Bill limiting environmental regulations goes to the governor’s desk

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President Trump has taken steps to roll back environmental regulations. Some of that same action is taking place in statehouses, including Alabama’s. Lawmakers gave final passage this week to a bill that would ban the state from enacting environmental rules more stringent than those at the federal level. That’s where we start our weekly legislative update with Todd Stacy, host of Capitol Journal on Alabama Public Television. He spoke with WBHM’s Andrew Yeager.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

House lawmakers debated this environmental proposal for a couple of hours on Tuesday. It ultimately passed. But give us some sense of the debate around this.

This is going on in multiple statehouses, kind of following the Trump administration’s lead. And as you said, it would restrict the state from enacting, or local governments for that matter, from enacting any environmental regulations that are more stringent than federal regulations. What some environmental groups are concerned about is the PFAS, forever chemicals. There was that big expose from the carpet centers over in Georgia that those chemicals have come into Alabama.

So that’s what some people are worried about is can states themselves regulate these things even though they don’t rise to the level of federal regulations? Under this bill, the state couldn’t. That’s why environmental groups are concerned about it. Of course, business groups are saying they need this. This is pro-business legislation in that it eases regulations that are burdensome for business. So, a familiar dividing line there.

The House passed a bill which would establish new safety rules for camps. It comes in the wake of deadly flooding last year at Camp Mystic in Texas in which more than two dozen people died, including a girl from Alabama. What new requirements would this bill bring?

This would require camps in Alabama to have safety regulations, communication requirements that don’t require cell phone services. Obviously camps can be in areas that don’t have great cell phone service, things like that. It would engage the Department of Emergency Management to set up a licensing process for camps and engage with camps. It passed unanimously through the House. Of course, this is being supported by the Marsh family. Sarah Marsh was one of those young girls that died as a result of those floods. So everybody seems to think camps are a great thing, but there could be some safety requirements that could ultimately save lives.

A House committee on Wednesday backed to bill that would allow local governments to fire library board members. Now this bill has been moving through the legislative process. What came out of that committee hearing this week?

The library’s issue has been ongoing for multiple years now, having to do with content. This bill doesn’t regulate content in any way. But it would allow whatever appointing authority that presides over a library board, whether that’s a city council, a county commission, what have you, to remove members of the library board for whatever area.

Some people are worried about that becoming political, obviously, because of content. So in committee there was a lot of talk about should they add “for cause.” Can they be removed for cause and not just willy-nilly. Lawmakers tried to get that for cause provision added to the bill but that amendment ultimately failed in a committee vote. So the bill is moving as it is currently written but i think this argument is to re-emerge when it comes to the floor.

Finally, this week saw a shakeup in leadership in the House. Todd, can you just detail what happened?

Yeah, it’s been a rocky week for the House Republican Caucus, normally a pretty drama-free body. But it started when the House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen decided that he wants to run for chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. Well, it is an election year and the main job of the House majority leader is to kind of run the reelection efforts for the caucus. So people were unhappy about that. You’ve already got a job to do. We don’t need a distraction from you running from this different office.

So he decided to step aside. An interim was appointed and eventually a new majority leader was elected. That’s State Representative Paul Lee of Dothan. And he’s been around for a while. He was elected in that 2010 class. He’s a lot more experienced. He’s one of the most experienced lawmakers in Montgomery. And so I think that will probably bring a level of stability to the caucus.