Monthly Archives: January 2016

Court Refuses to Stay EPA Rule Reducing Power Plant CO2 Emissions

January 24, 2016.     An earlier post described the basic requirements  of a new federal rule  (the Clean Power Plan) requiring existing  power plants to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.   Note: That post described the draft rule out for public comment in  2014; the final  rule approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in August  2015 differed from the draft rule  in some details — including the specific  state  CO2  reduction targets — but the basic requirements did not change.

North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality (formerly DENR)  opposed the rule early on and in October of 2015 joined 23 other states in a lawsuit challenging the final rule.  (More on the McCrory administration’s objections to the EPA rule here.)   Both the states and several business/industry groups  attacking the rule in separate lawsuits  asked the federal court to issue a preliminary injunction  (or “stay”) to prevent EPA from implementing  the Clean Power Plan rule until the lawsuits are resolved.

On January 21, the federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied all requests to stay implementation of the Clean Power Plan rule. The court’s  order did not discuss the basis for denial in detail; the court simply said the requests failed to meet the high standards for issuance of a preliminary injunction, citing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in  Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council (2008).  First,  the court must be persuaded that the plaintiff is ultimately likely  to win the case. A court will not give a  plaintiff the immediate advantage of a stay restricting the defendant’s actions if the plaintiff’s arguments are unlikely to win out in the end.  Even if the court finds the plaintiff has a likelihood of winning the case, the court will not issue a stay unless the plaintiff also shows that:

— The plaintiff is likely to suffer irreparable harm if the court doesn’t issue a preliminary injunction. In this case, the plaintiffs  had to convince the court that allowing EPA to move ahead with implementation of the Clean Power Plan rule  would cause immediate harm to the plaintiffs and that  harm could not be remedied by a later ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor.

— The balance of equities tips in the plaintiff’s favor.  In very simplified terms,  the plaintiffs had to show that a stay would do more good than harm.

— An injunction is in the public interest.  The public interest standard can work in favor of either the plaintiff or the defendant depending on the case. In the Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council case, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a preliminary injunction was not in the public interest because it would have restricted a particular type of military training exercise.

Since the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit did not provide specific reasons for refusing to stay the Clean Power Plan rule,  it is impossible to know exactly which of those standards the plaintiffs failed to meet.  The decision doesn’t necessarily mean the court thinks the state and business/industry plaintiffs have a weak case against the rule; failure to meet the other criteria could also lead to denial of a stay.  It is probably safe to say, however,  that the court did not believe the states or the business/industry plaintiffs  will  be harmed by allowing the Clean Power Plan rule to go into effect.

In asking for a stay, the states  identified two kinds of harm —  waste of state resources to comply with a federal rule that may be struck down by the courts and a much more nebulous harm to state sovereignty.  On the question of potentially wasted state resources, EPA pointed out: 1. the federal rule gives states until 2018  to develop a state plan to meet the CO2 reduction targets;  and  2. a state can also simply opt out and let EPA develop a CO2 reduction plan for its electric utilities.  The first actual CO2 reduction target comes several years after approval of  the state plans. The court seemed persuaded that the long planning and implementation timeline means states will not have to sink major, unrecoverable costs into Clean Power Plan compliance before the lawsuits are resolved.

It is hard to know what the court made of the somewhat novel argument that immediate implementation of the Clean Power Plan rule  would irreparably harm state sovereignty.  EPA pointed out that the Clean Power Plan rule gives states a lot of flexibility in developing plans to meet the  CO2 emissions reduction targets.  It is also difficult to argue the Clean Power Plan rule attacks state sovereignty without going to the next — much more radical step — of arguing that the federal government has no authority to regulate to protect air quality in the first place.   In any case, if the federal court strikes down the Clean Power Plan rule as either unconstitutional or beyond EPA’s statutory authority that would seem to adequately  remedy any hypothetical harm to  state sovereignty.

The Court of Appeals agreed to expedite the Clean Power Plan lawsuits and set the case for hearing on June 2, 2016.

