House Bill 537 gets worse

The Kentucky Senate showed how out of touch it is with the best interests of Kentuckians with its revision of House Bill 537 last Friday.

On the last regular day of this year’s session, the Senate took the governor’s poorly written energy bill that would do little good and added support for nuclear power plants and oil/gas drilling in state parks and on university property.

Because the changes were last-minute, the House did not have a chance to consider them and may do so when legislators return for two days, March 26 and 27.

In a press statement KFTC called for the House to soundly reject HB 537.

"Kentuckians are ready to take positive, bold steps in transitioning to a green energy economy. In order to protect our citizens and our economy, we ought to be leading the way toward clean energy and energy efficiency,â€ the statement read. "HB 537 ends up doing just the opposite of what it should.â€

When the day started last Friday, HB 537 was stalled on the House floor. Sen. Bob Leeper had proposed attaching his Senate Bill 13, in support of nuclear power, to the bill. Although the Senate had already passed SB 13 by a 29-6 margin, it appeared to be dead in the House.

Senate leaders, KFTC citizen lobbyists were told last week, didn’t want SB 13 added to the bill because they thought it would also cause HB 537 to die in the House.

So HB 537 was sent back to the Senate Natural Resources & Environment Committee, which adopted a committee substitute late Friday. The new bill keeps almost all of its original provisions. Added to the bill were Senate Bill 13, Senate Bill 138 and Senate Joint Resolution 67. After getting approval from the committee it was sent to the floor and passed 37-1. The only No vote came from Sen. Charlie Borders.

SJR 67 directs the Department for Energy Development and the Kentucky Geological Survey to "quantify the potential oil and natural gas resources on state-owned and university-owned properties.â€ It also directs the energy agency to develop criteria "for permitting oil and gas operations.â€ SJR 67 was adopted by the Senate in February, passed the House 90-5 last week and sent to the governor.

SB 138, which had passed the Senate and was still on the House floor, is very similar but takes the oil and gas leasing a step further. It actually authorizes the "Finance and Administration cabinet to lease mineral rights owned by the state and by public universities.â€

The late-hour action by the Senate meant the House did not consider the bill. But it will have a chance to do so when legislators return on March 26. KFTC already had a position strongly opposed to HB 537, and that was based on its own lack of merits before the many other provisions were added.