By Perry Beeman, Des Moines Register
Environmentalists expect to spend most of the legislative session trying to fend off budget-cutters rather than attempting to push through new programs to protect air and water.
Several environmental officials say the environment probably will get even less attention than usual given the budget crisis and an election looming.
Rep. Donovan Olson, a Boone Democrat who leads the House environment committee, said: “We won’t be creating any new programs and we won’t be allocating any new state dollars. So that really limits our action for our next session. We just won’t be doing that much.”
Marian Gelb of the Iowa Environmental Council, a nonprofit coalition of green groups and individuals, and Richard Leopold, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, agreed. Leopold described the coming session as “pretty meek and mild.”
Here’s what’s likely to come up:
Climate
By the end of this year, a state task force will submit a firmer set of recommendations for cutting greenhouse gases to fight climate change. There’s also work to look more closely at benefits and costs of various actions.
Little action is expected in this Legislature, except setting the scene for votes in the next one.
But Neil Hamilton, a professor at Drake University who attended the recent Copenhagen climate talks, said Iowans should pursue many climate-related actions because they help the environment in a broader sense.
Some plantings do a good job of sweeping heat-trapping carbon from the air, but also reduce soil erosion.
Renewable energy sources such as wind can help diversify the energy mix, reduce dependence on foreign oil, and, yes, limit carbon dioxide emissions, Hamilton added.
“This really is an economic question” as much as an environmental one, he said.
Livestock
Adam Mason, state policy organizing director for the nonprofit Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, said CCI members will pressure Gov. Chet Culver to make good on his campaign pledge to push for local control of livestock confinements.
“If Culver expects to be around more than one term, we need to see something out of him,” Mason said. “I’m going to hammer away that he campaigned on that.
“This is an issue that resonates, and it’s one that will come up again in November.”
Erin Seidler, Culver’s spokeswoman, said, “The governor is committed to local control for livestock confinement, but unfortunately there hasn’t been consensus in the Iowa Legislature to get it done.”
The local-control legislation has been so controversial among lawmakers that leaders have declined to even have a floor debate. In addition, Democratic leaders in the Legislature at times have been at odds with Culver, a fellow Democrat.
CCI also wants the state to set bigger buffer zones between confinements and homes, for example. And the group wants permit requirements to extend to even smaller livestock operations.
The chances of any of that happening: slim.
“Realistically, it’s probably not going to move this year,” Mason said.
Sen. Donovan Olson, a Boone Democrat, said lawmakers are so divided on the local-control issue that advocates would be better off looking for some way to gain ground in an incremental way, short of the full-fledged yielding of power to local authorities.
Trails and more
The Iowa Environmental Council and other organizations are pushing to prevent cuts to the Resources Enhancement and Protection program, which has been pulling in a record $18 million from gambling receipts the past few years. That still is short of the $20 million authorized by legislation.
The program pays for trails, public land and historic preservation, for example.
“We’re going to work hard to keep REAP funded,” Gelb, of the Iowa Environmental Council, said. “It’s realistic to expect it is going to take a hit. We’ll make an effort to keep that as small as possible.”
Leopold, the DNR director, said he hasn’t heard of specific plans to cut cash for the program. However, with 10 percent cuts spreading across state government, a small cut is possible, he added.
Air quality
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Environment Council both support legislation, introduced in the last session, that would ban open burning in cities and immediately surrounding areas.
Neither thinks it will pass. The move is designed to protect asthmatics and others from lung damage.
“Realistically, I don’t think they are going to give it time,” Leopold said.
Also in the air: legislation that would limit the idling of diesel trucks.
Long-term financing
Voters will cast ballots in November on a measure that would devote 0.375 percent of any future sales tax increase to natural resources projects.
A $2.5 million public campaign is expected to begin this summer. Lawmakers are expected to consider legislation that would lay out how the estimated $150 million a year would be distributed from a constitutionally protected account.
The money won’t be available unless voters approve the measure, and lawmakers later vote to increase the sales tax.
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