Letter to Senators: Protect the Environmental Quality Board

Minnesota Environmental Partnership

March 17, 2017

Dear Senators:

We write to alert you to a bill, SF 1087, being heard by the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee.  This bill is opposed by members of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership because it rolls back and weakens Minnesota’s bedrock environmental laws. We urge you to vote no on SF 1087. 

SF 1087 (Ingebrigtsen) should be opposed because it contains many damaging provisions, such as:

• A provision requiring draft permits to be issued in 150 days, a “one size fits all” deadline for which no justification has been given. Note that agencies are issuing over 90 percent of all permits within the timelines set by the Legislature in previous streamlining bills.

• A provision that allows private companies to draft environmental review documents, which will remove accountability and transparency. If an EIS is written by a private party rather than a government entity, the public will not have access to the documents relied upon for the EIS. 

• A change in the permit to mine statute that removes the option of a contested case hearing, leaving the Court of Appeals as the only choice for those raising issues about a permit to mine.

• The complete elimination of the Environmental Quality Board, which works across agency silos to solve complex environmental problems such as frac sand mining, pollinator protection, and water sustainability. No credible reason has been given to abolish the EQB. 

Thank you for your consideration.  Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions:

Sara Wolff, Advocacy Director, Minnesota Environmental Partnership            

651-491-1229, Sara@MEPartnership.org

Allison Wolf, Legislative Director, MN Center for Environmental Advocacy

612-750-5449, awolf@mncenter.org

Sincerely,

The Following Organizations (listed on the reverse side of this page)

Alliance for Sustainability

Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis

Center for Biological Diversity

CURE (Clean Up the River Environment)

Friends of Minnesota Scientific and Natural Areas

Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness

Friends of the Cloquet Valley State Forest

Friends of the Mississippi River

Institute for the Local Self Reliance

Izaak Walton League – Minnesota Division

Land Stewardship Project

League of Women Voters – The Upper Mississippi River Region

Lower Phalen Creek Project

Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy

Minnesota Conservation Federation

Minnesota Environmental Partnership

Minnesota Native Plant Society

Minnesota Ornithologists’ Society

Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter

Minnesota Trout Unlimited

MN350

Pesticide Action Network

Pollinate Minnesota

Renewing the Countryside

Save Our Sky Blue Waters

Transit for Livable Communities

PDF Version: SF1087 Letter to Senators