Productive week for conservation issues

Renovations to the Leer Tower in downtown Birmingham could benefit from a newly-approved tax credit for historic properties.

Last week was an eventful one for conservation issues in Montgomery.

On Thursday, the legislature approved a tax credit for the preservation and redevelopment of historic buildings, which will encourage continued investment in downtown areas and older neighborhoods near city centers.  As the urban renewal movement continues to grow across Alabama, the tax credits will provide developers with financial incentives to rehabilitate properties that can provide increased residential units near employers or additional business space in growing markets.

The legislature also passed an expansion of the Alabama Land Bank Authority to give more local control to governments dealing with tax-delinquent, neglected, and abandoned properties.  Without a process in place to take these properties from liabilities to opportunities for development, blight has often set in.  The land bank legislation will clear the way for cities to use these properties in ways that are beneficial to communities, such as for neighborhood gardens, rather than hindrances to safety and future growth.

Finally, Legislation that was intended to prevent public buildings from seeking LEED certification also appears dead for the session.  As we discussed in a previous blog, an effort was made to prohibit efficient building standards that fail to conform to certain forest certification criteria.  LEED uses a separate set of standards than the ones listed in the legislation, so cities and other government entities would have been prohibited from seeking LEED certification for new or renovated public buildings.  Fortunately, the point of contention (and it is literally that. The issue of forest certification standards amounts to a single point on LEED’s 110-point grading system!) appears to be moot as the legislation has failed to generate enough support to move forward.

You can follow legislation related to the environment each week on Conservation Alabama’s Hot List at conservationalabama.org.

Governor has final say on hazardous waste

It was a whirlwind week for the hazardous waste bill.

HB181, a bi-partisan effort to reduce the fees hazardous waste haulers have to pay to dump their dangerous chemicals at the Emelle hazardous waste facility, was before a public hearing in a Senate committee on Tuesday, and before the full Senate on Thursday. Even the bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, was surprised by the bill being up for a vote, even though it was not on the special order calendar. Some senators had concerns as well, and stalled the vote for at least 30 minutes before it ultimately passed the Senate 25-4.

Now, Governor Robert Bentley has the bill to sign or veto. His signature doesn’t seem to be a slam dunk when an aide was non-committal on the governor’s plans in a recent press report. Signing the bill into law would be inconsistent with the governor’s previous position on solid waste. Only a few weeks after taking office in 2011, Bentley issued an executive order declaring a moratorium on new solid waste landfills out of fear Alabama was becoming the nation’s dumping ground. The legislature later affirmed the moratorium legislatively and a study of solid waste practices is on going. The moratorium didn’t affect hazardous waste, but the concern is the same – Alabama is the nation’s dumping ground.

With only five days remaining this legislative session, many of the environmental bills do not have enough time and political muscle to pass this session. However, there are a few that are edging closer to passage. The historic tax credit bill is one Senate vote away from going to the governor. Also, the Alabama Land Bank Authority bill has gotten new life and is in committee this week.

However, a bill that would prohibit public buildings from following LEED standards in order to be more energy efficient is one step away from the governor as well. The bill is expected to be voted on by the House this week, but there are rumblings of floor amendments that could make this bill more palatable to LEED supporters.

Finally, the latest budget has money restored for the state parks program. While not finalized, this could be a huge win for the state parks in 2014, but it doesn’t address immediate needs nor the $12 million that has been cut from state parks funding in the last two years.

You can follow legislation related to the environment each week on Conservation Alabama’s Hot List at conservationalabama.org.

Hazardous waste bill back up for vote

Now it is the Senate’s turn to take up the hazardous waste bill.

HB181, a bi-partisan effort to reduce the fees hazardous waste haulers have to pay to dump their dangerous chemicals at the Emelle hazardous waste facility, is scheduled for a public hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at 12:30 p.m. April 23 in Room 325. The bill is an attempt to increase the amount of hazardous waste coming into the state, by reducing the state-based fee from $21.60 per ton to $11 per ton. Hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous waste have been brought from all over the country and internationally to Emelle over the last three decades, while the facility has experienced numerous fines and a problems related to spills, leaks, and threats to human and environmental health.

If you can’t make it to Montgomery for the public hearing Tuesday, you can tell the Senate committee “Don’t Dump on AL” and to vote NO on HB181 by visiting the Conservation Alabama Action Center.

Last week, legislation to limit LEED certification for public buildings was approved by a Senate committee, making the bill one vote away from going to the governor. Timber interests have been opposed to LEED because it doesn’t recognize certain industry-favored certifications for timber. More than 50 public buildings in Alabama have been built to LEED standards, all of which used local wood products, making the issue of this one point on a 110-point scale more about principle than policy.

Also, a student-led effort to study and protect the drinking water in the Birmingham area has led to House and Senate joint resolutions to be introduced, with the Senate version being dropped last week. The resolutions would establish the Greater Birmingham Drinking Water Commission. The Coalition of Alabama Students for the Environment (CASE) is spearheading the campaign to get the resolutions passed.

You can follow legislation related to the environment each week on Conservation Alabama’s Hot List at conservationalabama.org.