A hearing on an amended, omnibus environmental bill, which includes a nitrogen procurement plan to ease waterway pollution, brought up questions of funding and interbranch cooperation Thursday.
The House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee heard testimony on the bill, SB 799 by Sen. Richard Alloway (R-Franklin). Originally, the bill only set up a procurement program to use public dollars to purchase nitrogen credits from the agricultural industry to keep runoff from heading into the commonwealth’s streams and rivers and into the Chesapeake Bay.
Then, in late January, the Senate amended the bill to include a reauthorization of the Growing Greener program, first set up under former Republican Gov. Tom Ridge in 1999.