GCC Legislative Update 1/29/10

2010 General Assembly Open for (limited) Business

We apologize for the delay in getting this first legislative report out.  We are in the second week of work in the legislature, and I can truthfully say, this legislative session is the slowest start I have witnessed in 26 years.  Very little legislative action has occurred.  The budget crisis dominates all discussions around the capital, and it seems that as the governor’s budget is examined, more issues are uncovered.  For example, the governor included over $600 million in new revenue from a new hospital bed tax.  Since this proposes a new tax or fee, the legislative leadership is not too happy.  But without the new tax/fee, a huge hole will be created in the budget, which is already severely cut.  It appears that the FY 2011 budget might be about equal to the FY 2003 budget.  The state will have gone from a budget of $21 billion to something like $16 billion.  It is painful . . . but we have been reminding legislators that our members are suffering through a similar economic contraction.

GCC Legislative Reception (very) Successful

On the opening day of the legislature, GCC hosted 192 legislators at our annual event.  We had a record legislative attendance, but we also had a record low attendance from GCC members.  Normally, we have 14 – 15 company displays.  This year we only had eight exhibits.  We will be putting some of the pictures from the event on the website in the near future, so if you did not attend, you can get a feel for the event.  We have already scheduled the event for 2011—January 11—so make your plans to be involved.  It is a notable event for the legislators, and we get a lot of positive comments.  The response from GCC members regarding products for the bag was outstanding, and we had the best product bag yet.

Bills of Interest (not many)

Rep. Allen Peake from Macon introduced HB 1008, which would extend the cap on the sales and use tax on energy used in the manufacturing process.  GCC worked two years ago with a broad industry group to put this cap in place.  As you will recall, this provision caps paying the tax on natural gas at $7.60/decatherm.   At the time, this was a good deal because gas ramped up to about $13/decatherm, and our industry saved a lot.  With gas around $5.50/decatherm, GCC and the Georgia Mining Association thought the cap price could be lowered without any impact on state revenues.  The other industry groups did not want to rock the boat and wanted a simple extension of the cap.  GCC and GMA are working with the coalition to get the measure adopted, but we are also working the legislators to lower the cap on natural gas.  We will keep you updated.  If you want to contact your legislators, urge them to adopt HB 1008.  We will keep working in the background on lowering the cap.

Sen. Mitch Seabaugh of Sharpsburg introduced a bill, SB 308, to help clarify the gun carry and possession law for parks and recreation areas that was adopted in 2008 as part of the guns in the parking lot bill.  We are keeping a watchful eye on the bill to make sure it does not get amended to include plant parking lots.  In the 2008 legislation, GCC was successful in getting an amendment that would exempt plant parking lots owned by the company form the provisions that would have prohibited companies from having a no gun in the parking lot policy.

A couple of chemical industry resolutions have been introduced.  Sen. Chip Pearson’s SR 801 urges the Georgia Congressional Delegation to oppose the present “Cap and Trade” climate legislation because it would be such a burden on manufacturers.  Sen. Judson Hill’s SR 859 urges the U.S. Minerals Management Service to approve the broadest possible five-year plan for offshore energy exploration and development.  GCC supports expanding the energy supply in the US and will be supporting this resolution.  GCC is also planning to have a resolution introduced to urge congress to stop the U.S. EPA attempt to regulate GHG for stationary sources.  If EPA continues down the path of regulating GHG under the existing Clean Air Act, it will be very costly to manufacturing jobs in the US--something we cannot afford.

The expected glut of water resource related bills have not arrived.  The House Natural Resource Committee held a water resource hearing this week, but not much new information was discussed.  There will be a package coming from the governor’s office regarding water.  The thought is that Georgia, Alabama and Florida all will have some type of an agreement in the near future.  That agreement will trigger some needed legislation to be adopted by all three states, so stay tuned.

Stopping EPA’s GHG program

ACC is launching an aggressive campaign to encourage Congress to take action to stop EPA.  ACC strongly believes that EPA should not regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources using existing Clean Air Act authority unless and until Congress has had an opportunity to consider how best to address climate change without crippling the economy.  Indeed, as Congress and the Administration consider measures to support our economy and address climate change, the worst possible result would be a regulatory program that paralyzes new investment and jeopardizes both existing and new jobs. The presumed investments in energy-efficiency technology that the Administration expects will launch our economic recovery and create new jobs in “greener” technologies will be subject to the stationary source permitting requirements, effectively imposing another barrier to their introduction.

EPA’s proposed over reach is unworkable.  State agencies are not equipped to handle the number of permits requests that would be demanded (6 million) and a majority of state environmental agencies would be unable to comply until their state legislatures and governors adopt the new thresholds into their respective state laws. It would likely take several years for all the states to adopt such changes.

The chemical industry continues to be on the forefront of reducing the emissions of our plants and offering innovative products that reduce our environmental foot print. We call upon the Congress to support postponement of EPA’s actions for one year and to move into the driver’s seat when it comes to addressing this issue for stationary sources.