By Richard Garrett, Jr.

Your voice for conservation at the Wyoming State Legislature

It’s Always a Mixed Bag at the Capitol

As I write this it’s 2 p.m., Friday, February 17 at the Wyoming State Capitol, which means the 61st session of the State Legislature has just about finished up its first week of the biennium budget session (which will include what many believe will be a spirited redistricting debate) in Cheyenne.

There are only three more weeks to go in this short session so both the House and Senate have been reluctant to approve for consideration too many bills that could distract legislators from their primary objectives—balancing the budget and preserving their legislative districts.

It’s against this backdrop that we’ve seen the rejection of some environmentally important bills, while at the same time others that have implications for our mission have survived introduction.

Puzzling that the nat gas powered vehicles bill was rejected

The House has just declined to support for further consideration House Bill 109 sponsored by Representative Jim Roscoe, which would have helped further the state’s evaluation of natural gas powered vehicles.

It’s a shame this bill was rejected since Wyoming operates more than 1,700 mostly diesel school buses, each of which achieves only about 7 miles per gallon in fuel economy.

With oil prices projected to continue to rise (and gasoline and diesel fuel with it)—and considering that those school buses cover a reported 76,000 route miles per day, and more than 12 million miles annually—it seems rather contrarian that the Wyoming Legislature is reluctant to explore a way to use an abundant, homegrown, and affordable fuel in its fleet.

What is even more puzzling is why this bill, which enjoyed strong support from the natural gas industry and Governor Matt Mead, could not muster the 2/3 votes necessary to move up the legislative ladder.

One Senate bill seeks an end-run around the judicial process

We’ve also seen the Legislature begin the process of trying to dismantle a victory that the Wyoming Outdoor Council won in district court last year regarding the way that the state’s Department of Environmental Quality issues water discharge permits for coalbed methane development.

The Outdoor Council’s watershed protection program attorney, Steve Jones, argued successfully that the DEQ’s one-size-fits-all approach to produced water permits in coalbed methane fields of the Powder River Basin was not only bad for the environment but also legally flawed.

The state is now scrambling to protect its approach to issuing general emissions permits across a broad range of activities including storm water management and pesticide spraying.

Senate File 85, if passed, will do an end-run around the judicial process and allow the state to issue general permits, applicable across the state, thus restricting the public’s ability to evaluate locally-specific impacts to the environment.

We’ve argued against this bill in committee and will continue to argue against it as it makes its way through the Legislature.

Tax credit for small renewables narrowly failed

Another bill that we (and a number of environmental organizations and renewable energy installation companies) supported, House Bill 79, narrowly failed introduction.

The bill would simply have extended a sales tax credit on the purchase of the equipment and materials needed for small-scale renewable installations, such as rooftop solar.

At $25,000 the fiscal impact to the state was insignificant while the benefits to individuals was significant. In a state where our leaders frequently argue that when it comes to energy we “need it all” their rejection of support for a fledgling industry seems shortsighted.

It’s worth noting, too, that this bill failed while a multimillion dollar tax reduction for the coal industry, House Bill 38, looks poised to have a much better fate (that is, if you’re a coal producer).

State could regulate greenhouse gases

All is not doom and gloom, though. We are supporting a bill, Senate File 86, that will enable the state to permit greenhouse gases in a way consistent with EPA regulations.

While this bill is limited and tentative, it represents the first time in memory that Wyoming legislators will link the two words (greenhouse and gas) together in any kind of environmentally responsible way.

Hybrid nuclear energy systems

Speaking of the “all of the above” approach to energy, the Wyoming Legislature is also considering any number of bills that are intended to fund further study of nuclear energy in the state.

One in particular, Senate File 14, will fund a state partnership with the Idaho National Laboratory for the evaluation of hybrid nuclear energy systems. The INL’s lead scientist on this project, Dr. Richard Boardman, is well credentialed and, as such, we expect him to be able to keep the state’s role in nuclear energy well focused and science based.

For now, that is all from Cheyenne. I’m lucky enough to be heading to Fort Collins, CO this weekend to watch the University of Wyoming versus Colorado State University men’s basketball game . . . Go Pokes!

P.S. If there are any bills about which you are particularly interested (and you can review them here) please let me know. (richard@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org or 307-349-2423)

P.P.S. Next Friday, February 24, is our legislative reception at the Plains Hotel. Our board and staff will be there as will any number of legislators. We hope you can attend. See our website for more information.

Other posts you might want to see:

Support the tax incentive for small renewable energy

Wyoming Looks to Craft a State Energy Policy: What to Consider

By Richard Garrett, Jr.

Your voice for conservation at the Wyoming State Legislature

ARE YOU ON FACEBOOK OR TWITTER? Please pass this message along to your friends and followers.

