American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2016 - 29

website, HB 2276 passed the House in
early March, but languished in the Senate.
OIPA also opposed HB 1802, by Representative Tommy Hardin, R-Ardmore,
and Senator Frank Simpson, R-Springer.
According to Roller, it sought to have
the OCC require applicants of a newly
drilled or converted underground commercial injection well to submit, as a
prerequisite to application approval, in-

formation on the impacts of the well on
road conditions and evidence of the conditions of the road. It also would have required the commission to adopt standards
and notify the Department of Transportation of the proposed commercial injection
disposal well.
The state's legislative website indicates
HB 1802 never received a vote on the
House floor.
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Last Chapter Of Illinois Session
May Be Determined By Voters
MT. VERNON, IL.-The final chapter
on the Illinois General Assembly's 2016
session may be written in the Nov. 8
voting booths. That is when, reasons Illinois Oil & Gas Association Executive
Vice President Brad Richards, Illinois
citizens will indicate whether they still
support the reform agenda that brought
Governor Bruce Rauner to office two
years earlier.
For the second year in a row, Illinois'
regular legislative session concluded without a budget, although lawmakers continued to work on it past their May 31
adjournment, Richards reports.
For a number of years, he says, the
Democratic majority in the House would
pass a budget at the last minute, with
which the Democratic majority in the
Senate would concur simply for lack of
time to do anything else. "That is an
oversimplification," he admits, "but that
is kind of how it has played out a number
of times."
The scenario appeared to be moving
forward again this year, except, he says,
the Senate Democrats, who hold a supermajority, rejected the House budget.
According to Richards, the House package
was estimated to be $7 billion in the red
and was likely to be vetoed by Governor
Rauner, "but the Senate kind of did it for
him."
What to do about it already is shaping
up as a major campaign issue for this
year's election. Noting that Illinois has
the country's highest unemployment rate,
along with the biggest unfunded pension
liability and largest backlog of unpaid
bills, Richards explains that Rauner-a
Republican-was elected in 2014 on the
promise of government reform. His socalled turnaround agenda includes such
pro-business items as workers' compensation and pension reform, as well as a
bipartisan, computer-drawn "fair map"
initiative for determining legislative districts, Richards says.

He says Democratic lawmakers have
insisted the governor's reforms should
be discussed apart from the budget, but
Rauner has argued they are structural reforms that cannot be separated from the
state's finances. "Thus, the stalemate,"
Richards observes. "We will see whether
folks continue to support the governor,
because quite frankly, he has done exactly
what he said he would."
Fund Industry Services
Aside from being Illinois citizens and
taxpayers, the budget impasse directly
affects the oil and gas industry in the
area of services the Illinois Department
of Natural Resources provides, and especially the Illinois State Geological Survey, Richards points out, saying services
ISGS provides in terms of geological
records and things of that nature really
have been whacked.
He notes that ISGS, along with the
Water and Natural History surveys, is
part of the Prairie Research Institute
within the University of Illinois. As a
result of cuts in state funding for higher
education, he says universities have begun
focusing much more attention on research
grants.
"The ISGS actually brings in a lot of
money, but we have seen an attempt to
cut services provided to the industry because those services don't-at least directly-generate funds like research does,"
Richards states. "We feel there have been
disproportionate cuts among people who
provide services, say in the geologic
records unit. That is the challenge we
face. We feel strongly the ISGS needs to
be funded because it provides a good return on investment."

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Industry Legislation
With budget negotiations "taking all
the oxygen out of the room," Richard
says IOGA wasn't surprised that oil and
gas industry-specific legislation never

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JULY 2016 29

American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2016