Save Those Trees!

KCC List of House Bills we are watching as of 2/11

KCC List of Senate Bills we are watching as of 2/11

New Bill Highlights for the Week

We hope you all will make your calls in support for this new bill, HB485 on vegetation management. The bill was a bipartisan effort from Reps. Timoney and Westrom in response to substantial citizen outrage over the indiscriminate tree cutting under power lines by Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas & Electric due to a policy change that has resulted in several protests, civil lawsuits, and a temporary Lexington moratorium on further cutting.

The bill requires electric utilities regulated by the Public Service Commission to have a vegetation management plan approved by the commission and that vegetation maintenance to be performed in conformance with ANSI standards endorsed by the International Society of Arboriculture. The bill requires different notice requirements to the public and property owners and requires public outreach of homeowners rights. It also allows property owners to sue utilities for unauthorized tree pruning or removal and for damages for unauthorized tree removal or pruning and requires written consent to remove more than 25 percent of tree canopy and allows for a temporary work stoppage if property owner objects to vegetation maintenance. We appreciate the citizens who brought this issue to us and we look forward to continuing work with the sponsors to address this issue. Please THANK Reps. Timoney and Westrom for their bipartisan work on this legislation and please contact your Representative and ask them to co-sponsor this bill.

New Bill to Strongly Oppose

One of our “hot” priority bills to oppose this week is HB470 (Gooch), a bill that focuses on “grid reliability” and directly echoes a piece of model legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is known for promoting bills that protect corporate interests, including interests of the fossil fuel industry. HB470 requires the Public Service Commission to develop regulations to ensure Kentucky's electric grid is “reliable and resilient,” but severely limits the Public Service Commission's ability to fully consider all costs and benefits to customers and the grid when doing so. The bill requires "intermittent power" (solar, wind) to provide "firming power" (such as coal) up to its average output level during periods of peak net load, and the cost of that "firm power" must be included in the rates charged to customers. The bill has not yet been assigned to committee, however we urge you to contact House Leadership and oppose this bill. You may email or call the legislative message line at 1-800-372-7181. And while you’re at it, continue to remind House Leadership that you also still oppose another Rep. Gooch bill, HB341 as well. (Coalition handout opposing HB341 here).

On the Move

We were especially pleased to see Rep. Kulkarni’s “anti-SLAPP suit” bill HB222 (KCC Strong Support) move out of committee this week at a time when few Democrat-sponsored bills have moved this session. The bill addresses the problem of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP). These are lawsuits brought for the purpose of intimidating, burdening, punishing, or harassing the defendant for speaking out against the plaintiff on matters of public interest. Kulkarni’s bill will allow cost recovery and attorney fees for successful defense of a SLAPP suit. The bill has had its second reading and now is in the Rules committee.

We also saw the passage of HB392 (Branscum) out of the House and it is now in the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee. This is one of two bills targeting “merchant” electricity projects such as large-scale solar farms. We mentioned last week that we preferred the Senate’s version of merchant electricity legislation, Senator Hornback’s SB69, because it had stronger language that we believe provided better protections for landowners. There was an attempt to improve Rep. Branscum’s bill in the House through a floor amendment, however the amendment was filed late and was not heard in committee. We hope that the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee will now take the House bill and amend to add those stronger provisions.

We were also glad to see House Concurrent Resolution 47 (KCC Support) reported favorably this week, encouraging school districts to use the “farm to school” concept for school meals.

Talk to your Lawmaker about the importance of land conservation!

Want to know which lawmakers have nature preserves in their districts? We have compiled a list right here along with your lawmaker’s contact information. We would love for each of you to call (1-800-372-7181) or email your lawmakers and talk to them about the importance of the public lands in their district, and let them know that the program that protects these lands, the Heritage Land Conservation Fund, needs more core funding this budget session, as described in the “Conserving Kentucky” coalition brief that every lawmaker has now received.

Your Calls Made a Difference!

In our blog last week, we told you about the “open meetings” legislation, House Bill 453 (Dixon) that would provide more specific information on how to access meetings open to the public, both physically and virtually. That bill was reported favorably the House Local Government committee and is now posted for passage in the House. Thank Rep. Dixon for filing this bill.

Continue to Oppose

Senate Bill 138 (Wise) “an act relating to student instruction.” This is one of the many bills being filed in Kentucky and many other states that attempts to constrain school curriculums on racial issues and we believe this precedent will have an impact on other issues such as climate change. This bill is currently in the Education committee. Please call the legislative message line at 1-800-372-7181 and urge members of the Senate Standing Committee on Education to not dictate issues of historical fact, and let them know you oppose this bill.

KCC on Progress Kentucky

We want to thank Progress Kentucky for inviting us to their podcast this week to talk about anti-protest legislation and many other bills before the General Assembly. You can catch the podcast here.