Latest news with #Bill639
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Environmental advocates urge lawmakers to remove pesticide section from Farm Act
(Photo: NC Department of Agriculture 2018 Pesticide Report) Leaders of the nonprofit advocacy group Toxic Free North Carolina held a virtual press conference along with community advocates on Wednesday to warn lawmakers against what they said are the dangers of Section 19 in the 2025 North Carolina Farm Act. The provision, part of Senate Bill 639, would remove responsibility from pesticide manufacturers and sellers to disclose a product's risks as long as the pesticide container bears a label indicating that it has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The bill's language would also remove the ability of individuals and families harmed by pesticide exposure to seek justice in court, according to Toxic Free NC. 'This is a direct attack on our community's right to hold chemical manufacturers accountable for the harm they cause,' Toxic Free NC Policy Manager Kendall Wimberley said. 'This is not something communities are asking for.' Bayer, a Triangle-based global pesticide manufacturer, has supported the language in the bill as it has moved through several committees in the North Carolina Senate. The bill was withdrawn from the chamber's floor and referred to the Senate Rules Committee last week. Similar bills have been introduced in other states. Eight have failed thus far in 2025 — in Iowa, Tennessee, Florida, Wyoming, Montana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Idaho — although North Dakota and Georgia passed their versions of the legislation. In Iowa, critics branded the proposal as the 'Cancer Gag Act' due to the dangers it allegedly posed. 'Evidence presented in the courts is showing that Bayer has failed to warn consumers about the harms of their products,' Wimberley said. 'They are facing billions of dollars in settlement lawsuits, and they are now spending millions of dollars lobbying efforts to try to stop that.' Section 19 would shield pesticide companies from responsibility even when their products pose high risks for cancer, brain damage, infertility, or developmental harm in children, according to Wimberley, as these specific health risks are not required to be included on pesticide labels. The North Carolina Farm Act has come under fire for another portion of the bill as well. About 100 activists gathered in Raleigh at the start of the month to advocate against banning raw milk sales as the bill was heard before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Bayer did not immediately respond to NC Newsline's request for comment.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Louisiana college athletic programs closer to scoring state tax dollars
The LSU baseball team celebrates after winning the College World Series against Florida, 18-4, on June 26, 2023, at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. (Jacob Reeder/LSU Sports Information) Most college athletic programs in Louisiana could soon each receive nearly $2 million in state tax revenue annually under a plan advancing in the legislature. House Bill 639 by Rep. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, cleared the House on a 74-15 vote. It would increase the tax on sports gambling from 15% to 21.5%. One-fourth of that revenue would go to the Supporting Programs, Opportunities, Resources and Teams (SPORT) Fund to benefit student-athletes at Louisiana's public universities that compete at the NCAA Division I level – UL Lafayette, UL Monroe, Louisiana Tech, LSU, Grambling, McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Southeastern, Southern and the University of New Orleans. Under the new tax rate, Louisiana would receive about $77 million annually from sports gambling, with about $20 million dedicated to the new fund. Each school would get approximately $1.7 million annually. That's a small drop in the bucket for LSU, which has an athletics budget of over $200 million. But it would be a significant lifeline for schools such as Southern, Nicholls and ULM, which each spend less than $20 million a year on their sports program. The proposed increase in sports gambling taxes has support from conservative and progressive corners, both saying the revenue should be used to offset the 'social ills' of gambling. The higher rate would generate more money for addiction programs. But the decision to dedicate some of that revenue to college athletics at a time when the state is under budget constraints troubles some progressives. 'Legalized mobile gambling has created or exacerbated many social and cultural problems, including addiction, bankruptcies and even increases in domestic violence. New tax revenue should be used first and foremost to address some of those problems before we talk about spending more money on college sports,' said Peter Robins-Brown, executive director of Louisiana Progress, an advocacy group for marginalized communities. Presently, the state's split for sports gambling tax revenue calls for 25% to go toward early childhood education, 10% to local governments, 3% to gambling addiction programs, and the rest to other priorities and the state general fund. Under Riser's bill, childhood education, local governments and addiction recovery would retain their existing share of tax proceeds. In addition to the 25% for college athletics, another 3% would be dedicated to the Louisiana Postsecondary Inclusive Education Fund to finance programs for students with disabilities. The rest goes into the state general fund for a variety of government needs. Riser's bill will next be discussed in a Senate committee. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Hampshire lawmakers to vote on deregulating cryptocurrency mining
