1 p.m.

Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee; work sessions; room 214; Cross Building

Additional Photos

L.D. 707, “An Act To Provide Assistance to Maine’s Dairy Farms”: limits hauling costs of milk by a milk transportation company for a dairy farmer to the mileage between the dairy farm and the nearest milk plant still operating in the state.

L.D. 789, “An Act To Lessen the Impact of High Feed and Fuel Costs on Maine Dairy Farmers”: adjusts the price levels of dairy in order to account for the recent dramatic increases in feed and fuel costs.

L.D. 987, “An Act To Make Technical Changes to the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Laws”: requires that certain information in annual reports be compiled from the previous fiscal year, clarifies that the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Division of Forestry regulates water crossings and that appointments made by the boards of county commissioners will be reviewed the same as gubernatorial appointments, indicates that the terms of the Maine Land Use Planning Commission members appointed after 2013 must be staggered, updates the name of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to enable legislation of the Wells National Estuarine Research reserve Management Authority and replaces the director of the former State Planning Office with the director of the Maine Coastal Program as nonvoting members of the board of directors.

L.D. 1527, “Resolve, Authorizing the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Division of Parks and Public Lands To Convey Certain Lands and Enter into Certain Leases with the Federal Government”: governor’s bill, allows the director of the Division of Parks and Public Lands to lease rights and lands within the Coburn Mountain public reserved lands in Upper Enchanted Township, Somerset County to the U.S. Government.

Education and Cultural Affairs Committee; public hearings; room 202; Cross building

L.D. 1505, “An Act Regarding Insured Value Factor Payments for Public Tuition Students Attending a Private School”: increases the insured value factor portion of the tuition rate that a private school may charge for public tuition students to 6 percent of the tuition rate in school year 2013-2014, to 8 percent of the tuition rate in school year 2014-2015 and to 10 percent of the tuition rate beginning in school year 2015-2016.

L.D. 1522, “An Act To Protect Children from Exposure on the Internet without Parental Consent”: expands the restrictions on information regarding students that may be published by a public school on the Internet to include video and other images from which a student can be identified.

Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee; work sessions; room 211; Cross Building

L.D. 219, “An Act To Establish a Long-term Funding Source for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife”: provides that 10 percent of all revenues derived from the use of state-owned land and assets for energy infrastructure, up to $5 million be used by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to support the operations of that department.

L.D. 247, “An Act To Amend the Law Governing Appeals of Final Agency Action on Applications Concerning Wind Energy Development”: allows a person aggrieved by any order or decision of the Board of Environmental Protection or commissioner of Environmental Protection on an application for an expedited wind energy development may instead appeal to the Superior Court.

L.D. 385, “An Act To Improve Wind Energy Development Permitting”: provides for public comment and the opportunity for the public to request a hearing on wind energy permits.

L.D. 616, “An Act To Amend the Expedited Permitting Area for Wind Energy Development under the Jurisdiction of the Maine Land Use Planning Commission”: removes Carrying Place Township, Concord Township, Highland Plantation, Lexington Township and Pleasant Ridge Plantation from the expedited wind power permitting area.

L.D. 1061, “An Act To Regulate Meteorological Data-gathering Towers in Maine”: requires applicants for wind energy permits to submit to the permitting municipality, the Maine Land Use Planning Commission or the Department of Environmental Protection a detailed summary of the data from each meteorological tower the applicant used in evaluating the suitability of a site for a wind energy development.

L.D. 1145, “An Act To Help Homeowners Reduce Heating Costs through Energy Efficiency”: extends resources to the Efficiency Maine Trust to facilitate coordination of services, such as weatherization, heat pumping, heating oil efficiency programs and other energy conservation strategies.

L.D. 1325, “Resolve, To Place a Temporary Suspension on Permitting of Certain Expedited Grid-scale Wind Energy Developments”: emergency bill, resolve establishes a temporary suspension on the expedited permitting of specified grid-scale wind energy developments and establishes the Panel to Review the Permitting of Expedited Wind Energy Development to review the recommendations of the report issued in March 2012 by the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security.

L.D. 1375, “An Act To Enhance Maine’s Economy and Environment”: repeals the Public Utilities Commission’s authority to direct electric transmission and distribution utilities to enter into long-term contracts; establishes a property value guarantee program to ensure that a landowner whose real property is located within 8 miles of the base of a wind turbine is compensated for any reduction in property value resulting from the proximity of the wind turbine; requires sellers of residential real property to disclose to the purchasers whether the property to be sold is located within the state’s expedited wind energy development permitting area; and provides a compensation provision for landowners whose property values have diminished due to the location of wind turbines permitted before the effective date of the new program.

L.D. 1386, “An Act To Allocate Net Revenue from Energy Corridor Leases on the Maine Turnpike for Purposes of Energy and Environmental Conservation”: requires 10 percent of the net revenue from the lease of an energy corridor on the Maine Turnpike’s right-of-way be deposited in the Efficiency Maine Trust and requires the balance to be used by the Maine Turnpike Authority for environmental and energy conservation initiatives.

L.D. 1434, “An Act To Clarify the Laws Governing Noise from Wind Turbines”: requires unregulated wind energy developments that buy and sell electricity to meet the same sound level standards of regulated wind energy developments.

