Last Thursday, February 28, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Commissioner Laura Bishop, formerly the Best Buy vice president in charge of sustainability, appeared before the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Division as part of the discussion of the governor's budget. If we understand correctly, this was her first appearance before a House committee or division.
Asked about her position on HF973/SF627, bills to reinstate the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) Citizens’ Board, killed in 2015, Bishop told the division that the agency was neutral, though she favors citizen and stakeholder engagement.
She also mentioned in passing that two other options are in place for stakeholder engagement, the Environmental Quality Board (composed of agency heads) and the MPCA Advisory Committee, created by an executive decree by Governor Dayton in August 2015.
Background
Minnesota Public Radio's Elizabeth Dunbard covered the death of the board in MN lawmakers pull the plug on pollution-fighting citizens' panel. It's pretty good coverage, which includes the question:
Did one decision — to require an environmental impact statement for a proposed large dairy — lead to the board's elimination?
Yes and no. In August 2014, the board voted to disagree with MPCA staff and require an environmental impact statement for the proposed Baker Dairy in western Minnesota. The decision forced the dairy owners to look elsewhere to establish the business. Discussions about stripping the board of its power followed. But it wasn't the first time lawmakers had talked about taking such action.
Agribusiness groups and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce have complained for years about the uncertainty the board adds to the permitting process. So support for eliminating the board had existed before, but the Baker Dairy decision likely added momentum to that cause.
In short, the Citizens Board was a target for years, but the board's action on the Baker Dairy permit was the instance for getting rid of the board.
Bishop and the Chamber: regulatory humility or regulatory capture?
That the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce was so intimately involved in the destruction of citizen engagement might tip Bishop's neutrality, unless she is a larger soul than most.
In a statement unrelated to the bills to restore the board, Bishop told the Environment and Natural Resource division members that one of her first actions in her new job was to contact the Chamber's environment committee to learn about their experiences in dealing with the MPCA.
This came after she attended the Chamber's Session Priorities event billed on the statewide business group's page as:
Session Priorities is the Minnesota Chamber's biggest and highest-profile event of the year. It is the unofficial kickoff of the legislative session, bringing together the governor, bipartisan legislative leaders and a sellout crowd of nearly 2,000 elected officials and business leaders from throughout Minnesota. Attendees have the opportunity to hear a preview of the session from those who set the agenda, hear the Chamber's legislative priorities, and network with influencers in the policy arena.
Although she didn't mention it to the division members, Bishop is no stranger to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and its lobbyists. According to a post on the Chamber's website Welcome Jill Renslow, new board, Bishop was elected a second three-year term to the Chamber's Board of Directors in 2016. The Eden Prairie News reported in October 2016's Eden Prairie's Laura Bishop re-elected to Minnesota Chamber board:
Eden Prairie resident Laura Bishop was re-elected to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for 2016-17.
Bishop is vice president of public affairs at Best Buy Co Inc. in Richfield, according to a news release. The new officers and board members will begin their terms during the Minnesota Chamber's Business Conference on Oct. 11, according to a news release.
"The volunteer board represents businesses of all types and sizes across Minnesota. These business leaders set public policy priorities for the business community, help carry the message for the statewide business community to the State Capitol, and shape the chamber’s one-on-one business assistance programs that help businesses develop, grow and succeed in Minnesota," the release said.
Since this was her second term, Bishop was on the board at the time the Chamber achieved its goal of eliminating the Citizens Board of the MPCA.
And there's more. According to records online at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, Bishop was a regular contributor to the Chamber's state-level MN Chamber of Commerce Leadership Fund during her service on the Chamber's board (those contributions marked with an asterisk [*] are in-kind contributions).
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$10.00
|
10/3/2017
|
2017
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$100.00
|
5/31/2013
|
2013
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$290.00*
|
8/16/2013
|
2013
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$100.00
|
8/27/2013
|
2013
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$175.00
|
8/28/2013
|
2013
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$285.00*
|
8/17/2014
|
2014
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$270.00
|
8/18/2014
|
2014
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$355.00*
|
8/17/2015
|
2015
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$500.00
|
8/19/2015
|
2015
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$100.00
|
8/20/2015
|
2015
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$402.00
|
8/23/2016
|
2016
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$500.00*
|
8/23/2016
|
2016
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$375.00*
|
8/15/2017
|
2017
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$10.00
|
12/4/2017
|
2017
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$885.00
|
8/18/2017
|
2017
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$10.00
|
9/5/2017
|
2017
|
|
|
Bishop, Laura A
|
$10.00
|
11/2/2017
|
2017
|
One can read reports of the Fund's giving to candidates and party committees here.
