The progress of legislation to peel back controversial energy siting rules and boost public safety dollars took center stage in this week’s episode of Podcast 83.

“Let's talk a little bit about some legislation that was introduced last week … that has to do with zoning and siting of renewable energy facilities on and who does that,” said Executive Director Stephan Currie to open the episode.

“House Bills 4027 and 4028, introduced by Rep. Greg Alexander from Sanilac County, would repeal those sections that were enacted a couple of years ago that deal with the siting of large-scale wind and solar facilities,” explained Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director.

“Everybody probably remembers, if you're part of this, you have to have a compatible renewable energy ordinance, or the solar developers can just skip right over you and go to the Michigan Public Service Commission to site, their large-scale projects. So, these two bills were up in committee for testimony and voted out of last week, and they would just repeal all those sections,” Bosworth continued.

Check out the podcast for Bosworth’s assessment of the legislation’s ultimate prospects.

“The Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund, something we've talked about few times now in the podcast and in some of our legislative updates, was passed out of the House,” said Currie. “Now it sits in the Senate, but there were some changes. Tell us about what those changes were.”

“Great news … House Bills 4260 and 4261 have new substitutes that passed out of the House with $115 million for (the fund), but it's broken out a little bit differently,” Bosworth reported. “So, they've got 2 percent of the first $75 million going to the Crime Victim’s Rights Fund. They’ve got 2% going to the Department of Health and Human Services for community-based violence prevention efforts, then $72 million for cities, villages and townships based on their crime rate and a whopping $40 million just for county sheriff's departments.”