MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- What does the recently completed 107th Tennessee General Assembly look like from an environmentalist’s perspective? WMOT News continues to invite news makers from around the state to give us their take on this year’s legislative session.
John McFadden is the Director of the Tennessee Environmental Council. McFadden couldn’t site the advancement of any environmental issues during the Assembly, but instead measured success thsi year in the defeat of at least two bills.
The first was the defeat of a measure that would have taxed Tennessee’s fledgling solar businesses. McFadden says a tax at this early stage could have derailed the development of the state’s green industry.
McFadden also sites as a victory, the advancement of a bill to end mountain top mining in Tennessee.
“The bill didn’t pass and that’s kind’a not a good thing, but the reality is it got farther than it’s ever gotten before, so that’s really a good thing. It’s time is comin’. We won’t be blowin’ the tops off mountains in Tennessee for much longer.”
McFadden says he was disturbed by the passage of a resolution condemning a two decades old U.N. resolution called “Agenda 21.” He blames the anti-sustainability resolution on what he refers to as the “John Birch Society,” “anti-rules and regulations crowd.”