DFL nixes Citizens’ Board, narrows environmental justice bill after intra-party split with Greater Minnesota lawmakers

Democrats who control the Minnesota House of Representatives on Monday pushed a historically large budget plan for environmental spending to a partisan vote.

But first, DFL lawmakers had to strip one of their main priorities from this law — reviving the Citizens Council to oversee pollution permits — and reduce many measures, such as an environmental justice policy aimed at addressing the long-term effects of pollution.

It was an extraordinarily public last-minute change of heart that upset and disappointed many Democrats. But a few colleagues from the greater Minnesota state insisted on the changes amid criticism that the legislation would be an obstacle to economic development and critical industries such as mining and agriculture.

“We had four Democrats from Greater Minnesota who refused to vote for the bill unless those changes were made,” said Rep. Rick Hansen, the South St. Paul Defler who chairs the House Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, Finance and Policy.

The episode illustrated the limits of the Bundesliga’s ambitions for the new environmental regulations.

The party has full control of the legislature and is made up overwhelmingly of urban and metro lawmakers who support stricter rules on pollution. But there are enough Democrats in the House and Senate who are from rural areas Some of the party’s ideas proved controversial among business interests and some of the DFL’s allies such as the construction trade.

In a few cases, Democrats have compromised by applying the regulations only to metropolitan areas, including large regional centers in greater Minnesota, but excluding most rural areas.

What democratic leaders required to pass

Democrats have a lot of common ground on environment policy and spending, but one idea that has divided the party has been the push to revive the Citizens Council that once handled permits for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

State lawmakers dismissed the board in 2015, ending the committee’s 48-year term and giving greater power to the agency’s commissioner. The council’s supporters said it was scrapped because members voted to have a large dairy farm undergo a more comprehensive environmental review.

And with the DFL in full control of the legislature and progressive environmental organizations He wanted a new reissue of the painting. This, they argued, would lead to more independent oversight of the industry and a more transparent and trustworthy permitting process.

Republicans and large agribusiness groups disagreed. Opponents said the board was just a way for environmentalists to unfairly stop projects, and to defraud MPCA scientists and regulators.

The measure is included in Hansen’s sweeping bill, at least until Monday’s floor vote. Also in this huge omnibus law, the policy of environmental sanitation aimed at reducing the cumulative effects of pollution.

the The initial bill proposed in the House of Representatives Rep. Fue Lee, DFL-Minneapolis, asked the MPCA to consider “collected levels of past and present air, water, and land pollution,” when deciding whether to issue a permit in — or near — parts of the state that are defined as environmental zones. Justice.

This would include census tracts where 40% or more of the population is nonwhite, and at least 35% of households have incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, or Areas where 40% or more of the population over the age of five have limited English proficiency. It also included all tribal reservations.

The law was supposed to apply to new air and water pollution permits. But it would also have applied to some companies hoping to expand a facility and companies that need to renew or modify a master flying permit.

During a March panel hearing, Roxanne O’Brien, co-founder of Community Members for Environmental Justice, an anti-pollution coalition based north of Minneapolis, said it’s not easy to challenge polluting industries in areas already burdened with “continuous trauma.”

She said, “It took us 10 years to fight what was happening at Northern Metals and get that support,” referring to Metal cutting that moved from North Minneapolis to Baker. “I am here today to ask you guys to right the historic racial wrongs that have been historically done in my community.”

But the legislation was met with opposition from organizations that called for more measures aimed at helping areas affected by pollution. Some said the bill was too broad and unclear in its directives and would harm economic development.

“Almost all residents of the state” will be in or near an environmental sanitation zone, said Bradley Peterson, executive director of the Greater Minnesota Cities Alliance.

“Virtually every permit will need to include this assessment,” said Craig Johnson, a lobbyist for the League of Minnesota Cities.

“Every community wastewater plant, every community with a storm water permit, at least every five years, will need to take a cumulative environmental assessment of any area potentially affected by environmental sanitation just to renew their permit even if no changes are made,” Johnson said.

Article continues after announcement

DFL backs away from its environmental ambitions

On the House floor Monday, lawmakers amended the omnibus environment bill to delete the new Citizens House. And they changed the cumulative effects bill.

