Louisville's Clean Air Program
All Kentuckians deserve clean air to breathe.
Because its air was among the most polluted of any city in the country -- causing hundreds of deaths, disease and lost work days -- last year the city of Louisville adopted the STAR (Strategic Toxic Air Reduction) Program to control the worst pollution emissions. In the 2006 General Assembly that program came under attack by business interests in the form of Senate Bill 39. KFTC helped defend the right of Louisvillians to clean air.
Senate Bill 39
KFTC's position: AGAINST
Summary | SB 39 sponsored by Sen. Dan Seum was an attempt to do away with Louisville's STAR (Strategic Toxic Air Reduction) Program. STAR was adopted by Louisville leaders in 2005 because Louisville's air was among the dirtiest of any city in the country. The bill took the approach of prohibiting any local pollution reduction standards from being any more stringent than state or federal standards. These, of course, are the standards that allowed Louisville's air to become to polluted in the first place. Several major amendments to the bill, especially in the House, changed its impact as the bill went through the legislative process. | |
History | The bill died after the House changed and significantly negated its intended impact and the Senate refused to accept these changes. An amended version of SB 39 passed the Senate 27-10 on February 27. When the original SB 39 ran into opposition on the Senate floor before this vote, an unannounced meeting of the Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee was held to adopt a committee substitute that called for the 3/5 approval of the Louisville Metro Council before the STAR program can take effect. This passed and was sent to the House. The House Local Government approved, 18-0, a major re-write of SB 39. It required the Louisville Air Pollution Control Board by November 30 to submit a cost/benefit analysis of the STAR program to the Louisville Metro Council. The council would then have one month in which to submit "recommendations for modifications." The STAR program would remain in place. This version of the bill passed the House 95-1 on March 14. On March 15 the Senate refused to concur with the House changes. House members refused to rescind their amendments. There was an attempt in the Senate to then add SB 39 language to another House bill. This effort failed when it became clear that the House would not accept this. | |
Action | Find out how your senator voted on SB 39: Learn more about Louisville’s STAR program here. | |
Click here to download a copy of SB 39. | ||
| How the Senate voted on SB 39 (KFTC urged a NO vote) FOR: Sens. Walter Blevin, Charlie Borders, Tom Buford, Julian Carroll, Perry Clark, Julie Denton, Carroll Gibson, Brett Guthrie, Ernie Harris, Tom Jensen, Dan Kelly, Alice Kerr, Bob Leeper, Vernie McGaha, Dan Mongiardo, Joey Pendleton, Rick Roeding, Richie Sanders, Dan Seum, Katie Stine, Robert Stivers, Gary Tapp, Damon Thayer, Elizabeth Tori, Jack Westwood, David Winters, Ken Winters AGAINST: Sens. David Boswell, Denise Harper Angel, Gerald Neal. R.J. Palmer, Jerry Rhoads, Dorsey Ridley, Ernesto Scorsone, Tim Shaughnessy, Johnny Ray Turner, Ed Worley NOT VOTING: Sen. Ray Jones | ||