2002 03 16

Transcript of Schmidt testimony

to Senate Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources

2002 03 14 10:00 - 12:10

Context

I signed in a request for 7 minutes,

on the line item i recorded under that of Tom Fitzgerald,

The record was presented to the Chair

who rushing to close discussion

deflected my initial arm motions to speak.

At last he relented: "You have a couple minutes."

Schmidt:

Thank you, I have provided handouts for each of you, Senators.

My name is john schmidt from Erlanger, KY.

You may regard me as a victim

of this absence of law in Kentucky now,

that was exploited by a local power company in Northern Kentucky.

And what you are seeing, in addition to the request for my testimony here,

are some artifacts of our grass roots response that has led Representative Jon Draud to House Bill 540 for your review. And i would like to advocate that we not throw the baby out with the bathwater regarding review and incorporation of several significant points in Representative Draud's Bill 540.

I think that the Committee Substitute, as introduced here,

responded to some of my concerns,

but i do want to indicate and provide the web-based information

beyond what you have on sheet there.

To compare the HB-540 to SB-257 --

which i have done factually and provide the results on the web --

you will note that

mandates for public notification have been removed,

mandates for public participation,

and mandates for rewarding energy merchants

for their efforts to cultivate public participation,

were removed.

I think these are very important points that will save a great many citizens such as myself across the state who confront this abominable intrusion in a well-established neighborhood that was otherwise not expected or provided for in their planning.

So, one way of looking at this legislation is not from the standpoint of the power company, but from the standpoint of the citizen,

and i would therefore call it a homeland defense bill.

Another point that needs to be made, reinforcing Mr. Fitzgerald's comments, are that Yes, we are concerned about by-products of combustion, that is, pollution. But we are also concerned about the consumption of a resource on which we all depend, that is oxygen. In order to burn, you consume oxygen. I don't know of any process quantitatively assessing levels of oxygen, but in urban areas my guess, when we do take a look, is that available oxygen can be compromised by combustion, and there is a renewable resource that we are all familiar with called trees that will remedy that situation. So i want to point out our concern about oxygen in the local communities where kids play and depend upon that resource.

In some sense, i am concerned that SB-257 represents a disconnect from the very organic process that arose at a grass-roots level, and obtained support from 9 cities:

Erlanger, Crestview Hills, Edgewood, Elsmere, Crescent Springs, Villa Hills, Fort Mitchell, and Covington. [unintentionally omitting Lakeside Park and perhaps others]

-- most all of Northern Kentucky urban areas in Kenton County --

that underlie the credibility of the work that was done by Representative Draud,

also in conjunction with the research work that was mandated by the moratorium

which the Governor instituted, and which was reported in a similar room here

in January 21st i believe [actually, 24] to the Environmental Quality Commission.

So i would commend this panel for the fine work that has been done,

but also to take another look at HB-540,

and particularly with regard to citizen involvement,

incorporate some of those features into this legislation.

Thank you