Snowed Under-GA Continues
After we sent our last email and blog out on the 13th, the General Assembly adjusted their legislative calendar yet again due to this past week’s snow emergency. So no meetings of the General Assembly took place this past week. If you were “snowbound” yourself, we hope you were able to take the opportunity to review our most recent bill lists and email the lawmakers of your choice on bills of critical importance to you.
The original deadline for lawmakers to file bills has been extended once again, and lawmakers now have two more days to file bills. The General Assembly will now resume their proceedings this Monday, February 22nd and the deadline to file bills is now this Tuesday, February 23rd for both chambers. Full revised General Assembly schedule here.
That means we anticipate a final “wave” of bills following Tuesday the 23rd, and robust activity during the remainder of this very short session. So please check our bill lists often this week for updates, and we also encourage you to watch our Facebook and Twitter pages for fast-changing developments.
Legislative Message Line: 1-800-372-7181
Open from 7AM-11PM ET Monday to Thursday, and 7AM-6PM ET Friday (with exceptions due to bad weather). You can leave a message for only one legislator, a list of legislators, all members of a committee, or all members of the House and/or Senate.
You can also Email your Legislator (which is a great option if the phone lines are snowed in!): https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/Legislators/contact_legislator.html
In the meantime, since no legislative days took place last week, we are going to repeat our actions from our previous alert. If you have already made calls on these bills, we THANK YOU, and encourage you to explore more bills on our lists:
Continuing Actions from last 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 when meetings resume.
This bill is in response to states such as California and Colorado 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 the phone lines are closed, or 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 include:
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. Our allies at Appalachian Citizen Law Center and Eastern KY Water Network oppose this bill.
Water Quality: HB386 (Freeland) (KCC Strong Oppose) Requires that mixing zones for bioaccumulative 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.
Other Bills of interest:
Advanced Recycling: HB345 (Bowling) (KCC Oppose) 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, raising 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 address actions that can tackle plastics reduction, there is a coalition effort to encourage the Biden administration to take up certain actions in his administration. See link here.
Water Utilities: HB465 Oppose (Koenig) 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: HB512 (Johnson) (KCC Support) 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.
Electric Car Fees/Gas Tax:
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.
This bill has not yet been sent to committee, so watch KCC’s House Bill List for updates.
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.