If enacted, House Bill 639 would forbid state agencies and local officials from regulating cryptocurrency mining. (Photo by) A bill that has passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives and is set to be voted on by the state Senate Thursday would tie the hands of anyone trying to regulate cryptocurrency mining — a move heralded by libertarians and the crypto lobby but decried by environmentalists. When introducing the bill, Rep. Keith Ammon, a New Boston Republican and the bill's sponsor, said it would 'give confidence to the industry that we're not going to discriminate against them because it's happened in other states.' Ammon pointed to North Tonawanda, New York, which The Buffalo News reported in 2024 banned crypto mining for energy and noise concerns. If enacted, House Bill 639 would forbid state agencies and local officials from regulating cryptocurrency mining. It enshrines into law a protection for people to conduct in-home cryptocurrency mining. State agencies and local officials would be unable to ban cryptocurrency mining in their city, town, or elsewhere in the state under this bill. They would be unable to place sound limits on cryptocurrency mining, though miners would have to obey other sound ordinances. They also wouldn't be able to charge cryptocurrency miners additional money for any outsized impact they have on the electric grid. Finally, they'd be unable to prevent people from using cryptocurrency to buy or sell things. Cryptocurrency mining is the process of generating cryptocurrencies — which are digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin — using high-energy supercomputers. The computers essentially use trial and error until they've guessed the solution to a puzzle that unlocks the cryptocurrency from what is known as a blockchain. These virtual assets are often bought and sold for U.S. dollars or other currencies, making mining lucrative. Proponents of crypto hope it will one day be used as a regular currency, and some buyers and sellers have already adopted it as such. 'The benefit for projecting that we're friendly to mining is that it can help incentivize future generations,' Ammon said at a recent Senate hearing. 'We want to get out of this scarcity mindset that there's only a fixed pie of so much energy to go around.' Ammon — who said he owns digital assets himself and is the chair of the nonprofit New Hampshire Blockchain Council — dismissed environmental concerns about cryptocurrency's effect on the planet and electric grids. 'There's some folks that believe Bitcoin mining is gonna raise the oceans, we're all gonna drown, or we're gonna boil the seas or something like that,' he said. 'All this section does is prevent municipalities from discriminating against the energy use.' Ammon said this bill is based on the work of the Commission on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets, which was established by former Gov. Chris Sununu to study regulations for these digital assets, as well as model legislation circulating in other states. That model legislation was created by a Mississippi-based industry group called Satoshi Action Fund. The group seeks to promote cryptocurrency nationwide and boasts on its website that its policies have been implemented in four states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, and Oklahoma. The Satoshi Action Fund was also a consultant to the governor's cryptocurrency commission. The bill also specifies that cryptocurrency mining and other operations are not considered securities or investment contracts. This has sparked concerns among regulators, including Katie Taylor, with the state Bureau of Securities Regulation, who said in a Senate hearing, 'It would prohibit the bureau's ability to protect New Hampshire investors.' The bill has also drawn the attention of environmentalists in New Hampshire and elsewhere. 'What this bill says is shocking,' Cathy Corkery, chapter director of the New Hampshire Sierra Club, said. 'It devalues and demotes communities from being able to zone and govern the enterprises within its own borders.' Corkery and her colleagues have several gripes with cryptocurrency mining. First, it's loud and usually runs 24/7, which in other communities has drawn intense ire from neighbors. It's highly energy intensive, so it causes carbon emissions and could become a strain on the electric grid. (Analysis from a Dutch doctoral student found that, as of May 2025, the electrical energy consumption of a single Bitcoin transaction is equivalent to that of an average U.S. household over 45.60 days.) And many operations use lots of water to cool down their equipment. (Another analysis from the same researcher found that an average Bitcoin transaction uses enough water to fill a small backyard swimming pool.) They're afraid this will raise utility bills and the hot water the facilities expel will hurt wildlife. 'The reality is that this isn't just some guy with a computer,' she said. 'These are supercomputers that suck up a lot of energy.' Corkery is concerned how this will impact climate change, the state's electrical grid, and quiet communities unaccustomed to loud industrial noise. Most of all, she dislikes how it hinders local government oversight. 'It takes away a town's sovereignty,' she said. 'And it says you must allow this in your town.' Corkery said she'd heard about this legislation in other states from her national partners and so 'had sort of an understanding of the experiences in other communities that had accepted this bill' before it came to New Hampshire. As such, the Granite State has garnered attention from people who have been fighting Satoshi Action Fund-endorsed legislation elsewhere. Cyndie Roberson, a founding member of the National Coalition Against Cryptomining, called New Hampshire's HB 639 'a boilerplate piece of legislation written by one of crypto mining's biggest lobbying firms' and said Satoshi Action Fund 'shoot(s) this legislation out shotgun approach across states.' She pointed to Arkansas, where Satoshi Action Fund was successful in enacting the policies, as 'a cautionary tale.' When Arkansas enacted the Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 and a slew of crypto mines came to the state, it was met by intense uproar, Little Rock Public Radio reported. In an interview with CBS News, Gladys Anderson, who lived near a cryptocurrency mine in Bono, Arkansas, described the 24/7 sound of roughly 17,000 computer fans running in the mine 'like a form of military-grade torture.' In 2024, responding to the blowback, a bipartisan group of Arkansas lawmakers approved legislation to reverse the unconditional protections miners had from local government regulation. However, a federal judge ordered the state to pause that legislation because a provision of the bill bans foreign ownership of crypto mines (legislators were also worried about mines' potential ties to China), which may violate the 14th Amendment. 'My cautionary tale to legislators in New Hampshire who feel pressured to do this, it's a very hard bell to unring,' Roberson said. 'Once they pass this and it's a done deal, it's very difficult to get parts of it changed or repealed once it's in place.' Satoshi Action Fund did not respond to the Bulletin's request for comment and an interview. Corkery, with the Sierra Club, called Ammon's worries about cryptocurrency miners being discriminated against 'a farce.' 'He has no examples of it being discriminated against in New Hampshire,' she said. 'He characterizes this bill as a welcome sign for the cryptocurrency industry. This is not a welcome sign. This is a come-plow-through-our-state flag.'
