SENATOR MILLER called the Resources Committee meeting to order at 3:40 p.m. and announced SB 103 AIR QUALITY CONTROL PROGRAM to be up for consideration. RUSSELL HEATH, Director, Alaska Environmental Lobby, opposed SB 103, because he said it is not the bill that was crafted by the working committee last year which they participated in and supported. He opposed SB 103, because it fails to protect the quality of Alaska's air, restricts the public's right to influence public policy, and restricts the rights of local governments to control the quality of the air in their own communities and neighborhoods. Also, the fee structure in SB 103 subverts the key intent of the Clean Air Act which is to reduce emissions. Logically, the size of the fee should be tied to the amount emitted, but in SB 103 it is tied to the per-hour cost to DEC to process the permit application which encourages letter-perfect applications, not less pollution. MR. HEATH stated that he was not allowed to participate at the Senate Resources subcommittee level and said there were provisions in this legislation that make it impossible for state or local governments to require standards more stringent than those required by the federal Clean Air Act. Number 243 SENATOR LEMAN said he was one of the three members of the subcommittee and didn't see their work as being in favor of any industry. He thought SB 103 was a very fair bill and that a representative from his organization would have been invited if they had asked to attend. SENATOR MILLER agreed. Number 243 SENATOR LEMAN moved to adopt the CS to SB 103 for purposes of discussion. There were no objections and it was so ordered. Number 244 AIMEE BOULANGER, Community Coordinator for Pollution Issues for the Alaska Center for the Environment, said this is not the bill they had originally supported. They cannot support SB 103. She said she did attend the subcommittee's meeting while they were working on SB 103, but she did not feel it was appropriate to interrupt their meeting to comment. The public has been cut out of the process of influencing the course of progress in their own neighborhoods and cut out of the process of deciding what is an acceptable risk for their own families. SB 103 does not create an incentive or rewards for business to prevent pollution, she continued. Section 010 is absolutely unacceptable for the basic health needs of Alaskans. Number 340 SENATOR MILLER commented that if she would have asked to come to the table, she would have been welcome. ERIC MYERS, Anchorage, said he served on the DEC Air Quality Advisory Work Group as a representative of the general public. He said the timber industry did not act in good faith to come to reach a consensus. Subsection (c) 2 which requires that a proposed standard is technologically and economically feasible, he commented, restricts what is good for the public health and well being and should not be dictated by whether it is economically feasible - although it would probably be a rare instance. SENATOR FRANK commented that if you are going to shut businesses down, the legislature should be in a position to make that policy determination rather than just abrogating that authority and responsibility to the regulating authority. MR. MYERS said clean air should not be raised to an absolute standard of being economically feasible. Number 433 RESA JERREL, National Federation of Independent Businesses, said normally she is not involved in this type of issue, but in 1991 she put it out as a ballot question to her members. The question being, should DEC regulations be restricted to federal standards? Sixty one percent came back and said yes, they should be restricted to just the federal standard. She said the Governor's Task Force on Regulatory Reform in March recommended all departments be restricted to federal standards. She supported Sections 010 and 015 particularly. Number 454 SENATOR FRANK asked what the remaining percentages were. MS. JERREL replied that 61% said yes, 33% no, and 6% were undecided. SENATOR FRANK moved to pass CS to SB 103 from committee with individual recommendations and asked for unanimous consent. There were no objections and it was so ordered.