Practical effects — States will continue to face a 2018 deadline for submission of  CO2 reduction plans. In one way, the impact on  N.C.  will be minimal  because the state  is  already on a fast track to submit a  plan to EPA in  2016.  The catch, however, is that the plan proposed by N.C.’s Department of Environmental Quality relies entirely on tighter emissions limits for a small set of existing coal-fired power plants and will only result in a fraction of the CO2 reductions the federal rule requires.  See another post  for background on the McCrory administration’s intent to submit a plan that does not take  credit for CO2 reductions associated with  increased renewable energy generation and energy efficiency improvements already required under  state law.  The shortfall in CO2 reductions in the plan being prepared by DEQ will almost certainly result in EPA disapproval.  Given the federal court’s denial of a stay, N.C.’s decision to deliberately fast track an unapprovable plan may mean  the state will have to revisit the plan sooner rather than later.

2015 in Review — Legislation

January 12, 2016. Some trends in environmental legislation:

Limiting Local Government Authority. After several years of legislation limiting the regulatory authority of state environmental agencies, the General Assembly turned to local government.

♦   Senate Bill 119  (Session Law 2015-264)  may have the practical effect of  eliminating local government  authority to regulate shale gas operations under  zoning, land use, stormwater, health,  and sedimentation control ordinances.  In 2014,  Session Law 2014-4  preempted local ordinances that  “would prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities, or use of horizontal drilling or hydraulic fracturing for that purpose”.   But the 2014 law created a presumption that local zoning and land use ordinances applicable to other types of development  (such as zoning, setbacks, buffers  and stormwater standards) could also apply to shale gas operations.

Senate Bill 119  rewrites  the 2014 provision to completely  preempt  local ordinances.  The new Oil and Gas Commission (replacing the Mining and Energy Commission) now has power to preempt the application of  local development ordinances even if  the ordinance would not preclude shale gas development or conflict with state standards.  Although the presumption  in favor of zoning and land use ordinances still appears in the law, the 2015 amendments direct the Commission to preempt a local ordinance at the request of the shale gas developer if the  drilling operation has received  state/federal permits and the Commission finds that exploration and development

…will not pose an unreasonable health or environmental risk to the surrounding locality and that the operator has taken or consented to take reasonable measures to avoid or manage foreseeable risks and to comply to the maximum feasible extent with applicable local ordinances.

In effect,  the Oil and Gas  Commission can set aside any  local ordinance and substitute its judgment about risk for that of local elected officials. Preemption of local ordinances could have several implications —

1. Complete preemption of local ordinances may  leave gaps in basic regulation of shale gas activities  since state standards do not address a number of   issues normally dealt with by local government such as noise,  traffic, solid waste disposal (trash — not drilling waste), and open burning.

2.  The law potentially allows preemption of local  stormwater ordinances needed to  meet state water supply watershed protection standards; comply with federal stormwater permits; or  minimize flooding.    The Environmental Management Commission has adopted stormwater rules  for shale gas operations, but those  rules expressly recognize that additional stormwater standards may apply to a particular operation and reserve the right to apply those standards — whether implemented by DEQ or by a local government.  The new preemption language in Senate Bill 119 does not recognize the possibility that local stormwater ordinances may be required under state or federal law.

3.  The provision  raises a question about implementation of  sedimentation control requirements through local sedimentation programs. The state’s Sedimentation Pollution Control Act allows cities and counties to take over implementation of the sedimentation program. In areas with local programs, sedimentation control requirements are set and enforced through local ordinances.  Nothing in Senate Bill 119 prevents the Oil and Gas Commission from preempting a local sedimentation ordinance.

♦  House Bill 44  included two provisions limiting local government authority to adopt or enforce other types of development ordinances —

Section 2 bars  local governments from enforcing a “voluntary” state environmental rule,  but defines “voluntary” rule in a creative way to include any state rule  that has  been repealed;  has been adopted, but is not yet in effect; or has been “temporarily or permanently held in abeyance”.  The last category would cover the  Jordan Lake water quality rules that have been delayed by legislative action.  Preventing  local enforcement  of existing Jordan Lake stormwater ordinances  may have been the main purpose of the provision, but it could also raise questions about the enforceability of other local ordinances. No one has  attempted to catalog all of the local ordinances that include requirements that once appeared in a now-repealed state rule or are proposed to be included in a new state rule that has not yet been adopted.   The House Bill 44 provision seems to assume that local environmental ordinances always follow  state regulatory action; it  ignores direct grants (by the General Assembly) of local government authority to  adopt ordinances to protect  public health and the environment.  For more on the implications of this provision,  see an earlier post.

