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Committee rejects bill to let permit appeals skip Board of Environmental Review
Summary
After a day of sharply divided testimony, the Senate Natural Resources Committee voted down Senate Bill 559, which would have allowed parties to appeal certain Department of Environmental Quality permit decisions directly to district court instead of first going to the Board of Environmental Review.
Helena — The Senate Natural Resources Committee declined to advance Senate Bill 559 on a 4-7 roll-call vote after proponents said the measure would speed up long-running permit appeals and opponents warned it would shift disputes into court and could halt operations.
Senator Janet Ellis, sponsor of SB 559, said the bill ‘‘would allow both industry and members of the public to choose a streamlined process for appealing permit decisions made by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.’’ She said the current four-step appeal path through the Board of Environmental Review and hearing examiners is slow and costly.
Supporters described multiple examples of long, expensive BER appeals. Gayla Nicholson of Protect the Clearwater testified the…
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