The amended proposal only applies to some flight permits. It will be limited to environmental sanitation districts in the metro area of ​​seven counties and the cities of Duluth, Mankato, Morehead, North Mankato, Rochester and St. Cloud. A separate policy for odor management and airtoxin inventory in metro seven counties has also been restricted by the House DFL.

This could be a political strategy emerging from the DFL. At least two other major Democratic proposals limit their reach in the Twin Cities metro: Increase sales tax for the Met Council Fundraising for local transit and road projects The sales tax in metro seven provinces To pay for affordable housing.

Hansen told MinnPost that the four Democrats who forced changes to the environmental bill are Representatives: Dave Lisleggaard of Aurora, Gene Pelofsky of Winona, Luke Frederick of Mankato and Jeff Brand of St. Peter. The resulting internal division and tension may have been so controversial that none of the four agreed to be interviewed to explain their views on the policies, and he backed out through spokesperson D.J. Danielson.

In a written statement, Liselegard praised the compromise and “the need to listen to each other’s points of view.”

“We in the DFB party have a big tent and people have a variety of different views on issues, and to get to a place where we can pass a bill we need a broad consensus,” he said. “I’m glad we’re able to talk things through and work together to get this important work done.”

Peterson, of the Greater Minnesota Cities Coalition, came to the lawmakers’ defense, saying that people in Greater Minnesota expect their legislators to be “independent thinkers.”

“Whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, they don’t expect their representatives to be 100% on par with what others in their party might want,” Peterson said in a written statement. “If it takes a few legislators to step up and take breaks in some of these high-impact laws, to make sure they don’t cross the line and that the details are done right, that’s fine.”

Republicans applauded the amendments during the House session. “The MPCA has created a lot of problems in the past years for companies and mining operations,” said Rep. Josh Heintzman, R-Niceway.

Lislegaard expressed her concerns about the Citizens’ Council bill during a hearing in March. Northern Minnesota lawmakers have expressed concerns about the board’s handling of the mining industry.

Lislegaard said the board could override recommendations of working regulators who scrutinize the project in the environmental permitting process. “What company in any way, shape, or form would spend the time, money, and resources to run a process to prove they can meet or exceed state and federal standards, and then on top of that, after you pass all the tests, the Citizens Council comes along and denies it?” Lislegaard said in a statement. that time.

In the state senate, DFB lawmakers have not included the citizens’ council measure in their sweeping environment bill, meaning the policy will not become law this year.

And Democrats at a previous Senate committee hearing made their own changes to narrow the scope of the cumulative effects bill, including excluding a vast strip of northeastern Minnesota known as Taconite help area At the request of Senator Grant Houseschild of DFL-Hermantown. Hauschild amended the bill with the Republicans’ help over committee chairman Senator Foung Hawj’s veto, DFL-St. pee. This version of the bill is also mainly limited to the seven-county metro.

Even more limited bill The panic drew from the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Boardwhich is often friendly to DFL proposals.

Democrats agree on most environmental policies and are likely to agree to both historical spending And controversial legislation among Republicans such as Sweeping new regulations on deer farmers It aims to reduce the prevalence of chronic wasting disease.

But there are also a lot of disagreements. A lot of the ideas that many DFL lawmakers and environmental nonprofits support don’t even get close to becoming law because of the rural democrats. For example, the House and Senate have never heard of bills intended to block copper and nickel mining projects because DFLers in northeast Minnesota support potential industry and hold important seats in the party’s swing districts.

But the defeat of the legislation supported by the progressive wing of the party was notable because of its general nature and because House Democrats have a slightly larger majority than Senate DFLers, which usually allows them to advance a more liberal agenda. Hansen said controversial ideas are usually thrown out “in the dark” by convention committees that meet in private to resolve differences between the House and Senate.

Hansen said lawmakers in greater Minnesota vote for their districts, but he also blamed lobbyists and interest groups for killing or narrowing down provisions he supports.

“We have to be able to move forward and not be paralyzed by fear,” Hansen said. “I don’t like it, I still have half a loaf and I keep squeezing it.”

MainPost staff writer Peter Callahan contributed to this report.