A bill lowering water pollution standards passed through the Kentucky Senate on Friday. If passed into law, the bill will decrease state regulation to the federal standard.
Newsweek reached out to the Kentucky Coal Association by email for comment.
Why It Matters
The bill comes amid a flurry of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in his first weeks in office, including pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement and directing federal agencies to halt clean-energy spending and pause some new permits for wind and solar projects.
Senate Bill 89 passed on Friday with a vote of 30-5, garnering the support of all Republicans in the chamber, as well as one Democrat.
What to Know
The bill proposes to decrease Kentucky’s regulation of water pollution to federal standards, which are weaker than the state’s current regulation. It is an attempt to remove permitting barriers and “unnecessary red tape” for the state’s coal mining industry, which are currently caused by clean water laws, the bill’s sponsor Senator Scott Madon said.
In 2021, 71 percent of Kentucky’s energy production was from coal, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Kentucky is also among the nation’s largest coal producers, alongside Wyoming and West Virginia.
Earlier this week when Madon presented the bill to the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, he referenced a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2023 that imposed limits on federal government regulation of wetlands and other bodies of water that aren’t connected to larger waterways, Kentucky Lantern reported.
“The effects of this decision was that small, [ephemeral] drains and many wetlands — places that are not really waters but rather are just wet when it rains — are no longer subject to federal permitting. This decision was huge, was a huge win for industries and the private landowners,” Madon said during his testimony.
About 65 percent of Kentucky’s streams and rivers are considered ephemeral, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
And although the Senate’s approval is seen as a win for the coal mining industry, environmental experts are concerned about the impacts the decreased regulations could have on the quality of Kentucky’s drinking water.
What People Are Saying
Madon, according to a report from the Kentucky Lantern, said: “I just think we need to let our coal companies go to work and put our coal miners back to work and let’s harvest our coal.”
Kentucky Waterways Alliance Executive Director Michael Washburn told Newsweek: “There are a number of reasons to be alarmed by this disastrous bill, but I think what is top of mind for Kentucky Waterways Alliance is how SB89 will imperil the drinking water supplies of over a million Kentuckians. That many residents of the Commonwealth get their drinking water from groundwater, and SB89 removes all permitting and protections from our groundwater. That’s just one of the reasons we are staunchly opposed to this anti-Kentucky, anti-family, and anti-public health bill. I haven’t done an exhaustive search, but I feel safe saying that precisely zero times in human history has industry been granted permission to pollute and then decided not to act on it. SB89 is an attack on the well-being of the state.”
Robin Hartman, a spokesperson for the Energy and Environment Cabinet, told the Kentucky Lantern in an email: “We are in the process of reviewing [the bill] and the many impacts it will have on the quality of Kentucky’s drinking water, the costs to individual communities and public water departments and the possible effects to public health and the environment.”
Senator Keturah Herron, a Democrat who voted against the bill, said: “I hope that we can work together to find solutions that are a little bit more narrow that will assist and help the energy, the coal industry but will also make sure that all waters in Kentucky are protected.”
What Happens Next
Senate Bill 89 will now appear before the Kentucky House.
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