On the agenda this week: H.F 3079: Weakening Environmental Review in Minnesota

Some months ago it came to light that the Legislature had directed the MPCA to present "options" for "streamlining" the Environmental Review process in Minnesota (Minnesota Environmental Policy Act).  While the options are supposed to "maintain or improve air, land, and water quality standards," the MPCA had produced a draft report slanted strongly towards the interests of developers and polluters.

The impetus for this apparently comes from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which identifies "Streamline the state''s permitting systems." as first on its list of "2010 Legislative Priorities."

In October, 2009, an "overwhelming" number of citizens submitted comments opposing weakening of Environmental Review,   My comments included:

Clearly, while some special interests want the Minnesota environmental review process "streamlined," most Minnesotans do not.  Rather, they want it kept as is or strengthened.

Unfortunately, the directive from the Legislature to the PCA was one-sided, asking the PCA to provide "streamlining" "options" but not specifically asking it to identify countervailing options for strengthening environmental review.

The MPCA's page on "Environmental Streamlining Report and public participation process" is here.  It notes:

Identifying options that could reduce the cost and time of environmental review while maintaining or improving the environment has proven to be a difficult task. The MPCA held a public information meeting and asked stakeholders to submit their ideas for streamlining the environmental review process while maintaining or improving the environment. The Agency received 13 letters that included ideas for changing the process, but did not address how these ideas would maintain or improve the environment. The MPCA also received 31 comment letters expressly opposed to streamlining. These commenters expressed concern that streamlining translates to

"weakening" and would erode citizen participation in the process.

A bill including measures to weaken Environmental Review has been introduced by Rep. Melissa Hortman. (House Authors Hortman ; Dittrich ; Rosenthal ; Ruud )

H. F. No. 3079, "Permitting efficiency provided, and environmental review provisions modified."

A companion Senate bill is S.F. No. 2761 (Scheid ; Skogen ; Sheran ; Frederickson ; Fobbe ) (no hearing scheduled)

H.F. 3079 does several things, including:

o       Calls for "...environmental and resource management permits [to] be issued or denied within 150 days of the submission of a completed permit application."

o       Moves the first level of judicial review from District Courts to the Court of Appeals

o       Calls for "Customized environmental assessment worksheet forms."

Two hearings on H.F. 3079 are scheduled:

Bioscience and Workforce Development Policy and Oversight Division 2009-2010

TUESDAY, March 2, 2010

10:30 AM (it's over by now)

Room: 200 State Office Building

Chair: Rep. Tim Mahoney

Environment Policy and Oversight Committee 2009-2010

THURSDAY, March 4, 2010

4:30 PM

Room: 5 State Office Building

Chair: Rep. Kent Eken

This email (not sent to me) is from Kevin Reuther, Legal Director of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy:

Representative Hortman asked MCEA for advice on the Chamber of Commerce's

proposals to amend MEPA.  (As you may know, the Chamber selected environmental review and permit"streamlining" as its top legislative priority this year.)

After meeting with us, Rep Hortman agreed to eliminate the many of the Chamber's

most troubling proposals.  She introduced the bill that's attached.

Another MCEA staffer, in another email  (also not sent to me), wrote:

... We have definitely not taken a position of supporting the Hortman bill.  Rather, we do not oppose the bill as introduced but have been working with the author and continuing our discussions about the bill. ...

The five sections in the bill represent the least objectionable items, in our estimation, of a long list of Chamber ideas for"fixing"

environmental review and permitting.   We are still resisting revised versions of several provisions that we feel are far more damaging than an agency reporting requirement, such as wholesale exemptions from MEPA for any project requiring a permit or subject to a standard, and restrictions on state adoption of stricter standards than the feds. 

 Our main objective has been and continues to be to ask the Chamber and other folks promoting this bill to identify the actual problem they seek to solve.  We have done research on all the Chamber anecdotes used to justify attacks on environmental regulation and have found them not to be based in fact.   Another important objective for all who work in this area is to educate members of the legislature about environmental review and permitting, to counter the myths and assumptions that can make environmentally damaging proposals seem benign. 

Impression:  This fight will not be won by insider dealings between the Minnesota Chamber and MCEA, however good the intentions might be.  That format favors the Chamber, and tends to amount to little more than negotiating the terms of surrender.  Public awareness and expressed outrage favors the public interest.  Perhaps MCEA could focus on drafting legislation to strengthen Environmental Review.

To me, the most disturbing single provision is the 150 day "goal."  That's not nearly enough time for environmental review and permitting of a complicated project.  Projects in environmental review would bump up against this deadline due to any number of factors, including insufficient information provided in the application, a contested case proceeding, limited MPCA resources for review...

"Efficiency" is a code word for "curtailing public participation."

Let your Senator and Representative and the appropriate committee members know whether you want Environmental Review strengthened or weakened.

Environment Policy and Oversight Membership 2009 - 2010

rep.kent.eken@house.mn (Chair)
rep.paul.gardner@house.mn (Vice-Chair)
rep.denny.mcnamara@house.mn
rep.paul.anderson@house.mn
rep.karla.bigham@house.mn
rep.tony.cornish@house.mn
rep.david.dill@house.mn
rep.steve.drazkowski@house.mn
rep.andrew.falk@house.mn
rep.tom.hackbarth@house.mn
rep.rick.hansen@house.mn
rep.al.juhnke@house.mn
rep.jenifer.loon@house.mn
rep.john.persell@house.mn
rep.brita.sailer@house.mn
rep.phil.sterner@house.mn
rep.paul.thissen@house.mn
rep.jean.wagenius@house.mn

Alan Muller