Political Roundup - 2009 Legisltative Session

image courtesy of Robert S. Donovan @ Flickr

This letter was sent out to supporters yesterday from the Georgia Environmental Action Network to thank everyone for supporting the issues during the last legislative session. It nicely outlines all of the major environmental issues that were voted on. Unfortunately, we did not win them all but we did win some. Read on for a recap..

Last Friday marked the last day of the Georgia General Assembly’s regular legislative session. Over the last three months, we asked you to take action on several issues being considered by the legislature.

Thank you to the thousands of Georgia Environmental Action Network subscribers who took a few minutes to send a message to their state representatives and state senators. Below is a summary of what happened on those issues and whether they remain alive for next year:

• Cut More Trees For Less - SB 164: On Wednesday, April 1st, legislation sponsored by Senator Don Balfour, that would have expanded billboard companies’ ability to cut down and remove trees along roadsides was defeated in a close vote when the conservation community prevented the bill from obtaining the 91 votes it needed for passage. The vote was 74-89. A motion to reconsider the bill passed quickly afterwards, but the bill was never brought up for another vote on the last day of the session. SB 164 was sent back to the House Rules committee, where it can be brought up for debate again next year.

• Don’t Get Stuck Paying Your Neighbor’s Water Bill - HB 158: Legislation to require new multi-family buildings to put a water meter on each unit rather than one water meter per building passed the House easily and passed out of the Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee, but failed to make it out of the Senate Rules Committee. Friendly attempts to amend the bill onto other legislation failed. HB 158 remains alive for consideration next year.

• Keep Treated Sewage From Being Injected in Our Drinking Water - HB 552: Rep. Terry Barnard led the charge to extend the current moratorium on injecting treated sewage and surface water into the Floridan aquifer, a critical source of drinking water for Georgians living in the coastal plain, for another five years. The bill has been sent to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

• Get Me Out of This Traffic- SB 39, SR 44, HB 277, HR 206, SB 120, SB 200: The Senate passed legislation to allow regions to let voters approve a penny sales tax for listed transportation projects while the House passed legislation that would let voters approve a statewide sales tax increase for transportation. Unfortunately, negotiations to hammer out a compromise broke down at 11:00pm during the last day of the session. Further, legislation to allow MARTA more flexibility in how it uses its current and reserve funds on operations & maintenance failed. However, both chambers approved legislation to rearrange state agencies to give the Governor, Lt. Governor and Legislature more control over transportation revenue and road-building.

• Exemptions from Clean Water Protections - SB 155: The House and Senate passed legislation, sponsored by Senator Chip Pearson, that provides a definition for the smallest, most temporary streams created only from rain and snowfall and then exempts them from 25 foot buffers from development. Conservation groups argued to clarify the definition, but attempts to amend the bill failed. SB 155 now heads to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

• Pay Now for Nuclear - SB 31: Legislation to create a new funding scheme for the construction of nuclear power plants, sponsored by Senator Don Balfour, passed both the House and Senate. The legislation has been sent to the Governor for his signature.

Thank you again for your efforts to urge conservation through the click of a button. We greatly appreciate all of the Georgia Environmental Action Network subscribers.

Sincerely,

Altamaha Riverkeeper
Center for a Sustainable Coast
Coosa River Basin Initiative
Flint Riverkeeper
Georgia Canoeing Association
Georgia Conservancy
Georgia Conservation Voters
Georgia River Network
Mothers & Others for Clean Air
Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper
Satilla Riverkeeper
Savannah Riverkeeper
Sierra Club, GA Chapter
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper

Sustainable Atlanta Releases its First Sustainability Report

Last month, Sustainable Atlanta released its first report on the state of sustainability in the city of Atlanta. The mission of Sustainable Atlanta is the following; "Sustainable Atlanta leads Atlanta's quest toward sustainability by developing strategies and policy recommendations with partners from Atlanta's business, non-profit, academic, community and government leadership. I would highly suggest downloading and reading the .pdf. It is very insightful and will give you hope that the city is moving in the right direction. The report is broken up into 5 categories and each is broken down by statistics with briefs on partnerships and what is planned for the future. Below are the areas that Sustainable Atlanta is focusing on along witha notable quote from each:

• Water -"Atlanta - Which depends on the Chattahoochee River as its water source - is the buggest U.S. city not built on a large body of water."
• Energy & Climate Change - "For nearly 10 percent of all the days in 2008, our air reached unhealthy levels."
• Parks & Green Space - "Among the nation's 25 largest cities, Atlanta has the least amount of land dedicated to parks."
• Recycling & Materials Management - "Together, paper and pastic account for over half the materials that go into our waste stream. But organic material makes up almost a quarter."
• Leadership - "It's about changing the way we behave. It's about choosing to preserve more and throw away less. It's about finding healthier ways to commute. It's about designing and building better so that we live and work in more efficient and healthier buildings. it's about changing what you do - and convincing your colleagues and neighbors to do the same"

The city is ranked 19 out of the top 50 most populous metro areas in the U.S. We currently lead the southeast and are number three nationally in the number of environmentally friendly buildings. You can find more rankings broken out by category at SustainLane.

A Sign of the Times

Fox 5 ran a story today that shows us how the struggling economy is impacting the local environment. There has been a recent rise in dumping and it is oftentimes occuring on abandoned residential developments where the builder moved out after the real estate market went bust. Check out the video.