Section 13  limits local government authority to adopt riparian buffer requirements.  The bill defines “riparian buffer”  to mean any setback from surface waters —  which could include a setback imposed for flood control.  (The definition seems broader than other  language in the provision  specifically referring  to  riparian buffers for water quality protection.) Under the bill, a local government cannot adopt and enforce a riparian buffer ordinance for water quality protection  that  goes beyond requirements of state or federal law or the conditions of a state or federal permit unless the EMC  approves the ordinance.

Shielding Evidence of Possible Environmental Violations

♦  House Bill 765  (the Regulatory Reform Act of 2015)  creates a new legal  privilege for information contained in an environmental audit report. (Companies use environmental audits  to identify  compliance problems;  opportunities for waste reduction;  and operational changes to reduce environmental impacts.)   Information covered by the privilege does not have to be shared with regulators and cannot be used by  regulatory agencies to document an environmental violation in  a civil enforcement case.   The privilege does not apply in a criminal  case, but the vast majority of environmental enforcement actions rely on civil rather than criminal penalties. See the section on environmental audit privilege/self-disclosure immunity in this earlier post for more on the scope of the privilege.

♦   House Bill 405    allows an employer to take legal action against an employee who 1. enters a “nonpublic” area of the workplace;  2.  takes photographs, makes recordings, or copies records without permission; and 3.  uses those documents “against the interest of the employer”.   The employer can sue the employee  for  monetary damages,  including legal fees and a $5,000 per day penalty.   Animal rights activists referred to House Bill 405  as the “Ag-Gag” bill — a term used for legislation targeting activists who go undercover on farms and in  processing facilities to document animal cruelty violations. But House Bill 405 is not limited to agricultural workers or documentation of animal cruelty. The bill could also be used to punish an employee who documents  illegal dumping of hazardous  waste and shares the evidence with regulators or the media.  See an earlier post for more on House Bill 405.

Lessening the Consequences for Some Environmental Violations.

♦  House Bill 765 grants immunity from civil penalties and fines for environmental violations that are voluntarily disclosed to state regulators.  The bill defines “voluntary” disclosure;  immunity would not apply to violations  documented  through information the company has a legal duty to report under state or federal law, for example. The bill limits how often a person (or company) can claim self-disclosure immunity — no more than once every two years; twice in a five-year period; and three times in a ten-year period.  The bill never defines “civil penalties and fines”, leaving a question about the breadth of the immunity.  For example, the bill is silent on whether “civil penalties and fines” includes natural resource damages such as  fish kill damages assessed for a wastewater spill. For a more detailed comparison to past state and present U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement policies on self-disclosed violations, see an earlier post.

♦  A provision in the budget bill (S.L. 2015-241) limits the total civil penalty for ongoing  violations of the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act to $25,000 if: 1. the violator had not previously been assessed a penalty for a sedimentation violation (which does not necessarily mean the person has not previously violated the law); and 2. the violator addresses damage caused by the violations within 180 days.  Previously, the law allowed the Department of Environmental Quality to assess a maximum penalty of $5,000 per violation, per day for continuing sedimentation violations. The fact that the meter on civil penalties could run until the violator addressed the problem created a powerful incentive for quick response — even though DEQ rarely assesses the maximum penalty. Quick action to correct a violation  translates to  less stream damage from uncontrolled erosion and sedimentation.  The recent amendments have the somewhat perverse effect of assuring the violator that  sedimentation violations can go uncorrected for nearly six months without resulting in an increased penalty.  The provision also means that committing numerous sedimentation violations on the development site will result in the same penalty as a single violation.  The new cap on continuing violation penalties also applies to penalties assessed by local sedimentation programs.

♦ House Bill 765  amends existing state laws to allow broader use of “risk-based”  cleanup  of environmental contamination. In a risk-based cleanup, the person responsible for environmental  contamination is not required to fully restore contaminated soil and groundwater. A risk-based  cleanup plan relies on a combination of limited remediation and land-use controls (such as deed restrictions) that prevent exposure to contamination  remaining on the site after the partial cleanup.  Groundwater cleanup costs represent a significant consequence of violating environmental laws — often exceeding penalties assessed by regulators — so  allowing a  more limited cleanup reduces the cost of violating the law.  (It also means the groundwater may remain contaminated and unusable for a very long time.)

