ALEC's Efforts to Rewrite Laws about Environment, Energy and Agriculture
The bills on this page represent the efforts of ALEC corporations to undermine federal environmental standards, eliminate the ability of local governments to manage land use and zoning, and to give corporate polluters free reign to contaminate air and water. These "model bills" are drafted at American Legislative Exchange Council conventions with input from, and approval by, Big Business, then introduced in state legislatures to change the rules that conserve the environment for all Americans. Politicians are elected to represent the people, not corporations; through ALEC, corporations have both a VOICE and a VOTE on specific state laws. Do you?
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Learn MORE about the "Model Bills" ALEC Corporations Are Backing to Rewrite YOUR Rights
The Center for Media and Democracy analyzed the bills ALEC politicians and corporations voted for. More analysis is available below and also at ALEC Exposed's sister sites, PRWatch and SourceWatch.
How are corporations undermining environmental conservation in these bills?
Energy companies, corporate polluters, Big Agriculture and their politician allies VOTED to change environmental rules by:
Eliminating land use and zoning regulations designed to guide new development according to community goals while protecting community resources, replacing it with agreements between private actors. (also here)
Undermining environmental regulations by allowing landowners to sue the government for alleged "regulatory takings," through the innocuously named:
Privatizing public water and sewer systems, a practice that has resulted in higher rates and negative environmental impacts, and prohibiting local governments from requiring contractors meet labor and wage standards.
Some of this Corporate Agenda Has Already Become Law
Wisconsin Governor (and ALEC alum) Scott Walker included language in the 2011 budget bill designed to end mandatory recycling programs for Wisconsin communities. More than 1,000 municipalities in Wisconsin rely on a small landfill tax to fund local recycling programs. Walker wanted to use the money collected from the landfill tax for a new, privatized economic development agency. The proposal outraged county leaders and administrators as well as Republican legislators. Republican State Rep. John Nygren questioned whether the budget measure would really save money in the long run when balanced with the increased cost of maintaining and building expensive new landfills. The Governor’s actions made no financial sense, but they did comport with ALEC’s "Resolution on Packaging and the Municipal Solid Waste Stream,” which criticizes "interfering government mandates” and promotes a free market approach to waste removal and recycling. In the end, cost-effective recycling prevailed in Wisconsin. Learn more here (Link to Mary’s Wisconsin article).
(Have any of these bills been introduced or enacted in YOUR state? If so, please add that information to the ALEC Exposed page on your state by searching for your state's name in the search engine at the top of this page.)
Did You Know about these Bills?
Eliminating Democratic Land Use Controls
One "model bill" from ALEC corporations would repeal ALL land use planning and zoning for "rural" counties by both county and state governments. Under this bill, property and could be used for any purpose, without regard for "single family," "agricultural," or "industrial" zoning, or environmental land use restrictions.
This would prevent a local government from controlling development, from choosing to support small business rather than big-box retailers, from limiting certain businesses (like nude bars) near residences or schools, and from keeping polluting industries out of their community.
Without zoning laws, neighbors who were concerned about a particular property would have to bring individual lawsuits to protect their rights against nuisances (such as smells or pollution from factory farms). They would not be able to act democratically to set rules for zoning in their towns. Land use could only be restricted by contracts (but not restricted in perpetuity), requiring that individuals spend their own money to protect community interests, thereby putting community growth in the hands of the wealthy few.
Is a local legislator who was elected to represent YOU actually protecting the interests of corporations instead of YOU and YOUR FAMILY?
Prohibiting Local Efforts to Ensure Safe Agricultural Practices
One "model bill" from ALEC corporations prohibits local city or county governments from limiting pesticide use, requiring that communities adhere to state-level regulations. Another bill places the same restrictions on local efforts to restrict bio-engineered and GMO crops.
If these model bills became law, local governments would be prohibited from responding to their community's concerns about pesticide use or the dangers of GMO crops. ALEC allegedly supports "federalism," or state's rights, a theory premised on the idea that more local state government can better represent and respond to local interests than a more centralized federal government. But ALEC apparently does not apply this logic to relations between local and state government.
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