Revealed: ALEC’s 2014 Attacks on the Environment
http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/04/187665/revealed-alec%E2%80%99s-2014-attacks-environment
An internal tracking document obtained from the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC -- by the Center for Media and Democracy/the Progressive Inc. under Texas public records law -- reveals the scope of ALEC's anti-environmental efforts in 2014.
The spreadsheet (dated from late March 2014 and made public by CMD/The Progressive today) reveals ALEC tracking a total of 131 bills that, amongst other things, roll back state renewable energy standards, increase costs for American households with solar, hype the Keystone XL pipeline, push back on proposed EPA coal regulations that protect human health, and create industry-friendly fracking rules despite growing national and international concerns about fracking.
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Eleven of the bills attempt to amend "net metering" laws, which allow homeowners with solar panels on their property to sell excess electricity back to the grid, typically at a price that creates an incentive for homeowners to invest in solar for their homes. This makes the cost of installing solar cost-effective for ordinary homeowners over a period of years and net metering is part of the reason the U.S. has seen a 60% increase in domestic solar installations in just the past year.
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ALEC has three items of "model" legislation in its library concerning fracking: two pro-fracking resolutions and a bill -- illogically titled "The Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act" -- that allows operators to keep secret the details of chemicals injected into a well by making a near impossible to challenge claim of "trade secrets." As reported by the New York Times in April 2012, ExxonMobil brought the fracking bill to ALEC in December 2011 following its adoption as law in Texas. In the 2013 session, five states introduced legislation similar to the ALEC model, as detailed in the CMD report "ALEC at 40: Turning Back the Clock on Prosperity and Progress."
