The
Legislature is in the final weeks of the session, and the number of bills
coming to the floor for a vote each week number in the dozens. Many are technical and non-controversial in
nature and are passed after an explanation of their provisions by a member of
the committee that had primary responsibility for the bill. Some bills, previously passed by the House
that came back with changes made by the Senate, have been voted on again,
either to concur with the changes and to send them on to the Governor, or to
disagree with the changes and to commit them to a conference committee. Conference committees consist of three
members of the House and three members of the Senate. If a compromise is agreed to in conference,
the bill comes back to the floor of each body and is voted up or down with no
other amendments allowed.
Last week
one of the Senate bills that were voted on by the House was S.30, which deals
with the siting of electric generation plants.
S.30 started as a call for a three year moratorium on wind generation
projects along Vermont ridgelines. By
the time it was voted out of the Senate, it had been reduced to requiring a
study of environmental, health and economic effects of wind projects to be
conducted by the Department of Public Service with the assistance of the Agency
of Natural Resources, the Department of Health, the Department of Taxes, the
Agency of Commerce and Economic Development, the Public Service Board, and
several other entities. It was not clear
whether this was to be a study of studies or would consist of original
research. Furthermore, only $75,000 was
allocated for the study and it had to be completed by November 15, 2013.
The bill was
assigned to the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee on which I serve. We took two weeks of testimony, hearing 50
witnesses including property owners near the Lowell and Sheffield wind farms,
health experts, and representatives from the affected state agencies and
departments, from environmental organizations, and from regional and local
planning commissions. Several witnesses reviewed with us studies dealing with many
of the topics included in the bill. We
also heard from the Governor’s Energy Generation Siting Policy Commission,
which had been established to study exactly the issues raised by the Senate and
which was about to issue its report. The
common threads we heard throughout included:
·
Keep
the conversation going. All the concerns
need to be considered and addressed.
·
Use
the recommendations of the Governor’s Siting Commission. Many experts have done a lot of work to examine
the problems and propose solutions.
·
Maintain
a balanced approach. Make sure the
legislative process is not weighted toward a pro- or anti-wind bias.
After
reviewing the testimony, our committee decided unanimously to alter S.30,
limiting it to a review of the Siting Commission’s recommendations with the
goal of developing appropriate legislation on the siting of any electrical
generation facilities taking into consideration Act 250 and the PSB’s Section
248 process, regional and local plans, setbacks from residences, and other
concerns. This work will be done by the Natural Resource Committees of the
House and Senate meeting together up to six times between now and
December. The bill passed the House on a
vote of 140-3 and now goes back to the Senate which is expected to concur. I look forward to being part of this effort
later this year.
The past
week and a half also saw legislation passed that requires public employees’
unions to assess a “fair share” fee on non-union members for the benefits they receive
through the bargaining process and for grievance representation which unions
are required to do. A supplemental
education finance bill, H.538, was also passed which is expected to save about
$5.5M of education spending if implemented.
The various provisions of H.538 have different levels of support from
different constituencies. While everyone
seemed to find something they didn’t like in the bill, overall it received
overwhelming support and passed on a vote of 110-24.
I have heard from many of you on a variety of topics and continue to welcome your input. You can email me at myantachka.dfa@gmail.com or call me at 425-3960.