Please help us support House Bill 79.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council is working with a broad coalition of organizations, trade groups, and contractors to generate support at the Wyoming legislature for the renewal of a sales tax exemption for small renewable energy systems.

As most of you know, the 2012 Wyoming legislative session (a biennium budget session) started this week and is already well under way.

We are asking you to help us get the word out about this bill.

You can read House Bill 79 at this link.

How you can help

Representative Esquibel from Cheyenne is sponsoring legislation to extend Wyoming’s sales tax exemption for small renewable energy systems—essentially rooftop solar and backyard wind.

Rep. Esquibel has worked to get a good group of co-sponsors including, Reps. Byrd, Gingery, Goggles, Illoway, Nicholas, Petroff, Roscoe, Vranish, and Dave Zwonitzer.

But he needs your help to get your representative to vote for the bill on introduction.

HB 79: Renewable Resources Electricity Generation Exemption could be up for an introductory vote as early as tomorrow, Thursday, February 16, in the State House so please take a moment to contact your Representative as soon as possible!

Here are some talking points that you can use in an email to your representative. But what is best is if you put things in your own words. If you have a small renewable energy system installed or have some connection to the renewable energy sector, your message is particularly important.

• More than 150 homes and businesses throughout the state have connected a small renewable energy system to the electrical grid as a way to reduce their power demand and costs.
• Given Wyoming’s abundant wind and sunshine, there is great opportunity for more Wyoming citizens, businesses, and local governments to install these small renewable energy systems.
• In addition to benefits for customers, the installation and maintenance of small renewable energy systems are also job creators. An increasing number of people in Wyoming are directly and indirectly employed in companies that design and install home and business-based renewable energy systems.
• This growing business sector presents a great opportunity for Wyoming to take advantage of our abundant renewable energy resources and create a win-win situation by adding jobs and economic development, allowing utilities to save costs of building new generation sources, and, most importantly, saving Wyomingites money on their electricity bills.
• The legislature has the opportunity to foster the renewable energy businesses and their customers by supporting an extension to Wyoming’s state sales tax exemption for small grid-tied renewable energy systems.
• The sales tax exemption is the ONLY incentive the state provides to encourage home and business-based renewable energy. It is sound policy, with many benefits and very little cost in terms of lost revenue.

Please ask your Representative to support House Bill 79 in the 2012 Budget Session and help this business sector grow and thrive!

You can find contact information for members of the Wyoming House of Representatives by clicking here.

If you need assistance identifying your representative, please don’t hesitate to ask me.

Thanks for your action!

Contact: Richard Garrett, Wyoming Outdoor Council legislative advocate, richard@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org; 307-349-2423.

Other posts you might want to see:

Winter Frontline 2011, the Wyoming Outdoor Council Newsletter

Photos: Ride the Red 2011

Adobe Town in Spring: Photographs

Photos from our Little Mountain field trip

Winners of the Wyoming Outdoor Council calendar photo contest

This description comes from onearth.org:

From our friends at NASA comes this amazing 26-second video, depicting how temperatures around the globe have warmed since 1880. That year is what scientists call the beginning of the “modern record.” You’ll note an acceleration of those temperatures in the late 1970s as greenhouse gas emissions from energy production increased worldwide. The data comes from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures. As NASA notes, “in this animation, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline period of 1951-1980, while blues indicate lower temperatures than the baseline average.”

A must-see discussion from Platts Commodity Pulse: Richard Swann, David Jones and Henry Edwardes-Evans discuss the rate of progress for wind, solar and other renewable sources towards the holy grail of “grid parity.” Intelligent and informative.

Other posts you might want to see:

Wyoming Looks to Craft a State Energy Policy: What to Consider

Congress speaks out about EPA’s Pavillion report

Listen to the story

For background on this issue, read on:

The EPA says, in a draft report, that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, likely contaminated Wyoming drinking water

Click here or on the image above to read the EPA’s draft report on its investigation into water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming.

Pavillion-area residents have said for years that their domestic water wells were good and clean until an oil and gas company started drilling and hydraulically fracturing or “fracking” near their homes to produce natural gas.

The EPA’s report includes details of the chemical contamination found in water wells that were drilled by the EPA for the purposes of the agency’s investigation, as well as information about contaminants found in domestic water wells.

The water wells were found to be contaminated by dangerous levels of cancer-causing benzene, methane, diesel- and gasoline-range compounds and chemicals often associated with fracking.

Other posts you might want to see:

EPA’s Presentation to the Pavillion Community Nov. 2011

EPA’s November 2011 Report on Pavillion Water Contamination

Hydraulic fracturing: what we’d like to achieve

UW hydraulic fracturing forum benefited from public involvement

NYT: Fracking has contaminated drinking water

NPR: Worries over water as fracking becomes pervasive

Fracking linked to water contamination

Fracking not as safe as industry claims

‘I asked them for the data and they wouldn’t share it’