Bill of the Day: Defending Citizen Boards
Updated on March 3rd, 2022.
“Discovering Nature Through a Different Lens” Image credit: Carleigh Starkston
What are Citizen Boards?
Citizen Boards play a key role in Virginia’s regulatory framework for protecting the environment by including citizen participation in certain regulatory and permitting decisions. Participation in citizen boards allow Virginians to have a meaningful voice in protecting the Commonwealth’s natural resources. Currently legislation is proposed to undermine Virginia’s Air Pollution Control, State Water Control, and Waste Management Citizen Boards.
Members of the Boards are nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the General Assembly for four-year terms. Appointments on the Boards are staggered, so that no one Governor can replace all of the members of a given board at a particular time. This provides consistency in decision-making and helps insulate the Boards from political pressures, especially considering the prohibition on Virginia Governors serving consecutive terms.
For more background on the importance of our citizen boards, see the Our Common Agenda policy paper on “Ensuring Robust Citizen Representation Through Virginia’s Citizen Boards”
2022 General Assembly Legislation on Citizen Boards
This year, VCN and our Network Partners are opposing 4 bills which would undermine our citizen boards:
Delegate Bloxom
HB1204 has been amended and is no longer a pressing threat to our control boards!
Delegate Bloxom
HB1261 removes the Air and Water Boards’ permitting authority, erasing their long-standing role in Virginia’s permitting framework.
*Amended so that it only includes the provisions altering the long-standing citizen board appointment process. Now, legislators and the Governor chose citizen board appointments rather than just the Governor.
Senator Stanley
SB 81 was incorporated into SB657 and was reported from the Senate Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources Committee on February 8th.
Senator Stuart
SB657 removes the Air and Water Boards’ permitting authority and much more. The Air Board may no longer consider the suitability of the activity to the area. And the Boards may no longer initiate requests of the Department of Environmental Quality. The most important environmental permits would be discussed and decided behind the closed doors of the agency.
* Thanks to incredible advocacy from our Partners at SELC, James River Association, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Appalachian Voices, Senator Lewis & Mason amended SB657 to restore the public participation process in permitting. While public participation has been restored, we still disagree with the underlying policy of the bill and therefore oppose SB657.
Reasons to Oppose
Citizen Boards are the true embodiment of government “by the people.” Board members are volunteers with diverse educational backgrounds, training and experience, bring thoughtful, real-world perspectives to supplement technical agency guidance.
Citizen Boards promote transparency. The Boards improve government transparency by ensuring that the most important environmental decisions are made in full public view. Our Boards meet in public, deliberate in public, receive input from the public, and cast their up-or-down votes in public. Removing the Air and Water Board’s permitting approval authority will result in permits being negotiated between the applicant and DEQ behind closed doors.
Citizen Boards encourage public engagement. They ensure that every day Virginians have a meaningful opportunity to voice their concerns on the most important environmental permitting and regulatory decisions. Regularly scheduled public meetings are open to everyone; public comment requirements exist to allow for additional public input on specific decisions; each meeting typically reserves time for general “public comment” allowing residents to openly communicate with policy makers.
Thank you to our Partners who are defending the integrity of citizen boards, including Southern Environmental Law Center, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Appalachian Voices, James River Association, Virginia League of Conservation Voters, Virginia Sierra Club, and many others.
Take Action
Ask your state legislator to oppose these bills through VaLCV’s action alert, which allows you to send a pre-drafted email to your legislator.