House Bill 765 extends the benefits of lower cost, risk-based cleanup to several categories of  contaminated sites that had been  excluded  under  the state’s  2011  law  allowing risk-based remediation of  industrial contamination. Two of those categories broaden the use of risk-based remediation in ways that may undermine incentives for present environmental compliance:

—  New contamination incidents.  House Bill 765 repeals statute language  limiting use of risk-based remediation to contamination  reported  before the 2011 risk-based remediation law went into effect.  In 2011, allowing risk-based cleanup of industrial sites was seen as an incentive for remediation of properties with longstanding contamination  —  often resulting from activities that had been lawful at the time. Remediation costs remained  a significant incentive for present-day compliance with environmental standards. Removing the date restriction means that a  risk-based cleanup will now be an option for new contamination incidents resulting from activities violating current environmental laws.

—  Sites contaminated by petroleum releases from above-ground  storage tanks (ASTs).  There has long been a risk-based cleanup program for petroleum underground storage tanks (USTs),  but UST operators also have to meet extensive regulatory standards to  prevent future pollution incidents.  House Bill 765 gives AST owners  the benefit of risk-based cleanup without regulatory standards to prevent future releases.

Eliminating or Streamlining State Permit Requirements for Environmental Infrastructure

♦ The state budget (S.L. 2015-241)  includes a provision that changes landfill permitting, allowing issuance of a single “life of site” permit to cover construction and operation of a landfill that  often has a 30-year lifespan.  State rules had previously  required review and approval of the entire landfill site before construction, but also required each 5 or 10-year phase of the landfill to have a construction and operation permit.   Landfill construction will continue to be done in phases for economic and practical reasons,  but the “life of site permit” eliminates state compliance review for each new  phase of the landfill.   The change also seems to close the door on  new permit conditions for construction or operation of later landfill phases in response to scientific or  technological developments. The budget provision does not set minimum landfill inspection requirements in place of the 5 and 10-year phased permit reviews.

♦ House Bill 765 creates a new private permitting option for septic systems and other small on-site wastewater systems now permitted by local health departments. The provision  allows  a property owner to hire an engineer and soil scientist to approve the location and design of the system. The local health department will receive information about the system, but the engineer’s approval substitutes for a permit. It isn’t clear that  the laws allows the health department to prevent construction of an engineer-certified system based on inconsistency with state siting and design standards.

Skepticism about State Water Quality Rules. The 2015 General Assembly continued to focus on water quality rules and particularly those affecting real estate development activities — such as stormwater standards, wetland and stream mitigation requirements, and riparian buffer protection rules.

♦ The state budget includes a special provision further delaying implementation of the Jordan Lake water quality rules for  another 3 years or one year beyond completion of the Solar Bee pilot project (whichever is later). See an earlier post  here on the  2013 legislation creating the pilot project. The rules had been developed by the state’s Environmental Management Commission to address poor water quality  caused by  excess nutrients reaching the lake in wastewater discharges and  runoff from agricultural lands and developed areas.  Since adoption of the rules, the legislature has taken repeated steps over several legislative sessions to delay compliance deadlines in the rules. This session,  the  legislature also barred local government enforcement of stormwater ordinances adopted to comply with the Jordan Lake rules.

♦ House Bill 765  limits  regulatory authority and mitigation requirements for isolated wetlands and intermittent streams. (Isolated wetlands are wetlands that fall outside federal permitting jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act because the wetlands lack a connection to “navigable waters”.)  These provisions continue a several-year legislative trend toward limiting  protections for wetlands and waters to the minimum required under federal law.

♦ Some proposals to significantly roll back other water quality rules (particularly stormwater and  riparian buffer rules) failed this session, but became the subject of legislatively mandated studies. Among the studies required before the April 2016 legislative session: a study of coastal stormwater rules; a study on the feasibility of entirely exempting linear utility projects (such as pipelines) from  environmental standards;  and an Environmental Review Commission study of the  state stormwater program.

