MVC Green Notes

Jefferson City

April 19, 2006

Parliamentary Maneuvers Block Audit Privilege

HB 1147, an audit privilege bill that would have given polluting companies the right to hide their infractions, seemed to be on a fast track to nowhere until last week. The bill had been voted out of committee, but was stuck far down on the list of bills to be considered by the House. Given that the Senate had not held any hearings on the topic, it looked unlikely that audit privilege would pass this session of the General Assembly – until last week.

At that time, audit privilege language was added to a Hazardous Waste bill (HCS SB925) that was coming in front of the House Special Committee on Energy and the Environment. However, in today’s hearing, Representative Jeannette Mott Oxford (D-59) used some parliamentary procedures to separate out the audit privilege language from the rest of the bill. The committee voted down this language, meaning that HB925 would not include audit privilege. Once again, it appears that Missouri has dodged the bullet on the Dirty Secrets bill.

For more information on the Audit Privilege, click here.

Legislative tricks main threat on gravel mining

Like audit privilege, gravel mining is another piece of bad legislation that will most likely not see the light of day on its own. HB1761 was voted out of the House Committee on Conservation and Natural Resources, but is far down on the legislative calendar for the House. As with Audit privilege, the Senate has yet to consider the issue, meaning that it is highly unlikely that HB1761 will pass on its own.

However, as in the audit privilege case, the most likely way to get a further relaxation of gravel mining regulations passed this year is to tack it onto another piece of legislation that is more likely to pass. MVC and other pro-conservation groups are tracking legislation to make sure that nothing slips by us, and we are working with pro-conservation legislators to keep this and other bad ideas from being amended to large pieces of legislation at the last minute.

Renewable Energy Standards update

SCS SB915 has made it to the House Utilities Committee last week, where so many amendments were made to the bill that committee members (let alone people in the audience) were left confused. After a few hours discussion, the Committee postponed discussion of the bill until this week so that a substitute version could be prepared and discussed.

The legislation is designed to encourage Missouri utility companies to use increasing amounts of renewable energy. Like the original Senate version, the House version is weaker that what we would like. This legislation sets targets for renewable energy, but does not mandate that the energy companies actually achieve these targets.

The House version also includes language that MVC and other conservation groups successfully fought in the Senate. The version of SB915 passed by the Senate does not include gas from animal waste as an acceptable form of renewable energy. (This keeps the bill from serving as a “back-door subsidy” for CAFOs – the large, environmentally dangerous animal factories.) The House committee revised the Senate language to include methane gas derived from animal waste.

The House language must still be voted out of committee, must pass through the full House, and then the House and Senate versions will be reconciled in committee. Thus, there is still room for us to potentially get rid of the offending language.

For more information on Renewable Energy Standards, click here.