CANCELED: House Committee Meets March 16 To Take Up Pretend Solution To Reducing Nutrient Pollution, Lets Regulated Entities Challenge Every DEP Document Without Public Involvement

CANCELED Due To Coronavirus Concerns: The House State Government Committee is scheduled to meet March 16 on bills offering a pretend solution to reduce nutrient pollution to meet Chesapeake Bay milestones and legislation giving regulated entities new tools to challenge every document produced by DEP and other agencies with no opportunity for public involvement.  

The bills include--

-- Pretend Solution To Bay Reductions:  Senate Bill 575 (Yaw-R-Lycoming) would set up a complicated, taxpayer funded nutrient reduction procurement program administered by the PA Infrastructure Investment Authority, the Department of Environmental Protection and the State Conservation Commission in a rigged bidding system making it very difficult for anyone without major resources, like farmers who really need funding and technical assistance, to take advantage of the program. The bill was introduced with the support of the Coalition For Affordable Bay Solutions, an industry-led coalition of private companies promoting expensive manure treatment technologies and manure to energy processing plants. A stakeholder group convened in 2013 did not see it as a useful tool in an already complex Chesapeake Bay Program.  Click Here for more.

An amendment to be offered in Committee makes the bill no better.

-- Giving Regulated Entities New Tools To Challenge Every Document Produced By DEP, Other Agencies Without Public Involvement: House Bill 1874 (Grove-R-York) based on a request by any regulated entity at any time [not citizens], the Independent Regulatory Review Commission shall determine whether the requirements of a regulatory action issued by an agency is excessive and whether the requirements of the regulatory action should be submitted for review as a separate regulation.  

If the IRRC determines the action should be a regulation, it shall require the agency to revise the requirements of the regulatory action.  It gives the IRRC authority to issue orders to require agencies to provide information to the regulatory action.  

The definition of “excessive” is a regulatory action that exceeds or is beyond the scope of an agency’s approved regulatory authority by the Commission.  

Any agency action under review by the Commission is automatically prohibited from being enforced until the Commission completes its review.

As a result, regulated entities would get a new tool to challenge any document produced by DEP or any state agency and hold up any agency action based on that document until the Commission completes its review.

This is a one-sided process. There is no role for members of the public in this process, no opportunity for citizen review or to formally intervene in the action before the Commission.

There are no provisions for the Commission to make public the “regulatory entity” making the request to the Commission.
There could also be hundreds and thousands of these requests.

Currently in the case of DEP, the Environmental Hearing Board, which includes judges with specific and long experience with Pennsylvania environmental law and practice, is the first step in appealing actions by the agency.

The process offers the opportunity for citizen intervention in a challenge to a DEP action and for further appeals.

Commonwealth Court is also available to challenge DEP’s regulatory actions, with the same opportunity for citizen intervention.

An amendment to be offered in Committee by Rep. Grove would allow any regulated entity [not a citizen] to appeal any published or unpublished document produced by an agency to the Joint Committee on Documents for a determination of whether the document should be promulgated as a regulation.

The Committee would then determine whether the document should be promulgated as a regulation and may order the agency to promulgate the document as a regulation or desist from the use of the document in the business of the agency.

The Joint Committee on Documents is made up of nine members-- the President Pro Temper of the Senate, the Senate Minority Leader, the House Speaker, the House Minority Leader, the Attorney General, the Governor's General Counsel, the Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Secretary of General Services and two members of the public

Again, the process dramatically expands the scope of the Joint Committee’s authority allowing no review and opportunity for the public to be involved in the process in any way.

House Bill 1874 is designed for one thing-- adding more bureaucracy and layers of review for agency actions all without the opportunity for citizens and the public to become involved.
The meeting will be held in Room B-31 Main Capitol Building.  It will be held at the call of the Chair which means it could be held at any time after the House convenes at 1:00 p.m.  and when it adjourns for the day. You have to monitor the House floor to hear when it is called.  Click Here to watch the meeting live online.

Rep. Garth Everett (R-Lycoming) serves as Majority Chair of the House State Government Committee and can be contacted by calling 717-787-5270 or sending email to: geverett@pahousegop.com.   Rep. Kevin Boyle (D-Montgomery) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by calling 717-783-4944 or sending email to: RepKevinBoyle@pahouse.net. 

[Posted: March 11, 2020]  PA Environment Digest