Destroying and restoring the Citizen's Board
We first covered the nascent effort to eliminate the board in September 2014's post, MN12A: Does Backer want to strip citizens of ability to ask MPCA for environmental studies?. The issue came up again when the Senate Rural Task Force heard proposals from the dairy industry, as we reported shortly after the election in Co-founder of Senate Rural Task Force (est. 2014) attacks MPCA Citizen Board (est. 1967) and the classy attack on the Citizens Board chair All farmers are equal in AGM Food & Farm pledge, but some less equal for Senator Rosen.
Some family farmers and their defenders are hoping to get the board restored. Land Stewardship Project sent out the following press release about Thursday's hearing that includes a history of how the board was unplugged in the 2015 session:
A bill to reinstate a key body for allowing Minnesota Citizens to have a say in the future of their communities’ environmental health will be considered during a legislative hearing on Thursday, March 7.
The House Government Operations Committee will consider the reinstatement of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) Citizens’ Board, beginning at 9:45 a.m., in Room 5 of the Minnesota State Office Building in Saint Paul. Legislation to reinstate the Board was introduced earlier this session by Rep. John Persell (DFL-Bemidji), who is the Chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee, and Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville). The bills are House File 973 and Senate File 627, respectively. House File 973 was passed last week in the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee.
During the last hours of the 2015 Minnesota legislative session, the 48-year-old Citizens’ Board was abolished without a single hearing in the Minnesota Senate. Land Stewardship Project (LSP) member Jim Riddle of Winona, Minn., who was a member of the Citizens’ Board when it was eliminated, plans to make the trip from his farm March 7 to let legislators know that rural people want the Board back.
“The MPCA Citizens’ Board is critical to having accountability in our government,” said Riddle. “The Board created a space for democracy in action—where every voice can be heard, in full daylight, to protect Minnesota’s environment and ensure our laws and regulations are being followed.”
The Citizens’ Board was established in 1967 with the creation of the MPCA to ensure the agency serves the public interest and to establish an open and transparent decision-making process. The legislation to abolish the Citizens’ Board was among the most controversial of the 2015 legislative session. The language was inserted into the Agriculture and Environment Budget Bill by the conference committee chairs in the last hours of the regular 2015 session, thus avoiding meaningful public hearings.
Also making the trip March 7 to testify in support of the reinstatement bill is LSP member and hog farmer Dayna Burtness of Spring Grove, Minn. As a local leader, Burtness organized to protect her community’s quality of life, air, water, and local economy from a 4,980-head factory hog farm proposed in her community. As proposed, the operation would have generated 7.3 million gallons of liquid manure and used 8.8 million gallons of the area’s groundwater annually. It was proposed to be built in Minnesota’s vulnerable karst area, which is composed of porous limestone that creates sinkholes and disappearing springs. This geology can allow surface pollution to enter the groundwater in a matter of hours. As a result, this part of the state has long had problems with groundwater pollution.
Despite ample scientific evidence that the operation would pose a significant threat to the area, on Dec. 18 then-MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine announced his decision not to order an in-depth Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project. The MPCA denied the proposer’s application for a general National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, but indicated that the company may still apply for a customized permit, known as an "individual permit."
Since then, the proposer applied for an NPDES permit, but withdrew the application. Members of the impacted rural community were cut out of the process by the Commissioner’s decision and there is no official record to verify the denial of the permit. The public process used by the Citizens’ Board would have prevented this kind of behind-the-scenes decision-making, according to Burtness.
"Instead of the transparent and open process of the MPCA Citizens’ Board, MPCA staff made decisions about this gigantic factory farm behind closed doors and off the record,” said Burtness, “We still have no clarity about whether the Catalpa Ag general permit was denied and that's unacceptable. Minnesotans and rural communities value democracy and open government and deserve better. We want our Citizens’ Board back."
