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.
Senator Elena Parent sponsored and valiantly defended a sunset amendment that would have required the Georgia legislature to revisit HB 150 in five years. It was troubling to watch her fellow senators dismiss a common-sense measure that she rightly pointed out merely acknowledges that in a “rapidly changing energy landscape,” what appears to be a good idea today could become ridiculous in just a few years.
As a warning to legislators who are confident that the public will view HB 150 favorably in the not-so-distant future, it is fair to point out that tobacco preemption laws have not aged well as public understanding about the dangers of secondhand smoke has evolved. Ten states eventually repealed these laws, but over a dozen states still restrict local government ordinances regulating tobacco use.
Senator Parent’s sunset amendment did not pass. However, considering the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s warning that humanity must halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 to avoid a climate catastrophe, HB 150 is a reckless idea at this critical time. We cannot afford to wait five years to urge its repeal.
But we should take it a step further by also urging the state government to support local efforts to address the climate crisis by setting statewide emission reduction targets. As coastal residents, it is up to us to lead the way.
Coastal residents experiencing sea-level rise probably understand better than our inland neighbors that climate change is happening right now and is a serious threat. In a rare case of bipartisan unity, coastal Senators Ben Watson (R) and Lester Jackson (D) voted against the bill because they know that their constituents are becoming increasingly concerned about the future as they watch sunny-day flooding events become more frequent and their insurance premiums rise along with the sea-level.
Our job is to help the legislators who voted for this bill catch up with the reality of the climate crisis, much like the public-health advocates who worked diligently to educate people about the dangers of tobacco, substantially reducing tobacco-related deaths in the United States. Conservative arguments defending consumers' right to use products that harm society have not prevailed in the decades-long battle over tobacco. Shielding fossil fuels from the urgent actions needed to curb Earth’s escalating temperature is a far greater threat that we must defeat.
We cannot afford to wait five years for the legislature to catch up with climate realities. By then, the climate-clock will be ticking even louder than it is now. HB 150 will serve as a symbol of time wasted trying to save the obsolete fossil fuel industry from its inevitable and necessary decline when we should have been accelerating the clean energy transition already underway.
To succeed in achieving the timely political actions required to avert disaster, citizens must be knowledgeable and engaged. Vigilance will be essential to holding our elected officials accountable.
P.S. - In this WSAV news story Savannah Alderman Nick Palumbo promises a continued fight for local government authority to advance clean energy policies.