Senate Bill 411 a piece of legislation that, as presented, appears to be penned with good intentions. The bill was originally referred to as the “Acid Mine Drainage” bill, now amended with the removal of the term “Acid”. The bill provides for the use of highly toxic Acid Mine Drainage water in the process of hydraulic fracking. It is proposed as a remedy to clean up, remove and reuse years of accumulated, environmentally devastated waters and an alternative to help decrease the taking of unsustainably high volumes of fresh water – waters polluted by the coal industry and admittedly left behind with no known method to cleanup.
Cleanup and recycling sound like environmentally responsible actions. How can one say they oppose environmentally sound actions? Companies apparently do not need legislation to permit them to use Acid Mine Drainage waters. What they do need is the protection of the Good Samaritan Act, which provides the company with indemnification from future harm.
If this legislation concerns you, we strongly encourage you investigate further and ask your Senator to oppose it as we do. Time is critical.
Merit Selection for Judges: a position the League has supported since 1949. Changing from an elective system to a merit selection system for judges requires a constitutional amendment. This is a lengthy process, which requires both action by the legislature and approval by the public.
Please weigh In with your support. The way we select our judges matters. There are many different ways to select judges. Merit selection is the system best designed to ensure that the most qualified candidates reach the bench and that we have fair and impartial judges.
Both HB 1848 and SB 298 have been referred to the Committee on Judiciary. We encourage you to contact members of the committee in support of this legislation.
The chairs of the House Judiciary Committee are: Representative Marsico and Representative Caltagirone
The chairs of the Senate Judiciary Committee are: Senator Greenleaf and Senator Leach
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