Environment And Energy Committee To Begin Meeting

The Louisville Metro Council's new Energy and Environment Committee will meet for the first time Thursday.Majority caucus spokesperson Tony Hyatt says the committee was formed not to pass legislation, but to address the myriad environmental issues that have come up in the last few years."It could be everything from recycling to garbage collection to greener buildings, those type of issues we've been talking about and have been talking about in the country for some time," he says.Hyatt says the committee may eventually be assigned legislation to consider, but for now members will study existing environmental issues and try to generate public interest in them."It'll be much like the government accountability committee which started as more of a review of various things and then, over the course of government accountability, legislation began to appear in that committee to be acted upon," he says.Hyatt doesn't expect the panel to work on the proposed ban on the excessive idling automobiles. That, he says, will probably go to the Health and Human Needs Committee.The five-member committee is chaired by Democrat Brent Ackerson.