60th Montana State Legislature - Transmittal Voting Record

We’ve reached the mid-point of the 60th Legislative Session. Montana Conservation Voters (MCV) tracks legislator’s floor and committee votes, in this transmittal report, on bills affecting the environment. This is a service to MCV members and the broader conservation and environmental community.

As you know, MCV endorses and helps elect candidates that promise to stand up for clean air and water, renewable energy, open space and public health when elected. We’ve indicated MCV-endorsed legislators in this report by bolding their names. This report shows whether legislators who MCV has endorsed are living up to the campaign pledges they made when MCV endorsed them, it also shows whether other non-endorsed legislators’ campaign promises square with their votes to protect the environment.

We hope that you will use this report in conversation with your friends, family, neighbors, and most importantly, your legislators. Please find bill descriptions as well as a spreadsheet of legislative votes. A (+) means the legislator voted with the conservation community, while (-) indicates a vote opposing our position on the measure. The bills selected for this transmittal report reflect priorities identified by the conservation and environmental groups as part of our coalition work. But there are some bills that have passed or been killed that have been featured on MCV’s weekly Legislative Hot List that aren’t included in this report. So please look up the bill status at www.leg.mt.gov or call Sarah Cobler for more information.

Mid-session marks the point at which all non-revenue bills must pass through one chamber and transmit to the next. Therefore, bills that miss the transmittal deadline are dead. Bills assessing a tax or otherwise considered a revenue bill are not required to meet the mid-session deadline.

This year, several bills prioritized by the conservation lobby are alive and well. The Montana Senate gave an enthusiastic thumbs up to three bills aimed at diversifying Montana’s energy sources into clean, renewable technologies. Bills to encourage biodiesel production (SB 432), energy efficiency in state owned vehicles (SB 449) and carbon capture from new coal production (SB 218) passed the full Senate just this week with overwhelming majorities. All three bills will head to the House of Representatives for consideration in the coming weeks. The Senate also affirmed the publics’ right to access rivers and streams from bridges (SB 78), allow conservation easements on state lands (SB 391) among other bills described in this report.

The House supported a measure to give tax credits for biodiesel production (HB 166). Additionally, a bill that would provide additional tax credits to consumers and small businesses for energy efficiency and conservation installations (HB 216) is alive in committee. Finally, a measure to reduce Montana’s contribution to global warming and cap carbon emissions at 1990 levels will be heard March 9th in House Natural Resources.

On the other hand, the House killed a number of renewable energy and conservation priorities, and passed some terrible bills including two that attack basic environmental protections (HB 405 and HB 610). We look forward to working with members of the House and Senate to pass proactive conservation bills and kill these attacks on current environmental law, but we’ll need your help to do it.

You can help pass great conservation bills and defeat more roll-backs of basic environmental protections in several ways:

• First, please review this transmittal voting record and contact your legislators;
• If they’ve voted for conservation and environmental protection, thank them and ask them to stay the course;
• If they’ve voted against the conservation community, let them know they still have time to vote to protect Montana’s unique natural heritage;
• Attend MCV’s Lobby Day Friday, March 9th. We’ll provide training and help you meet your legislators to speak to them directly. Then, stay in Helena for the evening for MCV’s Annual Meeting, where you can mingle with elected officials and other members of the conservation community;
• Please consider financially supporting our legislative work with a special gift to the MCV Legislative Fund.
  

Sarah Cobler, MCV legislative lobbyist,
sarah@mtvoters.org | 406.581.2284

Siri Smillie, MCV legislative intern,
siri@mtvoters.org | 406.698.6729

Jeanne-Marie Souvigney, MCV legislative lobbyist, jsouvigney@onemain.com | 406.581.8942