Local News: Voter ID Controversy Prevents Environmental Legislation Progress

Legislative Meltdown Dims Hope for Environmental Progress
By J.B. Smith (Tribune-Herald staff writer)

From the Waco Tribune-Herald

Among the casualties of the legislative melee in Austin last week was the environment, with broadly supported bills on clean air, solar incentives and energy efficiency left on the killing floor.

State Sen. Kip Averitt of McLennan County felt the pain. The Republican heads the Senate Natural Resources Committee and filed major clean-air and renewable energy legislation, most of which failed to pass the House.

“A lot of really good work and a lot of effort went by the wayside at the end of the session as the House was fussing over the voter ID bill,” Averitt said, referring to the issue that dominated the House for four crucial days late in the session.

Averitt spent the last weeks of the session salvaging parts of Senate Bill 16, his clean-air bill that passed the Senate but died in the House. He tacked pieces of that bill onto House bills as amendments.

Part of his agenda survived, including a $20-million-plus incentive program for industries to install new technologies that reduce air emissions. Those emissions include carbon dioxide, a global-warming gas that has not been regulated in Texas.

Also salvaged was a provision that Texas seek a place at the table on federal discussions on greenhouse gas regulation, a topic that state officials have largely avoided until now.

But several key points of Averitt’s original legislation failed, including:

* A statewide program to trade in energy-wasting refrigerators and air conditioners.

* New energy-efficiency standards on consumer products such as pool pumps and water dispensers.

* New energy-efficient building codes.

* A $4,000 incentive for plug-in hybrid cars.

* A requirement that state regulators consider the cumulative impact of coal-fired power plants during the permitting process — a position supported by the city of Waco and other past opponents of Central Texas coal-fired plants.

Averitt also had supported the Senate’s passage of $500 million in solar energy incentives. Those provisions also died in the House.

He said the legislation’s failure will limit Texas’ potential to become a leader in solar energy, a position it already has in wind energy.

“We just put ourselves a little farther behind,” he said. “We need to be not only installing solar technology but manufacturing the equipment in Texas.”

Sid Bolfing, fuel cell and renewable energy technology coordinator at Texas State Technical College in Waco, agreed that the Legislature missed an opportunity.

‘A big disappointment’

“It’s certainly a big disappointment to me and other folks really rooting for renewables,” he said. Bolfing is waiting for a green light from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating board to offer a two-year degree in solar technology at TSTC starting this fall.

Still, Bolfing thinks the market for solar technology will continue to grow, aided by federal tax incentives and the rapidly decreasing cost of solar panels.

“Even though it failed in the Legislature, there’s a huge effort for solar power,” he said. “Most people think energy rates will continue to rise.”

Tom “Smitty” Smith, head of the environmental group Public Citizen Texas, shared Averitt’s frustration over the session.

“It has been one of the worst sessions in decades, largely due to the voter ID bill killing most of our efficiency and renewables agenda,” he said.

However, he said the Legislature made some progress, such as the incentives for air-emission reductions at industries such as coal- fired power plants and cement kilns. That could help existing coal plants reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

“We oppose coal plants, but there are a lot of coal plants in this country,” Smith said. “Even in my most utopian moments I can’t see shutting down all the coal plants in the next 20 years.”

Averitt said the session wasn’t a total bust for environmental issues, pointing to several conservation-related bills that did pass:

* Legislation that requires annual soil testing and new testing protocols for cow manure application fields in the North Bosque watershed, which runs into Lake Waco.

* Legislation extending the deadline for other counties to join McLennan County’s new groundwater-conservation district and modifying its rate structure.

* A new groundwater-management district also was formed out of Johnson, Hill and Somervell counties, a growing North Central Texas region that faces heavy water demand by the gas-drilling and nuclear power industries.

Averitt said the environmental bills that failed were victims of the same partisan politics that killed other popular measures, such as child health insurance. House Democrats managed to kill the voter ID bill by “chubbing,” or prolonging debate on other issues to keep unwanted legislation off the House floor.

Averitt supported the voter ID bill, saying the “security of the ballot box” was important to citizens.

‘It was handled poorly’

But he added: “It was handled poorly. It’s just one issue. Whether you’re for it or against it, I don’t believe it rises to the level of being worth killing all the other necessary legislation.

“You could blame Republicans for bringing it up or Democrats for their tactics to kill it. There was enough blame for everybody.”

Published on Thursday, June 11, 2009