuesday, February 16th. But before the calendar was changed, lawmakers had been rushing under the previous deadlines last week, resulting in a large batch of last-minute bills with minimal details as “placeholders.” While “placeholder” bills are not unusual at all, and can be filed for many reasons, it certainly challenges the ability for the public to see the full bill language before bills appear on the committee agenda. KCC is watching several placeholder bills that may later show environmental impacts, and will add these to our list as soon as more information is available.
In the meantime, we want to bring your attention to several bills that have moved this week and ask that you act on them immediately. You may phone the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181. If the phone lines are closed due to federal holidays or weather emergencies, please contact your legislators by email instead. You may find all lawmaker emails here: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/Legislators/contact_legislator.html
Actions this week:
Representative Gooch’s Utility Pre-Emption bill, HB207 (KCC Strong Oppose) an act relating to utility services, would prohibit local governments from taking any legislative or executive action that impairs a consumer's ability to use a gas service, and passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee last week. The bill could be heard by the full House this week.
This bill in response to other states who are passing laws that prevent home hook ups to fossil gas infrastructure.
We ask that you immediately contact all members of the House and oppose this bill. If you choose to contact via email, we suggest you email House Leadership: david.osborne@lrc.ky.gov, steven.rudy@lrc.ky.gov, chad.mccoy@lrc.ky.gov, david.meade@lrc.ky.gov, suzanne.miles@lrc.ky.gov, joni.jenkins@lrc.ky.gov, derrick.grapham@lrc.ky.gov, angie.hatton@lrc.ky.gov.
Other bills that may be heard by the full House soon:
State Board of Agriculture: SB93 (Howell)(KCC Oppose) Authorizes the Commissioner of Agriculture, rather than the Governor, to appoint members of the State Board of Agriculture. This bill has passed out of the House Agriculture committee and is now posted to be head by the full House. Please contact all members of the House and oppose this bill.
Water Districts: HB272 (Bray) (KCC Strong Oppose) Allows water districts and water associations to charge a late payment charge of 10% of the amount billed and prohibits the Public Service Commission from modifying, rejecting, or suspending late payment charges established by tariff.
Water Quality: HB386 (Freeland) (KCC Strong Oppose) Requires that mixing zones for bio-accumulative chemicals of concern established on or before September 8, 2004, remain in effect until explicitly extinguished by the Energy and Environment Cabinet through the promulgation of administrative regulations.
New Bills:
Earlier in the session, we mentioned a bill intended to address “riots,” but we believe the bill as written would be problematic to legitimate citizen protest on environmental issues (HB164) (KCC Strong Oppose). This week, we are bringing to your attention an even more concerning bill. SB211 (Carroll) (KCC Strong Oppose), SB211 raises prison terms, fines, and allows people to use "defensive force" against those who "riot" without criminal liability. Also, if convicted of certain offenses during a riot, those convicted could also have their public benefits assistance taken away. The definition of “riot” was not changed, and like HB164, remains ambiguous. This bill is regressive, focuses on poor folks, and is likely unconstitutional. This new bill has not yet been assigned to committee, so we encourage you to watch KCC’s Facebook page for the latest developments.
If you are looking for a protest bill to support, we recommend HB246 (KCC Strong Support) (Willner) which changes the definition of "riot," where a person must be "knowingly" engaging in violent and unlawful conduct causing a public disturbance that creates substantial imminent risk of damage to property or physical injury to a person to be guilty of a rioting charge. Currently, the definition does not require that a person "knows" they are engaging in the conduct. Please contact your Representative and ask them to co-sponsor Rep. Willner’s bill.
Water Utilities: HB465 (Koenig) (KCC Oppose) Allows utilities (and Kentucky American Water in particular) to allow them 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. This bill has not yet been assigned to a committee as yet.
Gas Pipelines: This past week, we saw the filing of HB512 (Johnson) (KCC Support) which creates a new section of KRS 100.273 to 100.292 to require a planning commission to notify operators of natural gas transmission pipelines before a new subdivision plat is approved or any construction documents for a building are approved to be located within 1,000 feet from the center of a natural gas transmission pipelines; require advance notification to the operator; require a planning commission to gather National Pipeline Mapping System geospatial data about the location of pipelines their jurisdiction from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration; provide that developers and operators are not exempt from Underground Facility Damage Prevention Act of 1994. The bill has not yet been assigned to committee.
Ranked Choice Voting: SB124 (Meredith) (KCC Strong Support) This bill requires certain candidates for office (legislators, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Auditor, Commissioner of Agriculture, and Treasurer) be required to be elected by ranked-choice voting and establish the process to do so. Requires voting machines to allow for ranked-choice voting. Learn more about the concept of Ranked Choice Voting here.
Advanced Recycling: HB345 (Bowling) (KCC Oppose) This bill exempts advanced recycling facilities from solid waste regulation. While advanced recycling allows used plastics to be recycled into inputs for different types of products and plastics, the processes used are very energy intensive and produce hazardous byproducts.
Similar bills have already been filed in multiple states, and have raised many questions about the effectiveness of these types of facilities and concerns about emissions.
During 2017-2019, the plastics and chemical industry, represented by the American Chemistry Council, led an effort to make legislative changes to statewide policies to promote certain kinds of these plastics recycling operations as a solution for the increase in plastic waste. However this is still currently an immature technology and does not address actual plastics reduction. The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives has excellent information about this process, link here.
If you would like to take an action that can tackle plastics reduction, there is a coalition effort to encourage the Biden administration to take up certain actions right now. See link here.
Electric Car Fees: For those who followed KCC’s work closely, you know that we have been spending quite a lot of time over the past several years on educating lawmakers about different proposals for how electric cars should pay their fair share on highway infrastructure funding. Many states have moved to “flat fees” which are often excessive and do not encourage conservation. While KCC has been advocating for solutions that are more equitable such as miles traveled, car weight, or some combination of both, in the previous session lawmakers also attempted to address road fees. Unfortunately that proposal disproportionately penalized efficient cars more, especially electric and hybrid cars.
We have been waiting for a new proposal to be filed for this year, previewed by the earlier resolution, (HR12) anticipating that the fees would be similar to what has been proposed in the past.
So this past week, Rep. DuPlessis filed HB508 “an act relating to highway funding” which includes, among other adjustments, new fees on electric and non-hybrid vehicles. In addition to adjusted motor fuel tax rates, the bill establishes
A base fee for non-hybrid electric motor vehicles of $150 with a declared gross vehicle weight of 10,000 lbs. or less, and $300 for vehicles above 10,000 lbs.
And a base fee for plug-in hybrid vehicles of $75 with a declared gross vehicle weight of 10,000 lbs. or less, and $150 for vehicles above 10,000 lbs.
We have not yet ranked this bill, and it has not yet been sent to committee, so watch KCC’s House Bill List for updates. For more on electric vehicle fees, see this article from Consumer Reports on electric vehicle fees in other states.