Legislative Updates 2020: May 4-8

Watch the Legislature, Starting Tuesday

The highlights:

• House and Senate live broadcast Tuesday
• Upcoming and past webinar and podcast links
• Upstate Forever hosts WATER webinar May 19, register here

The details:

This will be a short one. Both the House and Senate will return Tuesday for at least one day, maybe more. It's hard to predict what might happen. But we know they will talk about the budget, about Santee Cooper, and about COVID-19. Beyond that is anyone's guess.

The House will start first, going in at noon on Tuesday, and you can watch them here.

The Senate will go in at 2pm on Tuesday, and you can watch them here.

The next State Bureau of Economic Advisors report will be released on May 14.

I will sum up everything we learn next week. This would have been the absolute last week of session, but they will need to come back again before January to further refine the budget. This time last year, we were scrambling to get the landmark Energy Freedom Act passed, and we are so glad now that we were successful and did not need this second year for that.

More Upcoming Webinars

Tuesday May 12 at 12:30: Runoff and Rain Gardens with the Gills Creek Watershed Association - register here.

Thursday May 14 at 2:30: Shoreline Issues with the SC Environmental Law Project - register here.

Tuesday May 19 at 12:30: Will We Have Enough Water in 20 Years? with Upstate Forever's Megan Chase, Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler, and DNR Hydrologist Scott Harder- register here.

Recording of the previous webinars are available

The handy landing page for recordings of all of the past webinars can be found here.

Podcasts from the Conservation Coalition

As a supplement to the webinar series Conversations with Conservationists, the Conservation Coalition has launched a new podcast series called Public Concern. They come out every Friday afternoon and have some of the best titles to go with the excellent content. Learn more here.

ODDS AND ENDS AND ACTIONS:

Would you rather receive these weekly Legislative Updates in your inbox? You can sign up to do so right here. The Legislative Update will hit your mailbox every Sunday evening during session (usually January through May).

This would have been Week 17 out of 18, but that is all out the window. I will continue to send out weekly updates about Statehouse and Conservation Coalition activity. Until next week!

Shelley Robbins
Energy and State Policy Director