Snow Day Activism
KCC List of House Bills we are watching as of 2/4
KCC List of Senate Bills we are watching as of 2/4
We want to thank our friends at the Frankfort Rotary Club for inviting us to present to them this past week on climate change and the Kentucky Legislature. KCC is glad to provide presentations on any topics we cover to nonprofits—just contact us.
We hope you all have been staying safe this week despite the ice and snow storms. If you find yourself with extra time on a snow day, we encourage you to review our list, then call (1-800-372-7181) or email your lawmakers to comment on the bills of your choice.
Under threat of winter weather, lawmakers closed out the fifth week of the 2022 legislative session on Thursday afternoon. Because of the weather delays, the legislative calendar has been updated with adjustments on bill filing deadlines. The last day for new bills will now be March 1 for the House and March 3 for the Senate. See the full updated calendar here.
New Bills of Note:
More Solar: We mentioned in our previous weekly email that a few bills had come up shortly after our weekly bill review with the KCC Board, which included House Bill 392 (Branscum), an additional bill addressing “merchant” solar operations. While we did mention the bill last week, we did not have a rating for it at press time, however you may have received our mid-week alert on this bill. We are in support of legislation to better regulate these “merchant” operations. However, we find HB392 to be far weaker than an earlier Senate bill filed, SB69 (Hornback) and encourage you to read our full description on this week’s House bill list. Despite its flaws, HB392 is showing considerable momentum with 18 co-sponsors and support of the Farm Bureau. The bill is already posted for passage in the House as of 2/3. We encourage you to call the legislative message line at 1-800-372-7181 and leave a message for House Leadership to say that HB392 should be strengthened to provide better landowner protections as outlined in SB69.
Environmental Education: While we do our best to target our selections to strictly environmental legislation or legislation that would impact your civic participation in environmental issues, we decided to take note this week of 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. We felt the language of this bill was particularly egregious and disturbing, preventing schools from requiring teachers to discuss current events or participate in race-related trainings. The bill also contains a specific list of documents that shall be embedded in middle and high school curricula and contains other requirements that dictate “fundamental” values. We believe this degree of micro-managing in our education system could have a chilling effect on the teaching of science-based issues such as climate change, pollution, environmental justice and more, and are strongly opposing this legislation.
Protests: This week, we also saw the filing of yet another bill to address “rioting” which we believe can impact your right to participate in public protests against environmental issues. House Bill 396 (Sheldon) makes an attempt to more narrowly define what constitutes a “riot” than an earlier bill filed by Senator Carroll (SB44) however we believe both bills are too open to interpretation and could put legitimate protest at risk. Peaceful protests have been an effective tool for impacting important environmental issues—most recently in many pipeline battles (see the latest legal ruling this past week on the Mountain Valley Pipeline—the topic of years of citizen protests). We have updated our “right to protest” handout with detailed information about both bills and urge you to call your lawmakers in each respective chamber (1-800-372-7181) to oppose these bills.
Tort Reform: We also saw the filing of a pair of tort reform bills, HB455 (Bray) and SB142 (Alvarado). Similar bills have been filed for many years, and these would limit noneconomic damages for injuries to persons or property, including those resulting from environmental impacts. Contact your lawmakers in each respective chamber to strongly oppose these bills.
Open Meetings: As for positive legislation, we were pleased to see the filing of House Bill 453 (Dixon) that would provide more specific information on how to access meetings open to the public, both physically and virtually. Please call the legislative message line at 1-800-372-7181 and urge your Representative to co-sponsor this bill.
Bill Position Updates this week:
Water Rates: After consideration of the sponsor’s testimony, we have changed our position on SB28 “an act relating to water rates” (Girdler) from “monitor” to “oppose.” While we certainly understand the intent of the bill sponsor, who is trying to address the strain on small farmers in his district, the bill language is presently too broad, allowing “any commercial food production operation” that produces food items from a broad list to ask a utility for free of reduced water rates. While the utility would still need to go to the Public Service Commission for approval, and the utility’s participation would be optional, we feel that the bill as written would draw far more interest than the sponsor’s intended purpose with ratepayers footing the bill. At minimum, the bill language should include limits on the size of operations eligible if the intent is to support small independent farm operations, and presently it does not. The bill was reported favorably in the Senate Natural Resources Committee, so we ask that you contact your Senator to oppose this bill and amend.
More information on farming and water use: There are currently many programs under the USDA that provide support for agricultural producers to address water rates and on-farm water management. The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet’s On Farm Water Management program can assist farmers with decreasing production dependence on municipal water sources and increase on-farm water availability. You can also access these programs through the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. The Kentucky NRCS also provides funding opportunities for irrigation and water management under their EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program), which is done on a cost-share basis. Information about the Kentucky EQIP, and ranking criteria can be found here.
Update on “Advanced Recycling”
The Lane Report recently stated that the passage of HB45 (KCC Oppose) could bring in as many as eight of these “advanced recycling” facilities into the state. While we do not know the specifics of what might come to Kentucky beyond what is stated in the article, we would like to share with you another recent article that raises questions about these operations: ”…chemical recycling is far from being the holy grail solution for plastic waste, also given the fact that for every ton of plastic treated via this method, three tons of CO2 are released into the atmosphere…” We look forward to the EPA’s ongoing scrutiny of this technology and are currently still opposed to this legislation.