Our Thanks to YOU
We want to take this time to THANK all of you for supporting us this year. We hope our members and supporters continue to stay well during the pandemic, and we ask if you can take this time to renew your membership, donate to our work or become a member of KCC in order to help us prepare for the legislative session ahead.
In the meantime, we wanted to share with you a brief recap of our activities during this past summer and fall.
State lawmakers have been meeting since June during the interim sessions, wrapping up many of their committee meetings around the Thanksgiving holiday. The 2022 Legislative Session will begin on Jan. 4th and is currently scheduled to end on April 14th. You may find the full schedule for the upcoming session here.
Meeting with Communities:
All this past year, we have been spending quite a lot of time talking to partners, allies, companies, citizens from farming communities, and citizens from mining communities to hear direct concerns on environmental issues—with a particular focus on the debates over land use and clean energy policy. The goal for us was to help communities be as prepared as they can be to make well-informed decisions —and help them to sift through technical information (and often inaccurate anecdotes from the Internet) for what is most relevant from an environmental standpoint. We have been paying particular attention to this topic due to the fact that many of our members and supporters value good land use policies, but also are supporters of clean, carbon-free energy—and some projects place these goals at odds. While we believe the process of reviewing these projects by the Transmission Siting Board has been largely effective, and that each project has unique issues within a local community, we do anticipate state legislation this session to address specifics relating to project setbacks, public engagement, bonding and decommissioning requirements on these large-scale projects. We invite you to learn more on KCC’s “Solar and Land Use” page at kyconservation.org/solar-lands.
Our work to engage with communities is not only focused on land use and clean energy, however. The passage of the Federal infrastructure bill has created opportunities to address a very wide range of longstanding needs in the Commonwealth, and we anticipate a robust discussion in the General Assembly this upcoming session on needs such as broadband, water and wastewater infrastructure, and transportation enhancements just to name a few. We will particularly be looking at enhancements for electric vehicle infrastructure, clean electricity and water infrastructure, and opportunities to leverage transportation dollars to build roadway enhancements that reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife and enhance wildlife corridor connectivity.
Transmission lines on this reclaimed mountaintop mine site in Martin County create an opportunity for clean energy projects. Local citizens recently toured the site as part of an effort to collaborate early and often where these projects will be developed.
As part of KCC’s outreach work, we recently joined a site visit in Martin County, just as the Kentucky State Board on Electric Generation and Transmission Siting gave their approval for a 200-megawatt solar project on a reclaimed coal mine. Prior to this site visit, KCC had been partnering with allies at Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange, and local Martin County citizens on a community survey project led by Karen Ringall with the University of Kentucky, detailing this project and other pressing community needs. Part of the goal is to encourage developers of these large projects to work early and often with host communities.
The Session Ahead: The upcoming “long” 60-day session is a budget year, so anticipate the majority of time being spent on priorities for existing and new funding that is coming to the states. We mentioned the federal infrastructure bill, but we are particularly excited about our recent collaborative work alongside several of our land conservation partners on the opportunities that new funding may bring, as well as the anticipated Build Back Better package. We will be watching for opportunities for enhancing important programs such as the Heritage Land Conservation Fund and the PACE program for farmland preservation.
In preparation for the upcoming session, we have already been assembling a list of pre-filed bills for 2022 that KCC will soon be taking positions on. And we will be providing toolkits and trainings for the 2022 session shortly. Watch for our upcoming Annual Meeting and Legislative Summit which will start in mid-January.
We want to thank all our members who have alerted us this year to their concerns over environmental problems including impacts from off-highway vehicles, concerns over Sandhill Crane migration routes, legacy oil and gas infrastructure, and impact threats to the Red River Gorge and Bernheim Arboretum….you are the most important partner we have. Call us anytime at 502-209-9659.
RESOURCES ON KCC WEBSITE:
As we prepare for the 2022 legislative session, we are adding helpful information for you on our website:
Pre-filed Bills: You can find a list of pre-filed bills for the upcoming session at kyconservation.org/
prefiled-bills-2022. These are bills where KCC has not yet taken a position, but we believe these items will have implications for the environment or citizen democracy.Citizen Tools: During the month of December, we will be adding more resources to the link below, specific to the 2022 session such as toolkits, videos and talking points on specific issues we anticipate. Check back often for updates: kyconservation.org/legislative-resources-2022.
ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM ALLIES:
Apply to attend “Arena Academy”- a training program for aspiring political professionals. This is an immersive five-day learning experience on campaign management, communications, organizing and more. Dates: Feb. 3-7. For more information, see: arena.run/academy