HOTLIST – Communities’ Rights and the State of the State
It’s hard to believe we already put three weeks of this legislative session in the history books. Last week education reform dominated conversations in the House. As legislators begin to work more on education, we’re going to need voices of committed conservation voters, like you, to continue to raise the profile of conservation policies – like clean energy and stopping offshore drilling.
Last week also closed out the first 25 days of the 100 Day Clean Energy Agenda campaign. With two bills introduced (S.332 and H.3659), a clean energy press conference, and a significant amount of bipartisan support, we’re off to a good start. But we only have 75 days remaining to get energy competition bills to the Governor’s desk – and we need your help to press lawmakers to act. Send a message to your legislators and urge them to support clean energy today!
What else happened last week:
- Plastic Bag Pollution: Unfortunately, the Anti-Home Rule bill that will take away the rights of local communities to address plastic bag pollution has returned. S.394 was introduced this week in the Senate by Senators Talley and Climer. Please take action today by asking your Senator to oppose S.394.
- State of the State: I hope you caught Governor McMaster’s powerful statements about environmental protection in his State of the State address. I particularly appreciated this sentiment:
“Our economic growth and the preservation of our natural environment are not opposing objectives which must be balanced as in a competition, one against the other. Instead, they are complementary, each dependent on the other. . . . Economic prosperity requires that we address water in a comprehensive fashion – whether it is flooding, sea rise, aquifer depletion, or upstream withdrawal. Make no mistake – a plentiful water supply is essential to our manufacturing, agricultural and tourism industries as well as our quality of life. That means that we must stand firmly against all efforts to endanger the future of our pristine coastline, our beaches, our sea islands, our marshes, and our watersheds. Ladies and gentlemen, that means we will not have offshore testing or drilling off the coast of South Carolina.”
The week ahead:
The coming week is one of those strangely quiet weeks at the Statehouse with few committee meetings around our policy priorities. However, that doesn’t mean that the work slows down. Although there aren’t committee or subcommittee meetings, your voice and engagement on the issues still keep our priorities at the forefront of lawmakers’ minds.
Asking your legislator to support the two energy competition bills, pushing them to oppose the attack on home rule and plastic bag ordinances, and encouraging them to oppose offshore drilling – will give our team in the lobby the grassroots pressure they need to continue to achieve success on these issues
Join us in Columbia!
Not only do we need your help contacting your legislators, but we’d also love to see you in person on the Statehouse grounds. We have two opportunities to interact with legislators this spring:
- Please RSVP today for the Conservation Coalition Legislative Breakfast on February 21, 2019, from 8-10 am in Room 112 of the Blatt Building. We’ll enjoy breakfast from Blue Marlin while chatting with legislators and our friends in the SC Conservation Coalition about our legislative priorities and conservation values.
- Please save the date for the Conservation Coalition Lobby Day and Oyster Roast on March 19, 2019
As always, you can continue to follow our weekly hotlist and more opportunities to take action at www.cvsc.beamandhinge.com.