Expanding Use of Erosion Control Structures on Ocean and Inlet Shorelines

♦ A   provision in the budget bill  (S.L. 2015-241)  changes state rules on use of sandbag  structures on the oceanfront.  Rules adopted by the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission have limited use of protective sandbag structures to situations where a building faces an imminent erosion threat. (These sandbag  structures are substantial in size and can have many of the same long-term impacts as permanent seawalls; the rules do not apply to sandbags used to prevent water from entering a building during a flood event.)   The budget bill changes the standards to allow an oceanfront property owner to install a sandbag  structure to align with an existing sandbag structure on adjacent property without showing an imminent erosion threat to a building on their own property.

♦ The budget bill also increases the number of terminal groin structures that can be permitted at the state’s ocean inlets from four to six and identifies New River Inlet for location of two of the additional structures. See an earlier post  for more on earlier legislation allowing construction of terminal groins as a  pilot project. The latest provision continues a several-year trend of reducing regulatory requirements for approval of terminal groin projects and increasing the number of projects that can be permitted.

2015 in Review — Budget Trends

January 6, 2016. The past year  brought significant changes in environmental laws, environmental rules and funding for environmental protection and conservation.  Sometimes the overall picture only becomes clear at the end.  First, a look  at the impact of 2015 budget decisions on environmental and conservation programs.

TRENDS:

 — Separation of  environmental research, education and conservation programs from environmental protection programs. The state budget moved a number of nonregulatory programs from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)  to a new Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The programs being transferred:  the Division of Parks and Recreation, N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences,  N.C. Aquariums, the  N.C. Zoo, the Natural Heritage Program and the Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF). The new department  combines those programs with historical and cultural programs previously in the Department of Cultural Resources.    The 2015 reorganization continues a series of  program transfers intended to reduce the state’s  environment agency to just the environmental regulatory programs.  (In previous legislative sessions, the General Assembly transferred  the Division of Forest Resources and the Division of Soil and Water Conservation from DENR to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.)  In some cases, the transfers have  separated regulatory and non-regulatory water quality programs originally intended to work as partners in a common effort.  DENR has now  been renamed the Department of Environmental Quality  or “DEQ”.

—  Reduction in state funding for voluntary efforts to improve and protect water quality.   The General Assembly created the Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF) in 1996 to fund projects to prevent water pollution and restore water bodies  impaired  by pollution. CWMTF  complemented the water quality regulatory program by providing incentives for voluntary measures such as  preservation of riparian buffers and extension of sewer lines to  areas with failing septic systems.  Since 2008, the General Assembly has reduced  annual appropriations to the Trust Fund by 90%.   In 2014,   legislation diluted the original CWMTF focus on water quality protection by authorizing use of  the Trust Fund for acquisition of historic sites and development buffers around military bases.  In 2013-2014, the General Assembly pulled funding away from the core CWMTF competitive grant program for use in a legislatively mandated pilot project and the 2015 budget earmarks additional funds for the Solar Bee project.  (See an earlier post on Jordan Lake for background on the Solar Bee pilot project.)  The 2015 reorganization has the effect of also moving  the Clean Water Management Trust Fund into a new department with a focus on management of public attractions rather than environmental quality.

—  Disinvestment in  data collection on rare and endangered species.   Since 1985, the  N.C. Natural Heritage Program has researched, classified and inventoried the state’s natural resources, including rare and endangered plant and animal species. Information collected by the program can be used to document the natural resource  value of property donated for conservation purposes and to assess the environmental impacts of development projects.  State agencies  like the Department of Transportation, local governments and private developers have relied on the Natural Heritage Program for information necessary to plan projects and meet environmental standards. Following significant cuts in the previous budget cycle, the 2015 budget reduced funding for the Natural Heritage Program by another 40%.  The program now has a statewide staff of six people. Disinvestment in state collection of information on rare and endangered species will not make the requirements of the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act go away.  Loss of the Natural Heritage Program as a reliable and current source of information may, however, increase the amount of time and money developers  have to invest to comply with those requirements.

—  Less state funding to cleanup petroleum contamination from underground storage tanks/ lower cleanup standards. The budget eliminates a state fund for cleanup of petroleum contamination from small  petroleum underground storage tanks (USTs) such as home heating oil tanks.   The Noncommercial UST Trust Fund has assisted property owners with the cost of soil and groundwater remediation caused by leaks from farm, home and small commercial USTs.  The budget allocates additional money to  cover pending claims, but petroleum releases reported to DEQ after October 1, 2015 will not be eligible for funding.  As a trade off for loss of state assistance with cleanup costs, the budget bill limits the amount of soil remediation DEQ can require. See an earlier post for more on the change in cleanup standards for noncommercial UST sites. Elimination of the Noncommercial UST Trust Fund means that the cost of cleaning up petroleum contamination discovered in the future  will fall entirely on the homeowner, farmer or business.

