Legislative Report - Week of 5/29

By Claudia Keith, Climate Emergency Coordinator

Some good news from State Senator Michael Dembrow’s May 28th Update from SD 23 . Many LWVOR climate related priority and other bills are listed in the drafted Legislative Climate Funding Package, not yet posted to OLIS.

Here’s an excerpt: 

“ Legislative Counsel is finishing up the drafting of the amendments to these placeholders, which will become the final bills. The amendments should all be posted on OLIS early this week. I expect that they will be assigned to Ways and Means subcommittees and passed to the full Ways and Means Committee by the end of the week.

Funding Package #1: Climate Action

The first funding package that I worked on will be HB 3409, which brings together and funds a number of bills related to climate action. The package invests nearly $100 million in crucial climate action this session, though it has the potential to draw down many times that amount in federal funding that has become available.

Here are the programs and policies that are included in this package. I’ll provide more explanation and the final funding levels in the future.

Here are the bills included in the package:

· REBuilding Bills (SB 868, 869, 870, 871, HB 3166)

· State Energy Strategy and Resilience Planning (HB 2534 & 3378)

· Community Resilience Hubs (HB 2990) 

· Community Green Infrastructure Act AKA TREES Act (HB 3016)

· Woody Biomass for Low-Carbon Fuels (HB 3590)

· Environmental Justice and Tribal Navigator (SB 852)

· Medium and Heavy-Duty EV Incentives (HB 2714)

· Renewable Energy Siting (HB 3181)

· Natural Climate Solutions (SB 530) 

· Climate Action Modernization (SB 522)

· Residential Solar Rebate Program Extension (HB 3418)

· Residential Heat Pump Program Extension (HB 3056)

· Climate Protection Program Fee Bill (HB 3196)

· Harmful Algal Blooms (HB 2647)

· Community Renewable Energy Grant Program (HB 2021, 2021)

In addition, there are a number of Agency Policy Option Packages (POPs) and new climate-related programs included in the Climate Package. 

Again, though, the future of this package, like all the others, remains up in the air.”