April 11, 2012

The Legislature has gone home for spring break. They return to continue their work on April 16.

What did they leave on the table that affects the environment? Well, the House passed a large Omnibus Environment policy bill. Most of the bill does nothing to help the environment, however.

Once the Senate passes its bill, SF 1830, a conference committee will work out the differences and send the bill forward to Governor Dayton.  He needs to hear from you that he must veto this bill, unless it undergoes radical surgery. 

The House Omnibus Environment policy bill contains many provisions that need to meet one of these two fates:

• They need to get buried somewhere in a very dark place during the conference committee deliberations, or
• They need to be vetoed by the Governor. 

What are these things that deserve a decent burial or a swift veto?  Here are the top ten bad things: 

10. Requiring the DNR to use general permits because they don’t have the resources to issue individual permits that look at each individual situation;

9. Requiring a full exchange of BWCA lands and school trust lands, which the federal government is likely to reject, rather than the partial exchange carefully negotiated and approved by the Permanent School Fund Advisory committee;

8. Moving pollution penalties into the General Fund, rather than placing them in the Environmental Fund where they are used for a variety of valuable PCA programs;

7. Repealing a required report on how the state will reach its goals of reducing greenhouse gas pollution;

6. Eliminating the role of the Executive Council to listen to citizens with concerns about mineral  or timber leases;

5. Eliminating the ability of citizens to get a public hearing before the Pollution Control Agency Citizens’ Board, no matter how important the issue may be;

4. Requiring the DNR to study the entire state park and trail system, apparently with the idea that parks can be sold or taken over by the private sector;

3. Creating a new 60-day deadline for permit approval, which will  encourage denial of incomplete permits, increase litigation, create confusion, and pull agency staff from important work to help permit applicants do their paperwork in time;

2. Limiting the state’s power to protect its own water quality and the health of its citizens, by prohibiting any future water quality standards that are more protective than federal water quality standards (or lack thereof….); and

1. Weakening our state’s proud history of protecting wetlands for duck habitat, water filtration, and flood damage control through the Wetland Conservation Act which will interfere with achieving “No Net Loss” of wetlands.

Raise your voice for the environment!

If you agree that these provisions should not become law, please call the Governor’s office at 651-201-3400 and email or phone your House member. Get contact info by visiting the following links and entering your address here.

Your message to the Governor?  Veto HF 2164 if it reaches your desk without being fixed.

Your message to the House?  Vote against the Conference Report on this bill if the bill is not fixed. 

The 2012 Legislative Session has seen a flurry of anti-environment legislation. A few themes are emerging:

• The effort to streamline environmental permitting and environmental review is ongoing and proponents are not satisfied with agency progress in achieving the goals of last session’s HF1/SF42.
• Rules in particular are targeted by the current legislative leadership, with one bill calling for the outright repeal of all rules of the five state agencies with environmental responsibilities.

Major bills we are following:

• SF 1567/HF 2095: the Chamber permitting “streamlining” bill, attempting to build on HF1, has been modified quite a bit from initial introduction. While still not a good piece of legislation, it has been substantially improved. STATUS: Senate passed SF 1567 March 8, and the House bill will be on the floor next week.
• SF 1830/HF 2164: shaping up to be the Omnibus Environmental Policy bill of the session, this bill has been loaded up with a wide range of troubling provisions, including:
  • restrictions on state water quality standards (no stricter than federal laws),
  • timelines for automatic approval of certain permits,
  • weakening of the Wetland Conservation Act de minimis provisions,
  • new general permits substituting for a variety of DNR water permits ,
  • elimination of the Executive Council’s authority to approve mining leases,
  • exemption from air permits for manure digesters,
  • elimination of the requirement that cities adopt a conservation rate structure for water.
• HF 2244 to remove management of School Trust Lands from the DNR and give it to a Legislative Commission and Citizens’ Board which could contract out the management of the lands.