The budget reduced funding for the Commercial UST Trust Fund  (which helps offset the cost of cleaning up petroleum contamination from larger USTs) by $600,000. The budget also replaced the Commercial UST Trust Fund’s ongoing annual appropriation from the Highway Fund with a one-time appropriation and a requirement for legislative review to determine whether the Commercial UST Trust Fund should be continued. The Commercial UST Trust Fund operates like an environmental insurance program for the owners of large, commercial USTs.  The  existence of the Trust Fund allows commercial UST owners to comply with federal rules requiring  tank owners to have  financial assurance  to cover environmental remediation costs. In the absence of the Commercial UST Trust Fund, tank owners would have to meet those requirements through self-insurance, bonding or purchase of an environmental insurance policy.

— Elimination of transfers from the Highway Fund to environmental programs.  For many years, the General Assembly has earmarked a small percentage of Highway Fund  revenues for environmental programs related to transportation.  The most significant recipients have been the Commercial and Noncommercial UST Trust Funds, DEQ’s  air quality program,  and the Shallow Draft Navigation Dredging Fund.   The 2015 budget replaces Highway Fund transfers to the Commercial UST Trust Fund, the Mercury Pollution Prevention Fund, and DEQ’s air quality program with onetime appropriations and directs legislative appropriations committees  to study whether the transfers — and the programs receiving the transfers — should be continued in the future, funded differently  or eliminated entirely. The transfers represent a significant amount of funding for the Commercial UST Trust Fund  (approximately $13.3 million in 2015) and the air quality program ($7.2 million in 2015). On the other hand, the budget actually increased the transfer from the Highway Fund to the Shallow Draft Navigation Dredging Fund.

— Increased funding  for  oyster cultivation,  water/sewer infrastructure grants, dam safety inspectors, shale gas exploration, coastal dredging and state parks.  A few programs received increased funding for the two-year budget cycle. The largest budget increases went to maintenance dredging of shallow draft navigation channels at the coast ($40 million);  state water/wastewater infrastructure grants for rural and economically distressed communities ($17.4 million);  and the state parks system  ($11 million). The budget also earmarks $500,000 for additional state testing to identify potential shale gas deposits.

—  Eliminating special fund accounts for environmental permit fees.  For many years, the General Assembly created  “special fund” accounts in the DEQ  budget for permit fees. The special fund accounts existed to insure fee revenue would be used only to support the permitting program; for example,  mining permit fees went into the Mining Fund to be used exclusively to support the mining program.  These special funds were “non-reverting” accounts which means any fee revenue unspent at the end of the state fiscal year rolled over into the next fiscal year budget for the permitting program instead of reverting to the state’s General Fund.  Business and industry tended to support creation of special fund accounts to insure permit fees didn’t subsidize unrelated state government activities. In 2015, the General Assembly continued a several-year trend of eliminating special fund accounts and shifting fee revenue in those accounts to the General Fund budget.   This year, the General Assembly eliminated special fund accounts for mining fees, stormwater fees, and soil remediation fees.   State law still requires DEQ to use the fee revenue to support the permit program that generated the fees,  but any unused funds will revert to the state’s General Fund at the end of the fiscal year. Once reverted to the General Fund, the legislature can appropriate the fee revenue for any purpose.

RESULTS:

1. A smaller, more strictly regulatory,  environment agency.

2. A reduced state commitment to voluntary water quality improvement projects and collection of information on rare and endangered species.

3. A smaller state role in cleanup of environmental contamination from privately owned petroleum underground storage tanks. (A role that may shrink further depending on the results of legislative review of the Commercial UST Trust Fund in 2016.)

4. Increased legislative control over fee revenues generated by environmental permitting programs.

5. Uncertainty about future funding for air quality programs and the Commercial UST Trust Fund.

6. Increased state investment in  programs potentially affecting economic development  such as state parks, water and sewer infrastructure,  maintenance of navigation channels, shale gas exploration, and oyster cultivation.