We're certain that some Ag Mafia lobbyists and state legislators will play this as an Evil Metro versus the poor yeoman farmers and their 10,000 cow dairies. Bluestem readers may recall, however, how in 2016 the [t]ownship at center of permit dispute that led to disbanding of Citizen Board restricts feedlot size:
According to an article in the March 19, 2016 print edition of the Morris Sun Tribune, Stevens County's Baker Township has passed an ordinance that restricts new livestock operations to 2500 animal units, as well as establishing setbacks and acreage requirements for feedlots.
In 2014, Riverview LLP, one of the state's largest dairy operations, applied to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for a permit to operate a new dairy farm with a capacity of 8,850 cows and 500 heifers in Baker Township. When the agency's Citizens Board asked for more environmental review, the dairy industry and its allies began to plot the end of the board.
The conventional wisdom spread by the media last spring when the Minnesota legislature voted to abolish the Citizens Board included the notion that Greater Minnesotans were united in opposing those environmental review-loving metro folks.
The board had voted to ask Riverview Dairy to create an environmental impact statement for its proposed dairy in Stevens County's Baker Township.The vote was unique.
Nothing---neither testimony at the state legislature by a Baker Township farmer nor the public comments they left on the Baker Dairy permit MPCA application--could shake that narrative out of newsrooms.
The real board is gone--and its feel good replacement includes a Riverview Dairy employee.
But the citizens of Baker Township and their hyper-local elected leaders aren't letting themselves become waifs among forces. Instead, they've passed the new ordinance described in the scanned article below. On the other side, Minnesota Milk has passed a resolution to gut the power of townships to respond to their citizens. Among the whereases:
WHEREAS, the Minnesota Milk Producers Association supports the development of a permitting, environmental review and compliance framework which would provide greater certainty with respect to permit and compliance requirements and timelines; and
WHEREAS , activist attorneys and/or special interest groups are misleading and influencing townships to adopt arbitrary and onerous zoning ordinances that conflict with federal, state and county permits, ordinances and other regulations which ultimately threatens Minnesota animal agriculture;
It's insulting to suggest that residents of local townships are mere pawns and putty in the hands People Who Aren't From Around Here. Instead, testimony from people in places like Baker Township value a rural quality of life that ginormous factory farms destroy.
We'll be watching this one but we have our doubts this will passed. As for that advisory board that Bishop mentioned as a form of citizen and stakeholder involvement, here are some of the operating procedures:
Content and timing of meetings: The commissioner will consult with his staff and evaluate which matters rise to the level of complexity, controversy or other concern that he wishes to receive advice from the AC. Those matters will be referred to the AC at the appropriate meeting time. There is no petition process to bring a matter to the AC. If there is an inquiry or request from the public or from individual AC members to discuss a matter with the AC, the commissioner will respond to that request at his own discretion, as he would to any public inquiry.
Meeting content: Meetings on matters that involve draft documents such as a permit or EAW will generally take place before the MPCA’s formal public comment period concludes. Meetings will include a presentation from MPCA staff on the matter to be discussed. The AC members will have the opportunity to ask clarifying questions of staff. At the discretion of the chair (commissioner), project proposers may provide information to the AC. Oral remarks from members of the public will be accepted at the discretion of the chair and subject to time availability. The AC will not solicit or entertain written materials from the public at the meeting. The chair will ask for advice from the AC members during the meeting as appropriate. General meeting notes will be maintained of the meeting activities and posted on the website. However, specific remarks or advice from the AC members will not be recorded in writing. Robert’s Rules will not be required for the meetings. The format and conduct of the meeting conversation will be directed by the chair.
Other considerations: The MPCA will conduct all AC meetings in public. AC members will be expected to identify in advance any potential conflicts of interest they may have relative to a matter being discussed by the AC, but any such conflicts do not preclude the member’s participation in the meeting. Ex parte communications are not prohibited between the AC members themselves or between them and any member of the public.
As we write, no general meeting notes have been posted on the website.
So--citizens can not petition the board nor submit written material to the board, Oral remarks are subject to the discretion of the chair. Remarks by the board members are not recorded in writing. Robert's Rules are not required. No wonder citizens are leaning in.
Photo: From the MPCA's twitter account.
If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.
Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.
Comments