June 2, 2014
By Michael Berg, Chapter Staff
Another Legislative Session has come and gone in Jefferson City – and the Missouri Sierra Club was there fighting for environmental stewardship.
Over 80 members and supporters came to the Capitol from throughout the state on four separate occasions to speak with legislators. In addition, we conducted In-District meetings with Senators Scott Sifton and Jason Holsman, and with Representatives John Wright and Stephen Webber.
One of our top priorities this year was the passage of a resolution calling for the monitoring of toxic coal ash at disposal sites. In an improvement over 2013, House Concurrent Resolution 28 received a hearing in the Tourism and Natural Resources Committee on March 27, where several Sierra Club members made cogent and impassioned arguments for the need to protect our health and environment from heavy metals and other pollutants found in coal ash. Unfortunately Committee Chair Don Phillips neglected to bring the resolution to a vote.
Much of our efforts were spent trying to stop bad legislation. One of the worst to pass was House Bill 1631, which weakens the ability of the Department of Natural Resources to enforce new EPA regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately attempts to even further weaken emissions regulations never came up for a vote.
This legislative program was carried out through the work of our Missouri Chapter Legislative Committee - Committee Chair Mike Diel, Dan Reed, Carolyn Amparan, Caroline Pufalt, Ross Hunt, Juli Viel, Bob Klepper, Henry Robertson, Claus Wawrzinek, David Mitchell, Steve Mohler, Anne McGregor and Myra Scroggs.
Legislative Scorecard
In order to help you better evaluate your own and other members of the state Legislature, we are including in this newsletter our 2013-2014 Missouri Sierra Club Legislative Scorecard. We hope it will be useful during the upcoming elections and for any future interactions you may have with your elected leaders. If you do not know your State Senator and Representative, you can easily find out at: http://bit.ly/mo_leg_find