Finally, a word about measures we do support:

• Shoreland rules - SF 941/HF1279

We support legislation to renew the DNR’s authority to adopt an update to the shoreland rules; the agency authority lapsed under M.S. Sec 14.125. We are proud to report our allies in this effort include the Congress of MN Resorts, the MN Seasonal and Recreational Property Owners, many COLAs and Lake Associations, MN Waters, and local government officials.

• Local Water Management plans - SF1885/HF1596

This bill represents a long-standing effort to move the state to a watershed-based method of water management. It coordinates local planning and TMDLs and makes other improvements.

• Aquatic Invasive Species - various bills

We have been quite active in promoting immediate action to address the urgency of the aquatic invasive problems. We are working with a coalition on this issue and are supporting a number of measures including increased boat fees and enforcement, bonding for barriers. This week, MCEA participated in a press conference to recognize recently-introduced federal legislation to authorize the closure of the St. Anthony Falls lock and dam. 

The 2012 legislature has been in session for about a month now. What's been happening so far?

1. The threat of Aquatic Invasive Species invading our waters has caught the attention of legislators, who are looking into every possible funding source to research potential controls, provide barriers, and slow down the invading species.

• MCEA supports a package of actions including boat fee increases, increased enforcement, bonding, closed locks and dams, and targeted competitive research to prevent or slow the spread of Asian carp and zebra mussels.
• MCEA is evaluating whether it is appropriate to use Clean Water Funds to a limited extent and on a one-time basis for AIS research.

2. Despite positive reports on permitting efficiency from the Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Natural Resources, GOP legislators are pushing through legislation to layer additional requirements on last year's HF1 to "streamline" environmental permitting processes. MCEA is very concerned that these bills will:

• Interfere with progress already made in responding to requests for greater efficiency,
• "Outsource" important permit decisions to those working for industry,
• Duplicate efforts underway in the executive branch to review the role of the Environmental Quality Board and environmental review requirements, and
• Encourage agencies to move staff away from important agency work in order to meet increasingly demanding timelines with no additional resources.

3. There is increasing activity regarding School Trust lands, including legislation to allow a land exchange in the BWCA and pressure to change the way Minnesota manages its School Trust lands.

• MCEA will work with other groups to ensure that any land exchange enjoys the benefits of review under the National Environmental Policy Act.
• MCEA supports the improvement of current DNR management rather than any dramatic changes.

4. Legislation to limit the state's authority to adopt Water Quality standards that are more protective than the federal government requires has been introduced.

• MCEA supports protecting Minnesota's right to make its own decisions about water quality and continue to be a leader in water quality.
• MCEA will fight against a "race to the bottom" in terms of our water quality standards.

5. Legislators are on "tenterhooks" awaiting redistricting decisions which will redraw Minnesota's legislative districts, due February 21.

• Once district maps are drawn, we recommend that MCEA supporters who are assigned to a new legislator contact that person to let them know you support strong environmental protections and do not support environmental rollbacks.

Like an encore after the main concert, the Special Session contained many echoes of the Regular Session.  For MCEA, the special session produced a slightly improved budget outcome, with somewhat smaller cuts to environmental programs. However, in the policy area, the legislature continued to sing in tune with corporate interests asking for special rules and exemptions. The final budget bill contained discordant policy items that promote factory farms and mining at the expense of water quality, including a provision that threatens the state’s stands of wild rice. While including unwise policy items, legislators missed opportunities to include positive policy items such as a go-ahead for the long-stalled update of shoreland standards.

Read MCEA's Special Session Report for more information.

MCEA tracked many environmental bills this session, including those focusing on water, energy and mining, as well as the budget and strategic planning.

The bad news: Legislators introduced many anti-environment bills during the 2011 legislative session. MCEA tracked 62 different "bad bills."

The good news: Few of these bills were enacted as introduced. Many were laid aside or vetoed, and we successfully improved most of the rest. MCEA's work at the capitol helped hold the line and avoid major fracturing of fundamental environmental protections. The key to our success was working strategically with legislators, allies in the Dayton administration, and the NGO community.

More detail on specific bills is available in the Legislative Report.

Highlights from the historic 2007 legislative session.