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We need your help to continue our work on Green Energy, Sustainable Agriculture and 21st Century Transportation legislation.  Donate Now!

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We Need You.  
Help Stop Three Bills that Move Indiana Backwards.
And Help Advance a Bill that Moves Us Ahead.
HEC STATE HOUSE

Thanks to you, more than 3,000 emails and calls - that we know of - have been sent on just four pieces of legislation, showing how much concern you have for Indiana's health, environment, and future.

Your efforts have helped advance a bill that's good for Indiana, and slow down the momentum to pass three dangerous ones.  

We're getting close to key votes on four bills, and we need your help again.  Read below, and take action!   
HB 1143: Ties Indiana's Policymakers' Hands to Further Protect Your Air & Water
coal ash/power plant HB 1143 will make it illegal for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to adopt any environmental safeguards that are better than the federal minimum standards.  

What does this mean for Indiana?  It means that Indiana's environmental policymakers couldn't, on their own, tighten safeguards from atrazine, a chemical banned in the EU, or from coal ash sludge, for which Indiana has the highest number of lagoons in the country. 

Where is it now?

HB 1143 passed out of the Indiana House. This bill will be heard in the Senate Environmental Affairs committee on Monday, February 24.  

 

ACT NOW!
Call your Indiana State Senator and urge him/her to oppose HB 1143 if it makes it out of committee!  You can find your legislators HERE, or send an email through our Action Center.

Want to do more?  Contact Senator Charbonneau, the chair of the Environmental Affairs committee, and urge him to keep HB 1143 from passing out of his committee!
SB 186: Unjust and Dangerous "Right to Farm" Bill
This big favor for big agribusiness will provide a legal shield to pave the way for unfettered use of controversial industry practices and technologies such as GMO/GE crops, antibiotics and growth hormones in livestock, harmful pesticides and fertilizers, gestation crates, battery cages, and vast, open air animal feces-filled lagoons.
 

Where is it now?

Danger: SB 186 could soon become Indiana law.   It has already passed out of the Senate.   Despite a noble, bi-partisan effort to amend the bill in the House - to deal with a coalition of opponents' concerns - this bill will advance to the House floor, as early as Monday.


ACT NOW!
Call or email your State Representative TODAY and urge him/her to oppose SB 186!  You can find your Representative here, or you can send an email with just one click through our Action Center

If you want to do more, please contact the House Judiciary Committee Chair, Gregory Steuerwald, and the Speaker of the House, Brian Bosma, and urge them to "recommit" SB 186 to the House Judiciary Committee so that this bill can be studied for its dangerous impacts.
SUCCESS: Transit Bill Passes 1st House Committee!  Another Committee Vote Coming Up.
The mass transit funding bill has made it through the next step in the legislative process!  SB 176 passed the Senate with a bipartisan vote of 28-20 on February 4.  The transit bill then crossed to the House, where it passed the House Roads and Transportation committee 12-1 on February 12.  It will be heard in the House Ways and Means Committee early, during the week of Feb. 24th.

Please continue supporting improved mass transit for central Indiana! Contact your state representative TODAY and urge him/her to vote YES on SB 176.
SB 340 will allow industrial users to withdraw from Indiana's energy efficiency resources standard (EERS), Indiana's effective, statewide energy efficiency program.  Allowing Indiana's industry - which makes up 50% of the EERS goal - to opt out will seriously undermine the entire EERS!
Where is it now?
SB 340 has already passed out of the Senate as well as the House Utilities Committee. It will likely become an even worse bill on the House floor. It will be voted on by the full House of Representatives early during the week of Feb. 24th.

 

ACT NOW!
While Hoosier manufacturers would, with passage of this bill, be able to withdraw from this statewide energy efficiency program and no longer pay into the program, they would garner the broad customer savings from the program. Therefore, the program discriminates against Hoosier homes and small businesses, who will continue to pay into the program. In addition, overall energy efficiency savings will decline, meaning needlessly higher electricity bills and less pollution reduction than could have been.
 
Tell your legislators that we should not be moving backwards. Call your State Representative and urge him/her to oppose this bill. Alternatively, send an email through our Action Center today!

Thank you for taking action on these critical bills!  If you need help reaching your legislator, or want more information on these bills, please write Falon French at [email protected].

 

Sincerely,

JesseTrans Sig final  

Jesse Kharbanda

Executive Director

Hoosier Environmental Council