Sierra Club Legislative Alert

Call your Representative TODAY to vote NO on
HB 991 Environmental Permitting by Rep. Patronis scheduled for a floor vote tomorrow (Friday, April 29)

This bill is a developer’s grab bag of bad ideas that will:
Deprive citizens of due process when they try to challenge permits that will hurt the environment
Shift the burden of proof to citizens in challenges rather than leaving it with the applicant who currently has the burden of showing they are in compliance with all permit requirements
Preempt localities from regulating the environmental impact of mining activity (one of the most disruptive land uses imaginable).

Exempt phosphate mines from the development of regional impact process. There is no question that phosphate mines have regional effects from their sheer size to the downstream consequences, and small counties do not have the ability or incentive to consider impacts on their neighbors.
Reduce the information agencies are allowed to request when processing permit applications
Expedite wetlands permits for an inland port.

Put into statute that groundwater can be contaminated down to the base of the aquifer all the way out to the property line.

HB 991 was supposed to go through two more committees (Appropriations and State Affairs) but House leaders avoided this requirement and put this bad bill on the fast track to passage. Tell your Representative that trashing the environment won’t create jobs but cost them. Our state relies on our landscape and our natural resources to support communities and attract business. Urge them (politely) to vote ‘NO’ on this bad bill.