Adam Snyder, executive director of Conservation Alabama, will provide Green Space with updates regarding the status of key bills related to the environment during the current session of the Alabama legislature. This is Snyder’s second report:

With the first full week of the Alabama State Legislature’s new session in the books, it seems clear that the environment has been playing defense.

Guest Columnist, Adam Snyder

First, Senator Roger Bedford and Representative Richard Lindsey issued a letter to their colleagues proposing a “Conserve Alabama” constitutional amendment. The amendment is expected to be the direct manifestation of the Alabama Farmers Federation’s desire to take public funding from the state’s Forever Wild program and instead redirect those dollars for privately owned “farmland preservation.”

Then, Senator Lowell Barron’s $1 billion for roads bill (SB161) hurriedly moved through a Senate committee and was expected to come to a vote on Tuesday, Jan. 19. While Alabamians drive over more than 2,100 structurally deficient bridges each day, SB161 would allocate $100 million per year for 10 years mostly for new, sprawling road projects and only a fraction for repair and maintenance.

Alabama's environment is under fire by the state legislature

Third, Senator Kim Benefield introduced a modified version of the “Family Farm Preservation Act” (SB61) this year. Rural citizens and environmental organizations have been fighting this bill for nearly a decade due to its goal of making farming practices all but immune to nuisance lawsuits. SB61 presumably would open the doors for new concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), including some involving hogs and chickens, to come to the state. Despite some changes to the bill this year, citizen groups have had to plead with Senator Benefield to set a public hearing on SB61.

Finally, HB195 prohibits the director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management from regulating greenhouse gas emissions or implementing a cap and trade program without express legislative authorization. In 1998, the legislature passed similar legislation prohibiting the ADEM director from proposing new greenhouse gas emissions rules following the climate change summit in Kyoto, Japan.

To learn more about Snyder’s organization, which is Alabama’s only full-time environmental lobbying group, visit www.conservationalabama.org.