On Monday afternoon, the Georgia Senate passed HB 150 – a bill prompted by the natural gas industry, alarmed by a Berkeley, California ordinance banning natural gas hookups in new construction.
Confronted with cities in Georgia and across the nation that have established policies to transition to 100% clean energy, the industry has responded defensively by lobbying to hamper such initiatives in over a dozen states. Georgia will be the fifth state to pass an industry-sponsored law prohibiting local governments and state agencies from following Berkeley’s example.
Laws like this, known as preemption laws, are not new. The tobacco industry has been using this tactic to slow down public health measures that impinge on tobacco sales since the 1980s. In Georgia, the plastics and packaging industries tried and failed to preempt local plastic bag bans when the City of Tybee Island and Athens-Clarke County were considering bans back in 2015. Particularly egregious is the law passed by the Georgia General Assembly in 2013 that prevents local governments from having a policy affecting wages paid by private businesses. This was prompted by the City of Atlanta passing a living wage ordinance for all contractors who use city resources or property.
The use of this tactic has grown over the past decade, as conservative state governments try to reign-in progressive local governments on a wide range of issues, such as fracking, plastic bags, rent control, minimum wage, municipal broadband, and more. Popular progressive policies fighting poverty, protecting public health and safety, and sustaining the environment are perceived as threats to profits and fought with prejudicial fervor by powerful members of the private sector.
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