by Carla Klein, Chapter Director
One of the greatest advantages of belonging to a national organization like the Sierra Club is the wonderful training sessions that are available. I recently attended the Annual State Colloquium held in South Carolina. This is a training Sierra Club offers for Chapter Directors and those individuals that do lobbying at the state level for the Sierra Club.
The Colloquium offers a variety of sessions from legislative bill analysis to renewable energy options. The Club brings in excellent speakers from across the country to provide an insiders view on critical topics. An issue that many lobbyists are really having to take a closer look at during these difficult economic times, is the state budget process. A session led by Dan Grelach, Senior Policy Advisor for Fiscal Affairs to Governor Easley of North Carolina, stressed the importance of state budgets to environmental protection.
In past years attacks on the environment were usually much more straightforward, i.e. introducing bills that would limit the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) authority, such as our “Environmental Destruction Act” SB 36, that we fought off last session. Now many states are seeing attempts to limit the agencies' authority through budget cuts. Some state legislators are using the current fiscal problems in their state as a tool to strategically dismantle environmental protections. Rather than targeting true pork-barrel items in a budget they are taking aim at jobs and funds that provide inspections and enforcement of environmental laws.
We saw these tactics last session in Missouri with the introductions of bills to cut the Missouri Department of Conservation’s budget in half and seeing the MDNR general revenue budget cut by 33%, more than any other state agency. MDNR is still on the cutting block, as the battle over Missouri’s budget woes continues.
Another important development on the legislative front was learning about ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-funded membership organization of conservative and often virulently anti-environmental state legislators. This organization carefully drafts legislation that is couched in language to “protect” small business and uses “regulatory flexibility” legislation to accomplish environmental rollbacks. The group of anti-environmental legislators is very clever in their tactics. They realize that the majority of American’s value environmental protection, so to accomplish environmental rollbacks they have to mislead the public with catchy titles. An example of one of their crafty bills is “SB 718 Creates Small Business Regulatory Fairness Board.” Who doesn’t want to see small business treated fairly, right? This bill seems harmless on the surface until you realize that the definition of a small business is one that employees less than 500 employees. This definition of a small business would include 97% of all business in the United States. We will definitely have to be more vigilant to catch all the evildoers’ tricks this next session.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the colloquium is the chance to exchange ideas and war stories with other Chapter Directors and Lobbyists. The wealth of knowledge and experience within the Club is astounding. As you can imagine those that have worked for the Sierra Club for several years have formed some very strong friendships. The highlight of the entire event was the “Ken Midkiff Retirement Roast.”
We all had great fun at Ken’s expense while Chapter Directors and Lobbyists alike told stories of Ken’s past adventures, of course embellishing a bit and putting their own spin on the event. Ken Kramer, Director from Texas said he thought Ken had truly lost his mind if he thought he could write a book called The Meat You Eat. “The man hasn’t eaten meat in fifteen years Ken Kramer explained, “what does he know about eating meat?”
Ken sat quietly and good, heartily taking one joke after the other. The roast ended with Bill Craven, past Kansas lobbyist, presenting Ken with the Prince of Poop award for all his accomplishments in fighting CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). In a moment of seriousness Ken received a standing ovation from his fellow colleagues. I believe there may have been a tear in Ken’s eye. I know there were in a few others.