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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Environment - Pollution provision removed from bill

"Pollution provision removed from bill: State can still be stricted than U.S." is the headline to an AP story by Rick Callahan, published this morning in the Louisville Courier Journal. Some quotes:

INDIANAPOLIS -- A [House-Senate conference] committee removed a bill's provision that would have barred state agencies from adopting pollution rules tougher than federal standards.

Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield [, named an advisor to the conference committee], had decried the measure as "horrible public policy" and insisted on the change.

Gard, who heads the Senate Energy and Environmental Affairs Committee, said yesterday that late last week she refused to sign any conference committee compromise related to environmental issues until the provision was removed.

"I essentially said, 'We're not doing anything until this is gone,' " she said.

Sen. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis, sponsor of a bill that included the provision, agreed last week to remove it from the legislation that regulates small businesses. * * *

[Rep. David Wolkins of Winona Lake, who was the author of the provision in question,] said yesterday that he had agreed to ask Young to remove the provisions partly because a legislative study group has been created to examine the issue over the summer. He, Gard and others will be part of that group.

"That was my goal, so I didn't take it as a loss at all," he said, adding: "There was nothing personal about this. It was just a disagreement on an environmental issue between myself and Senator Gard."

Current Indiana law requires the state's environmental agency to conduct scientific and fiscal-impact studies in cases where the agency wants Indiana's environmental rules to be stricter than federal regulations.

"The administration's position is that if there's a new regulation, then there must be a good justification for it," said Jane Jankowski, a spokeswoman for Gov. Mitch Daniels.

To access background on this bill, Senate Bill 298, check this ILB entry from April 16th. What happens next? Once a conference committee report is approved and signed by all the conferees, it is filed in both the House and Senate. The conference committee report is then eligible to be called up for an up-or-down vote (with no changes) in each house. If it passes both houses, it goes to the governor.

[More] The Munster (NW Indiana) Times has a story today by Angela Mapes, headlined "Environmental management remains under state control: Critic does not expect measure to be revived." Some quotes:

INDIANAPOLIS | A proposal that would have given the federal government the final say over Indiana's environmental affairs was killed by a House-Senate conference committee. * * *

Because it was amended into Senate Bill 298, the provision never came under the scrutiny of the Energy and Environmental Affairs Committee. That committee's chair, Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, called the move an "end run" and was the provision's most vocal opponent.

Gard said she believed her position on the committee was her only weapon, so she refused to sign any environment-related legislation until the provision was stripped from the bill by the conference committee last week.

"I simply went on strike last week," Gard said. "They finally figured out I meant what I said."

Gard said she doubts the General Assembly will see the matter revived.

[Update 4/27/05] The Evansville Courier& Press has an editorial today on Gard's success, with this lead: "With little fanfare, a Republican Indiana state senator last week achieved one of this legislative session's more significant victories for common-sense public policy."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 26, 2005 07:53 AM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Government | Indiana Law