Legislature takes action on bills of interest
After 10 days of the 2017 Legislature there have been several bills of interest seeing action and others bills that have been scheduled. The House Energy and Environment Committee heard hearings on several bills: HB 2124 and HB 2725, the woodsmoke workgroup bills, had initial public hearings on Wednesday, February 1. HB 2136, the CREA introduced bill relating to community renewable energy, had its first public hearing on February 6th.
SB 383, a bill that would allocate an additional $1.5 million to the onsite septic loan program, had a public hearing and work session the Senate Energy and Environment Committee; it now heads to the Ways and Means Committee. The committee also held an initial public hearing on extending the sunset of the biomass collector or producer tax, SB 168.
The House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee had its first hearing on a bill that would fund the Oregon Noxious Weeds program, HB 2043.
Coming Up Next
There are a couple of bills relating to housing (HB 2773), tiny house inspections (HB 2165), and energy efficiency (HB 2710). Staff continue to work on land use issues around siting of accessory dwelling units on rural lands and secure medicine takeback. In a couple of weeks the Natural Resources Subcommittee of Ways and Means Committee will begin scheduling agency budgets as well.
Contributed by: Mark Nystrom | AOC Energy, Environment & Land Use policy manager