2015 Legislative Summary
Bad Bills that passed
HB 53: Minerals to Value Added Product Facility Fund Program
This bill authorized the state to spend up to $50 million to directly support a
natural gas-to-liquid fuel plant, by buying feedstock (gas, oil, coal, or rare earth
elements), even though such a facility has not even been seriously proposed.
Supporters hope that investment of public money will help get one of these
projects started, ignoring the fact that such a facility would billions of dollars and
are so uneconomical in today's market that the private market is not interested.
We opposed the bill because Wyoming state government should not provide
direct subsidies to wealthy private corporations to invest in risky ventures.
SF 12: Trespassing to collect data
SF 80: Trespassing to collect data-civil cause of action
These two companion bills created a new crime of crossing "open land"
without explicit permission to collect resource data, with stiff criminal and civil
penalties.
We opposed both SF 12 and SF 80, because both bills are vague, poorly
defined, and may have unintended and very negative consequences for legitimate
citizen and student science investigations on public land throughout Wyoming.
SF 24: Wyoming Infrastructure Authority-Amendments
SF 24 extended the authority of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority to
bond projects located completely outside of Wyoming, even though the Wyoming
Infrastructure Authority was created to help promote Wyoming infrastructure.
Supporters saw this as a way to help finance a proposed coal port on the northwest
coast of the Unites States, which they believe will help keep the coal industry going.
We opposed SF 24 because it is nothing more than another subsidy for the coal
industry, and an expensive one at that.
Most legislators seemed determined to keep Wyoming's economy locked to
coal and other fossil fuels to the bitter end.
SF 56: Study on Transfer of Public Lands
SF 56 authorized $75,000 for a study of how the state would manage public
lands if Congress decided to transfer lands to the state. We opposed SF 56 because:
1) It is a waste of time and money, because it would be unconstitutional for
the federal government to do this,
2) Federal public lands belong to all citizens of the Unites States, not just to
Wyoming residents, and
3) We don't think the state is in any position to appropriately manage these
lands, even if it were constitutional or legal, which it is not.
SF 117: Air Quality Construction Permitting
SF 117 will allow oil and gas processing plants to begin construction before
they receive a construction permit. This bill rolled back regulations that were
designed to protect our clean air, and will allow the Department of Environmental
Quality to avoid public notice and public comment requirements, effectively
shutting citizens out of the permitting process.
SF 133: Bighorn Sheep Relocation
SF 133 requires the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to remove or
eliminate a bighorn sheep herd from the Bridger Teton National Forest in western
Wyoming if domestic sheep grazing in the Wyoming Range is eliminated or
suspended.
Bighorn sheep are very susceptible to diseases spread from domestic sheep,
and the Forest Service has, in some areas, reduced domestic sheep grazing to
protect bighorn sheep by keeping the two species physically separated.
We opposed this bill because legislatively requiring that native wildlife be
exterminated to protect domestic livestock grazing on public land is clearly a very
bad idea and a terrible precedent to set.
Good Bills that passed:
HB 23: Next Generation Science Standards-2
HB 23 repealed a 2014 budget bill footnote that restricted the State Board of
Education from spending money on reviewing or adopting the Next Generation
Science Standards. The standards are controversial among some Wyoming
legislators because they include information about climate change.
We supported HB 23 because it removed politics from science and let our
education professionals determine what standards Wyoming schools should teach.
House Bill 56: Wyoming Food Freedom Act
HB 56 has come before the legislature several times over the past several
years, and exempted sales of certain foods from licensing, certification and
inspection. It applies only to food sales directly between the producer and
consumer, for home consumption only. HB 56 will allow for the sale and
consumption of homemade foods and will encourage agricultural sales by farmers
markets, ranches, farms, and home based food producers to informed end
consumers. We supported HB 56 as a way to support local food production and local
economies.
HB 54, SF 22, and SF 25 are a group of bills that will help clean up landfills that are
leaking and contaminating groundwater across Wyoming, by providing funding to
help local communities close problem landfills and join together for build more costeffective regional transfer stations.
HB 54: Corrective Action Account Distribution - would allow DEQ to use
existing funding for municipal solid waste remediation. Both the House and
the Senate have passed the bill.
SF 22: Landfill Remediation Priority List - would set up a landfill remediation
priority list. Both the House and the Senate have passed the bill.
SF 25: Cease and Transfer Priority List - would set up a closure and transfer
priority list, to help establish initial spending priorities. Both the House and
the Senate have passed the bill.
Bad bills that died:
HB 209: Transfer of Federal Lands
HB 209 would have demanded that the federal government transfer
ownership of federal public lands, owned by all Americans, to the state of Wyoming,
and explicitly would have allowed the state to sell whatever land they wanted,
clearly revealing the intent of this bill to privatize and develop our public lands.
HB 209 was clearly unconstitutional and contrary to a number of wellestablished legal doctrines.
House Bill 202: EPA Equipment Requirements-Tax Exemption
HB 202 would have given utilities a sales and use tax exemption for
equipment used to install pollution controls required by EPA regulations. The usual
justification for sales tax exemptions is that they will provide economic incentives,
which often is highly questionable. In this case, the exemption certainly would not
have provided any economic incentive because the companies are legally required
to install the pollution controls.
House Bill 232: Open Meetings
HB 232 was misleadingly titled, as it would have allowed agencies and local
governments to vote in executive sessions, which are closed to the public. Normally
an agency will consider confidential information in executive session but then come
back to an open meeting to vote. HB 232 would have allowed agencies to take votes
that were recorded or subject to any public review. Following stiff opposition to the
bill, the bill's sponsor withdrew it.
Good bills that died:
SF 39 would have limited the number of times a company could get an extension to
its Industrial Siting permit. We supported this bill as a way to stop companies from
getting a permit and then just holding it for years, getting unlimited extensions,
without building the permitted facility.
HB 50: Microbead Prohibition
HB 50 would have prohibited the sale in Wyoming of cosmetics or personal
care products containing microbeads. Microbeads are tiny plastic particles used in
products like facial scrubs and toothpastes, which slip through wastewater
treatment plants and flow downstream to accumulate in rivers, lakes, and
ultimately, oceans. They become coated with toxins like PCBs and can be eaten by
fish and other marine life. Scientists think those toxins may be working their way
up the food chain to humans.
We supported HB 50 because it is common sense legislation that would help
stop the flow of plastic into our water, protecting marine life and human health.