L.D. 1472, “An Act To Provide for Economic Development with Offshore Wind Power”: adds offshore wind energy developments and associated manufacturing as a targeted technology for support from the Maine Technology Institute and as an eligible project to receive financial assistance from the Finance Authority of Maine.

L.D. 1501, “An Act To Apply the Precautionary Principle to Decision Making in Certain State Agencies”: requires the Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection to employ the precautionary principle in their decision-making process regarding a review of proposed action in matters of environmental safety and public health.

L.D. 1507, “An Act To Include Useful Thermal Energy as a Renewable Energy Source”: provides that renewable energy credits may be based on renewable energy derived from geothermal, solar thermal or biomass thermal sources that can be metered and is delivered to an end user in the form of direct heat, steam, hot water or other thermal form and that is used for heating, cooling, humidity control, process use or other thermal end use.

L.D. 1517, “An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Decision-making Authority Regarding Energy Infrastructure Corridors”: adds as members of the Interagency Review Panel the governor’s senior economic advisor and the director of the Governor’s Office of Policy and Management; eliminates one of the public members of the panel; requires that a decision by the panel regarding an energy infrastructure corridor proposal be approved by the governor; and specifies that payments for appraisal costs collected from potential developers of an energy infrastructure corridor must be deposited in the energy infrastructure benefits fund.

Environment and Natural Resources Committee; work session; room 216; Cross Building

L.D. 1212, “An Act To Prohibit Coal Tar Pavement Products”: prohibits the sale and use of coal tar pavement products.

Judiciary Committee; public hearings; room 438; State House

L.D. 760, “An Act Regarding Informed Consent to an Abortion”: specifies that the information about abortion must also be conveyed to the woman seeking an abortion orally and removes the requirement that the woman request information about alternatives and requires additional information to be conveyed.

L.D. 1193, “An Act To Allow a Wrongful Death Cause of Action for the Death of an Unborn Child”: specifies that for a cause of action for the wrongful death of an unborn viable fetus must be brought in Probate Court.

L.D. 1339, “An Act To Strengthen the Consent Laws for Abortions Performed on Minors and Incapacitated Persons”: requires the written consent of a parent or legal guardian before an abortion may be performed on a minor or an incapacitated person.

Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee; work sessions; room 208; Cross Building

L.D. 491, “An Act Regarding Timber Harvesting on Land Managed by the Division of Parks and Public Lands”: prohibits the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Division of Parks and Public Lands from contracting for timber harvesting on land under its management if the contractor uses persons employed under the federal labor certification process for employment of foreign workers in logging for that purpose.

L.D. 1310, “An Act To Improve Access to Dental Care through the Establishment of the Maine Board of Oral Health”: renames the Board of Dental Examiners the Maine Board of Oral Health made up of two dentists, two dental hygienists, two denturists and three public members; changes the board’s major roles are to perform administrative duties as a coordinating body for the board’s subcommittees and to advise, ratify and carry out the subcommittees’ recommendations; and establishes a new subcommittee on dentists and defines the membership for each subcommittee and its duties, functions and responsibilities.

L.D. 1352, “An Act To Provide Integrated Community-based Employment and Customized Employment for Persons with Disabilities”: requires the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor to coordinate with each other regarding persons with disabilities and employment and establishes the Employment First Maine Coalition within the Disability Rights Center, which is the protection and advocacy agency for persons with disabilities.

L.D. 1436, “An Act To Avoid Conflicts of Interest in State Government Labor Relations”: prohibits a bargaining agent from representing a bargaining unit composed entirely of supervisors employed by the state and a bargaining unit that contains state employees supervised by members of the supervisor bargaining unit.

L.D. 1451, “An Act To Require the Membership of the State Workforce Investment Board To Include Representatives of the Local Workforce Investment Boards”: requires that the membership of the State Workforce Investment Board include a representative from each of the local workforce investment boards in this state.

L.D. 1498, “An Act To Amend the Labor Laws as They Relate to Payment for Required Medical Examinations”: provides that an employer may pay for a required examination through group health insurance coverage of the employee only if the employer pays 100 percent of the cost of that coverage.

2 p.m.

Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee; public hearing; room 436; State House

L.D. 1233, “An Act Regarding Cyberbullying”: establishes the crime of cyberbullying as a class E crime.

Education and Cultural Affairs Committee; work sessions; room 202; Cross Building

L.D. 383, “An Act To Increase Public Awareness Regarding School Budget Elections”: requires a budget validation referendum for a regional school unit to include the total dollar amount and the percentage increase or decrease compared to the budget of the previous year.

L.D. 1184, “An Act Regarding Special Education Requirements for School Administrative Units That Do Not Operate Any Schools”: provides that the responsibility for compliance with special education requirements for children with disabilities resides with the school the student attends.

L.D. 1431, “An Act To Support School Nutrition and Expand the Local Foods Economy”: emergecny bill, requires the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry and the Department of Education to administer programs to support the expansion and coordination of the use of fresh local foods in public school food service programs.

L.D. 1441, “An Act To Align the Formation of Governing Boards of Career and Technical Education Regions with That of Other Public Schools”: requires the members of the cooperative boards of career and technical education regions to be elected and requires the state Board of Education to establish by rule election procedures and standards that the school boards of the units within each region must then choose among and adopt.

3 p.m.

Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee; work session; room 436; State House

L.D. 1233, “An Act Regarding Cyberbullying”: establishes the crime of cyberbullying as a class E crime.