Special interests who seek to bring new coal plants and develop coastal marshlands are pushing five pieces of legislation designed to tip the legal process in their favor. Proponents of the bill have also fast tracked the bill - if successful, in just two short weeks, the judicial process for oversight of environmental decisionmaking could be dramatically changed.
Call your legislators now and tell them to oppose these bills. You can find your state senator and house representative here: http://www.sos.ga.gov/elections/polllocator/
Or send an email to jthompson@green-law.org asking how you can help.
Below are talking points and the bill numbers.
House Bills 1365, 1368 & 1370 and Senate Bills 486 & 492
• unfairly favor government bureaucrats over average citizens. The purpose of the administrative process is to provide a fair, impartial analysis of agency decisions, one that does not wrongly favor either the government or the affected citizens. These bills unfairly tilt the playing field in favor of the government bureaucracy and against the citizens who will be most impacted by the government's decision.
• are special interest bills designed to benefit one company with one project, but it would result in the overhaul of the entire administrative review process. This type of special interest legislation is repulsive to open, fair, and democratic government. If passed, these bills would be an embarrassment.
• eliminate the requirement that licensed professional engineers must review permits, which would include even the largest and most potentially dangerous facilities including nuclear plants, major dams, and even giant stadiums. The Georgia Legislature requires engineering licenses in order “to safeguard life, health property and to promote public welfare.” Now they want to eliminate this requirement for some of the most dangerous facilities in Georgia.
• remove the ability of independent administrative judges to act as neutral finders of fact and law. In so doing, it undermines the integrity of judicial review by dramatically changing the administrative appeals process for all environmental appeals in Georgia.
• eliminate important checks and balances on agency power. Under longstanding Georgia law, just reaffirmed by the courts last year, administrative law judges are vested with independence which allows them to judge cases fairly on their merits. Under these bills, a trained and impartial Administrative Law Judge must put aside his or her judgment and defer to any DNR employee’s opinion, which is antithetical to the notion of judicial independence.
• remove the checks and balances of agency power for only one agency. These bills create a special exemption allowing one government agency to receive less scrutiny than other agencies, a result which is simply not rational.
• waste scarce tax resources by forcing judges to expend resources and go through the motions of judicial review while in fact, these bills would create a "rubber stamp" process. Taxpayers do not want scarce resources dedicated to fruitless endeavors.
• hurt businesses. The vast majority of the appeals of environmental permits and other agency actions in Georgia are brought by permit holders, i.e. business and industry. These bills, introduced to change the outcome of one case, would impact any entity in Georgia seeking an environmental permit. These bills would make it much more difficult to question the wisdom of an environmental regulation or permitting decision, even if that decision is detrimental to a business. This is not what Georgia needs in the current economic climate.
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