SENATE PANEL VOTES OUT RISK ASSESSMENT MEASURE

A risk assessment bill, which would require the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to calculate how much environmental regulations would cost to implement, has been voted out of the Senate Commerce and Environment Committee.

Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, is sponsoring the measure which he believes will bring some "common sense" into rule-making by the department.

"Every time DNR passes a rule, it passes along a cost. This legislation will bring common sense back into making some of these rules," said Kinder.

An impact study would compare the cost of the rule with the environmental risk to be corrected.

Senate Bill 143 was passed out of committee on a 7-1 vote, leaving Kinder optimistic that it is on a fast track for passage. "This is a significant step forward for this vital piece of legislation. I hope the momentum to move this bill continues," Kinder said.

Norb Plassmeyer of Associated Industries of Missouri said he supports the legislation because there are too many costly regulations being placed on businesses in the state.

He displayed a 202-page book of Missouri Environmental Laws and a 686 page book of Environmental Rules and Regulations to show how extensive the rule-making is.

"Every rule in this 4-inch thick book has a dollar figure attached to its implementation," Kinder said. "All this legislation will do is inform the public what the environmental risk is and how much it will cost to correct it.

"This is a public information bill, a sunshine law for regulations."

He cited a survey completed last year by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis that show 93 percent of the Americans surveyed felt that government should inform the public of the benefits and costs that are expected to result from the regulation when adopting an environmental regulation.

Kinder sponsored the same measure last year, but it began moving through the legislative process too late in the session. Similar legislation has also been introduced in Congress.