Members of the Energy and Environment Committee met June 12 to review the status of pending legislative and regulatory issues and to consider proposed resolutions on various policy matters, including urban sprawl, electric utility restructuring and brownfields and Superfund reform.

In discussing pending legislative issues, Committee Chair and Charlotte Mayor Patrick McCrory described the Conference’s efforts to secure bipartisan legislation on brownfields and selected reforms to the nation’s Superfund law. He explained how Conference President and Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini and Conference Trustee and New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial had joined Representatives Boehlert (NY), Cal Dooley (CA) and James A. Barcia (MI) for the introduction of H.R. 1300, "Recycle America’s Land Act."

McCrory also pointed out that Mayors Morial, Jim Marshall of Macon and Michael Turner of Dayton appeared before Rep. Boehlert’s Subcommittee to testify on H.R. 1300, conveying the Conference’s support for the bipartisan H.R. 1300. This legislation, he noted, was approved on a 22-9 bipartisan vote in the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment, which acted on the day before the Conference opened its Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Richmond Mayor Rosemary Corbin, who serves as the Committee’s Vice Chair on Air, briefed the mayors on pending air quality issues, pointing out that a D.C. Circuit Court had struck down U.S. EPA’s 1997 rules setting new national standards for ozone and fine particulate matter (PM). Corbin also noted that the agency is soon expected to release its new Urban Air Toxics Strategy.

Action on Resolutions

The Committee recommended approval of eight new policy statements, all of which were subsequently adopted by the membership at the June 15 Annual Business Meeting. Among the new resolutions that were approved by the panel is a statement, entitled "A National Call to End Sprawl" that calls for a number of federal actions to deal with this national issue. The statement emphasizes the need to preserve farmland and revitalize cities, examine transportation policies, support brownfields redevelopment, coordinate EPA’s anti-pollution programs and stimulate growth in distressed neighborhoods and develop untapped markets in existing communities.

The Committee also reaffirmed the Conference’s support for Representative Sherwood Boehlert (NY) and his bipartisan legislation (H.R. 1300) to assist brownfields redevelopment and make selected reforms to the nation’s Superfund law. The panel tabled another proposal calling for support for a brownfields-only bill (H.R. 1750), legislation authored and sponsored by more than one hundred Congressional Democrats. After considerable debate and rejecting amendments, Committee members approved a revised policy statement on "Electric Utility Restructuring," endorsing all of the suggested changes recommended by the Conference’s Utility Restructuring Task Force.