Some Environmental Issues Addressed During Session, Advocates Say
Last updated Saturday, April 14, 2007 10:29 PM CDT in News
By Rob Moritz
The Morning News
LITTLE ROCK -- State environmentalists give the 86th General Assembly mixed reviews on how it addressed "green" issues during the recently concluded legislative session.
"Our elected officials considered numerous bills that had positive and negative environmental impacts," said Stephen Smith of Fayetteville, chairman of the Arkansas Sierra Club's Legislative Committee. "We were able to pass some good legislation."
The Arkansas chapter recently issued a legislative scorecard detailing the 13 environmental bills it supported during the session and the six bills it opposed. The organization also ranked the best and worst House and Senate members on environmental issues.
"We had more green legislators elected this time and more environmental issues considered," said Glen Hooks, the club's regional director in Arkansas. "It was a mixed bag, but I think we're heading in the right direction," he said. "Compared to past legislative sessions, there were more legislators proposing environmental issues."
Of the 13 issues supported by the environmental group during the session, five were approved and signed into law by Gov. Mike Beebe. However, four of the six it opposed also were enacted and signed into law.
Passage of a measure that creates a commission on global warming highlighted the session for environmentalists, Hooks said.
"That is incredibly huge," he said. "You can really see a difference in the way people view global warming this year as opposed to two years ago. People have now realized it's not about whether it is happening, it's about what do we do now that it is happening.
"Having a governor who is willing to face the problem head-on and see how Arkansas can reduce carbon emissions is a huge step forward."
House Bill 2460, now Act 696 of 2007, by Rep. Kathy Webb, D-Little Rock, creates a 20-member commission to study issues related to global warming and develop a plan for reducing pollutants that contribute to the problem.
Under the bill, the governor is to appoint 16 commission members. The House speaker and Senate president pro tem are to appoint two members each.
With the passage of the measure, Arkansas became the last state to create such a commission.
"I'm hoping that when the next session starts we will have several really quality pieces of environmental legislation as a result of that commission," Webb said. "If you go to the future and look back, that (legislation) may be one of the really important things that we did."
The other Sierra Club-supported measures which became law during the session, were:
w House Bill 2334, now Act 1026, by Rep. Lindsley Smith, D-Fayetteville, and Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, which amended the Arkansas Renewable Energy Act of 2001 and expanded "net metering" laws.
w House Bill, now Act 292, by Rep. Gregg Reep, D-Warren, to ensure compliance with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
w House Bill, now Act 476, by Smith, which amended the Arkansas Wetlands Mitigation Bank Act to include aquatic resources, streams and deep-water aquatic habitats.
w Senate Bill 237, now Act 699, by Sen. Robert Thompson, D-Paragould, which established goals and standards for alternative fuels.
Some of the low points during the session, environmentalists said, were the Legislature's inability to approve a bill that advocated a statewide container deposit program designed to reduce litter and encourage recycling, and the inability to pass a measure that would have encouraged the recycling of Styrofoam.
Rep. Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia, who sponsored the container deposit program bill, said she plans to bring the measure back in 2009 if she is re-elected.
"We had some 20 state agencies and organizations supporting it," she said.
House Bill 2771 would have required beverage sellers to collect a deposit of 5 cents per container. The fee, plus an additional 1 1/2 cents per container, would be turned over to the Department of Finance and Administration. Consumers could then return the containers to a redemption center and collect 5 cents.
Roebuck said the measure was supported by the state Highway and Transportation Department, which he said spends about $4 million annually on liter pickup on highways. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Arkansas Farm Bureau also supported the measure, she said.
The Arkansas Beverage Association expressed concern that the proposed handling fee would be burdensome to beverage sellers.
Webb, who sponsored the Styrofoam recycling bill, House Bill 1465, said she also plans to bring the bill back in 2009, if re-elected. Despite reassurances that the recycling program was optional, county judges opposed the measure because they felt it would be an unfunded mandate.
Under the measure, regulations would have been developed by the state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission after public input. The regulations would then have been available for use, on a voluntary basis, by landfill operators and recycling centers to recycle Styrofoam from homes and businesses.
One of the measures opposed by environmentalists that was approved by the Legislature and signed into law was House Bill 2305, now Act 452, by Rep. Daryl Pace, R-Siloam Springs, which established maximum mercury levels for electric lighting devices that may be placed in a landfill.
The bill also provided for the disposal of those electric lighting devices that cannot be placed in a landfill.
Stephen Smith, of the Sierra Club, said environmentalists preferred a more specific House bill, which died in a Senate committee. He said Pace's bill would not be as effective in addressing the mercury in landfill problem.
Other bills opposed by environmentalists which passed during the session were:
w House Bill 1367, now Act 468, by Rep. David Dunn, D-Forrest City, which removes the requirement of a certificate of public convenience and necessary for construction of an existing facility or to increase an existing facility's capacity.
w Senate Bill 948, now Act 512, by Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, which creates a funding mechanism for a recycling program for computers and other electronic equipment.
w House Bill 2339, now Act 631, by Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro, which allows the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission to issue up to $300 million in general obligation bonds for projects around Arkansas.
In the Sierra Club's ranking of House members on the votes on environmental issues, the organization ranked Rep. Lindsley Smith No. 1 for supporting each of the 13 bills it supported. Pace and Rep. Mike Kenney, R-Siloam Springs, were considered the worst on environmental issues because they supported just one of the organization's 13 proposals.
Pace did not return a telephone call for comment Friday.
Kenney said his votes during the session were based on his constituents "and what I perceived as best for my district."
"I just did the best I thought I could," he said, adding he did not remember speaking to anyone with the Sierra Club during the session.
"If they might have given me a heads up on how they felt about some things I might have better understood their side, but I never heard from them," he said.
In the Senate, Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, supported the most environmental bills and Sen. Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins, supported the fewest, according to the Sierra Club's legislative scorecard.
A check of Pritchard's votes on the legislation preferred by the Sierra Club shows he voted for Acts 1026 and 699. He voted against Acts 476 and 696, and did not vote on Act 292.
"The state has too many boards and commissions," Pritchard said regarding the global warming commission. Any issue that can be brought to the global warming commission could also be brought before an existing commission or "before the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, of which I am a member," he said.
"I don't remember the Sierra Club ever contactacting me about a single issue," Pritchard said. "If I don't remember it, they must not have been very passionate about their position."
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