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Last Updated 03/26/2013

Opening Day

The 85th General Assembly is scheduled to open on January 14, 2013.

Committees Assigned

The Senate and the House of Representatives have assigned their members to standing committees.  See the list of assignments to the committees that are or may be important to Sierra Club and the Chapter.

New Bottle Bill introduced

The Senate Appropriations Committee introduced a bill on March 26 that expands the 30-year-old bottle bill.  SSB1247 relates to the types of containers included under the beverage container control laws and the reimbursement amount paid by a distributor for empty beverage containers. The bill expands the list of beverages whose containers are regulated under Code chapter 455C, commonly referred to as the bottle bill. The newly regulated beverages include any nonalcoholic, carbonated and noncarbonated drinks excluding fruit and vegetable juices and fruit drinks and grade A milk and milk products as specified in the grade A pasteurized milk ordinance.

The bill also includes a list of other exceptions to the newly regulated beverages, limits the type of bottles, cans, jars, and cartons that are included under the definition for the term beverage container.

The bill excludes from the term bottles, cans, jars and cartons of three liters or more in size containing a noncarbonated beverage and bottles, cans, jars and cartons made of high-density polyethylene.

The reimbursement amount, commonly referred to as a handling fee, is paid by the distributor who collects the beverage containers from the dealer or person operating a redemption center. Currently, the reimbursement amount is 1 cent per container. The bill requires distributors to pay an additional 1 cent for each collected beverage container that is made of plastic.

The bill appropriates $10,000 from the general fund to the department of natural resources for purposes of administering the Code related to the beverage container control laws. 

Sierra Club Asks Appropriations Committee to Fund 13 CAFO Inspectors

The Iowa Chapter recently asked the Appropriations subcommittee on Agriculture & Natural Resources to appropriate money to fund 13 additional animal feeding operations inspectors.  In his budget, Governor Branstad included enough funding to add five inspectors, even though the Department of Natural Resources requested funding for 11 new inspectors.

The Chapter's request stems from the dedelegation petition that Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Environmental Integrity Project filed with the Environmental Protection Agency in September 2007 (find out more here).  The EPA chided the DNR in its informal investigative report last summer for several problems with the way DNR operates its program.  The DNR indicated in its response that it needs 13 new inspectors.

Read the Chapter's message to the Appropriations subcommittee.

Chasing Methane in the Legislature

The Chapter recently received a message from a 7th Grader who is leading an effort for the Legislature to pass a composting bill (SF306),  His message follows in its entirety.  Links have been added for style and easy reference.

 

My name is Ethan Trepka. I am a middle school student and in the STEMS club from Iowa City who is working with a team called Chasing Methane. We would appreciate your assistance in passing SF306, a bill regarding keeping food waste out of landfills. Our team's goal is to reduce the amount of methane released into the atmosphere by promoting industrial composting at landfills. We have completed waste audits, under the direction of the Iowa Waste Exchange, at two restaurants and the Capitol cafeteria. We have also completed in depth studies of restaurants and the capitol cafeteria to determine the amount of food waste produced and determined the volume of methane released if the food waste was placed in the landfill. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than Carbon Dioxide. Landfill's make up about 15% of the United States methane emissions. With help from Marty Jacobson of Green Iowa AmeriCorps, we calculated that if all of the 220,000 full service restaurants in the United States composted, there would be a 5% reduction in national methane emissions from landfills. Industrial composting in landfills has many benefits. Last year, the Iowa City landfill ran out of compost but still made 40 to 60 thousand dollars from the compost that was sold. In addition, the EPA has mandated that after July 2013 construction sites will be required to replace the top soil that is removed from the ground. Compost has been approved as a soil additive. We have learned from the Johnson County landfill that they anticipate a higher demand for compost.

 

We encouraged legislator's to created a bill, House File 123 that is now Senate File 306. This bill has been created and passed through a Senate subcommittee (Senate Study Bill 1138) and The Natural Resources and Environment committee. The full senate will vote on SF306 in March.

 

Would members of the Sierra Club be willing to contact state senators, encouraging them to vote for passage of SF 306? I have attached information about methane production, composting, and Iowa Senators contact information. The link to the bill is below. coolice.legis.iowa.gov/CoolICE/default.aspCategory=billinfo&Service=Billbook&menu=false&ga=85&hbill=SF306

Our team would greatly appreciate your support. Four Iowa landfills have shown food waste should be treated as an asset (composting) instead of a liability (compacted in landfills). Keeping food waste out of the landfills is the sensible thing to do.

Ethan Trepka, Chasing Methane team member

For more information, see Chasing Methane Fact Sheet and the Chasing Methane brochure.

Tips from a Legislator on Effective Lobbying

In March 2010, The Iowa Lawyer, a publication of the Iowa State Bar Association, published an article about Rep. Kraig Paulsen, who was Iowa House Minority Leader when the article was written.  In the article, Paulsen talked about what it takes to effectively lobby.[i] 

Just as in life, the legislature runs on relationships, Kraig says. A relationship doesnt constitute someone who rushes in to make contact with legislators for the first time on a big bill that he or she cares about, then disappears for five or 10 years. Relationships are about getting involved with ones elected officials back home.

He cites as an example an individual who works with Rural Electric Coops in the state. Every year when Kraig takes part in the parade in one of the towns in his district, he knows that when he turns a certain corner, this individual will get up from his lawn chair, come out to him in the parade and say hello. The individual also comes down to the Capitol a couple of times a year to visit with him.

He never asks for anything, but I know who he is. And, when a bill comes up in the house that has some impact on RECs, hell call me and say: Kraig that bill would be harmful to the RECs and their members. Because I have a relationship with this person, because I know who he is, I listen.

People sometimes ask what is the best way to contact a legislator. If you have a relationship with that legislator, it doesnt matter how you contact us, he says. If youre a constituent who I know for a host of reasons and who now has an issue to lobby me on, I will listen.

"In short, rather than the issue driving the relationship, the relationship drives the issue."

If you don't already have a relationship with your legislators, now is a good time to begin developing one.  Legislators regularly schedule public forums to meet with their constituents.  Links to those schedules are provided for you in the left navigation bar titled "Legislators' Public Forum Schedules."  Attend the forums, ask questions, provide constructive input and feedback.  Talk to your legislators when you see them in public places.  Call them when you have something important to share with them.  You may not always agree with them, but they will be more inclined to speak with you when you come to the Capitol if they already know you.