It was a long shot but I was kind of hoping John Bel would veto this transportation carve out from the general fund. They say there are little tricks and workarounds built into it to prevent this but in all likelihood, it will mean less money for schools and hospitals and a variety of state services down the.. um... road.
Also, that "self-reporting" bill for polluting industry we wrote about on Wednesday, of course, he signed that too. The effects of the new law are still open to interpretation but this certainly seems like an invitation to let some rather bad events slide on technicalities.
Bagert referred to records submitted to DEQ for several other accidents in which the actual levels of the pollution were either unknown or left off the record, prompting DEQ to accept it as a minor non-reportable incident.
In one such case on May 8, the oil and gas company, Lobo Operating Inc., discovered one of its pipelines leaking into the waters of Breton Sound after someone noticed a sheen of oil on the surface. According to the document submitted to DEQ, the oil sheen was measured to be 10 feet wide by 2 miles long yet was deemed to be less than a half-gallon and below the reportable quantity. The report further indicated that the sheen escaped “beyond the incident location” and was unrecoverable.
Bagert said he is worried the public might no longer have access to these types of records if such accidents involving unknown quantities of released pollution are deemed minor events and accepted under the self-audit program. But he is optimistic after the governor’s office told him it would work with Together Louisiana on implementing the new DEQ regulations, Bagert said.
Anyway it's nice that they are "optimistic" now.
Meanwhile, given that the Governor has gone ahead and signed bills like these that carry significant impacts toward meeting conservative priorities, you would think that Republicans would be pleased. And, of course, you would be wrong about that.
The babies are thinking about coming back into session for one more big baby fit.
Senate President Page Cortez and other key lawmakers said Wednesday there is a growing likelihood Louisiana will hold its first session to debate whether to override gubernatorial vetoes.
The gathering would begin July 20 and could last until July 24.
Legislators typically cancel veto override sessions when a majority of the House or Senate – 53 and 20 respectively – cast ballots saying the session is not needed.
But Gov. John Bel Edwards' veto of several high-profile bills, and the possibility he may veto more, is boosting chances lawmakers will return to the State Capitol.
A list of the Governor's 28 vetoes and his reasons for issuing them can be found here. Of the bills we are told are the most likely to spur a veto session, the transportation bill was the most substantive. But John Bel signed that one so now if the baby fit happens it will be over the two most performatively stupid culture war items lawmakers wasted our time with this year.
One would allow anyone 21 years or older to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. The other would cruelly ban transgender high school students from participating in team sports. Both of those bills passes with theoretically "veto-proof" majorities. But that's not really a guarantee that the same legislators will vote again to override a veto. The concealed carry bill is opposed by the normally quite powerful Sheriffs Association which could easily flip a few votes back. For the trans students, well, let's hope at least some of these legislators won't actually vote to hurt these kids when they know the vote will actually count.
But then we have not done well this year expecting this group to do the right thing in a moment of truth. There's always hope, one supposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment