Update on Week Four of the 2020 Legislative Budget Session
You can read bills here: https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2020
You can contact Wyoming legislators here: https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislators
Your legislators:
HD 16, Representative Mike Yin (D) [email protected]
HD 23, Representative Andy Schwartz (D) [email protected]
HD 22, Representative Jim Roscoe (I) [email protected]
Senate 17, Senator Mike Gierau (D) [email protected]
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Can Anyone Stop This Bad Bill??
HB 200 – Reliable and dispatchable low-carbon energy standards
Today might be the last day to stop this bad bill from being enacted into law when it comes up for second reading in the Senate. It forces utilities to implement carbon capture, and then allows them to pass on a portion of the costs of the investments in those technologies onto consumers’ electrical bills.
Here’s what the Wyoming Outdoor Council writes about this legislation: This bill would require electric utilities to invest in unproven and uneconomical carbon sequestration technologies connected to the use of coal-fired power plants. No utility in the country is providing reliable and affordable energy at a plant with carbon capture. The bill creates a regulatory mandate that no utility can meet. The bill also allows utilities to pass on the costs for these costly technologies to Wyoming ratepayers — up to $1 billion per utility. Also, the bill penalizes utilities for building new renewable energy infrastructure to replace coal-fired power. In summary, HB 200 is an unworkable effort to prop up traditional minerals and force utilities to invest in unproven, expensive carbon capture technology — using Wyoming customers to cover the costs.
You can learn more about this bill in this fact sheet.
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Another Effort to Save the Coal Industry
HB 4 – Wyoming coal marketing program – This legislation is now one step away from becoming law after being approved by the legislature. All it needs now is the governor's signature and he has indicated his support. It allocates one million dollars to promote Wyoming coal.
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A Little Bit of Good News
SF 110 - Evaluating the tax equivalency of federal land in Wyoming
Thank heavens this bill died in a Senate Committee on Thursday. Wyomingites so far have been able to communicate to the legislature that we hold our public lands dear and do not want them privatized. This legislation was blatantly biased in favor of privatizing public lands although it was promoted as an effort to better determine property taxes currently paid by the federal government to Wyoming. Each state receives payments from the federal government (PILT) for the public land that lie within the state’s borders. The legislation required the Office of State Lands to conduct real estate appraisals of federal lands in Wyoming to assess their value as if privatized. The legislation allocates $2.5 million for consultants and for fees for software associated with the appraisals.
HB 209 – Change in party affiliation - failed to gain introduction in the Senate and died without a hearing. It likely will be back in the general session, but this is the second time it failed to gain traction in the Wyoming Legislature. It would have banned Wyoming voters from switching party affiliation in order to vote in primary elections. This version of a ban on “crossover voting” would have applied during the 14 days leading up to and including primary day, blocking a change of affiliation at the polls. Currently, voters can switch parties at the polls on the day of the general election.
House Bill 197 – Abortion-48 hour waiting period – This bill died in a Senate committee last week when time ran out for moving it forward. It is also another bill that seems to come back each time the legislature meets. It would force doctors to require women to wait 48 hours before receiving an abortion. Doctors who don’t would be subject to a felony charge and up to 10 years in prison. Such a law would place a particular hardship on Wyoming women who often have to travel long distances to get an abortion.
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