Missouri bill targeting environmental protections moves ahead in House
Allison Kite
Missouri Independent
Missouri legislators are moving forward with an effort to loosen the state’s environmental regulations that critics contend could harm the state’s water and air — and its budget.
Business groups and Republican lawmakers say the bill would help businesses that are treated unfairly by an “aggressive” Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
“At the end of the day, these are attacks on businesses and individuals,” Sen. Eric Burlison, a Battlefield Republican, told colleagues during a Senate committee hearing earlier this year.
The legislation, Senate Bill 40, limits state agencies’ ability to set fees for environmental permits and bars DNR from enforcing any hazardous waste regulations that are stricter than federal rules set by the Environmental Protection Agency.