Committee Meeting Information

January 22 & 23, 2008

Room 302, State Capitol

Cheyenne, Wyoming

 

Committee Members Present

Senator Tony Ross, Cochairman

Representative Ed Buchanan, Cochairman

Senator Bruce Burns

Senator Ken Decaria

Senator Drew Perkins

Senator Kathryn Sessions

Representative Deb Alden

Representative George Bagby

Representative Dan Dockstader

Representative Monte Olsen

Representative Lisa Shepperson

Representative Mary Throne

 

Committee Members Absent

Representative Keith Gingery

Representative Erin Mercer

 

Legislative Service Office Staff

John Rivera, Senior Staff Attorney

Ian Shaw, Staff Attorney

 

Others Present at Meeting

Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the Committee Sign-in Sheet
for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.

 

 

Executive Summary

The Committee met January 22 and 23, 2008, in Cheyenne.  The Committee considered draft legislation on valid court orders, community juvenile services, post-conviction relief petitions, regulation of carbon capture and sequestration, and ownership of subsurface pore spaces.  The bills were amended and approved for introduction as committee bills.  This meeting concluded the activities of the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee for the 2007 interim.

 

Call To Order (January 22, 2008)

Chairman Buchanan called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.  The minutes of the November, 2007 meeting, were approved  The following sections summarize the Committee proceedings by topic.  Please refer to Appendix 2 to review the Committee Meeting Agenda.

 

Required Reports Due to Committee

The committee reviewed a matrix containing information on reports that are required by law to be submitted to the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee.  Ms. Holly Hansen, Supreme Court Administrator, discussed the reports that are due from the Supreme Court..  She advised that the report required under W.S. 5-2-120 (Appendix 3) was provided as a matter of practice to the Joint Appropriations Interim Committee as part of the Court's budget narrative.  She stated the Court was unaware of the reporting requirement under W.S. 1-1-124.  She also provided a copy of the GAL report (Appendix 4) required under 2007 Wyo. Sess. Laws, Chap. 136, section 1.

 

Mr. Kebin Haller, Division of Criminal Investigation, explained the report required on pen registers.

 

After discussing reports that were due to the Committee, the Committee approved motions to have staff draft amendments incorporating the Committee's recommendations to 08LSO-0139.C1, being considered by Management Council.  The recommended changes include:

 

 

Juveniles¾Draft Legislation

 

08LSO-0119.W1, Valid court orders

Ms. Beth Evans, Wyoming County Commissioners Association (WCCA), explained the federal requirement to provide a process referred to as a "valid court order" to ensure due process for status offenders.  While many of the required procedures are already within the Wyoming Juvenile Justice Act, state law does not provide for a timely interview, assessment and recommendations when a juvenile is detained for violation of a court order.  The bill only affects juveniles before juvenile courts, it does not affect municipal or circuit courts procedures, even though a majority of status offenders in the state appear before those courts.

 

Mr. Mike Blonigen, Natrona County District Attorney, advised he wanted the bill to apply to circuit courts also, but, as drafted, the bill is simple and narrow in concept and easy to implement.  He did request the Committee consider amending the bill to allow other qualified persons designated by the Department of Family Services to perform the interviews proposed in the bill.  Mr. Brian Christensen , Natrona County Assistant District Attorney added that the assessments for detention and shelter care hearings may overlap with the time frames proposed in the bill.

 

After discussion, Senator Ross moved, seconded by Representative Alden, for the Committee to sponsor 08LSO-0119.W1 in the 2008 Budget Session.  After consideration and adoption of amendments, the motion carried on a roll call vote of 4 ayes, 0 noes and 1 excused by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 7 ayes, 0 noes and 2 absent by the House Judiciary Committee.  Senators Burns, Perkins, Ross and Sessions, and Representatives Alden, Bagby, Buchanan, Dockstader, Olsen, Shepperson and Throne voted aye.  Senator Decaria  was excused.  Representatives Gingery and Mercer were absent.  The following amendments to the bill were adopted:

 

 

08LSO-0208.W2, Community juvenile services

Senator Ross explained the bill's purpose and the proposals contained in the bill.  Senator Sessions distributed  Appendix 5, proposed amendments to the bill being considered.

 

Mr. Blonigen said that anything that would expand juvenile probation services would be welcome.  The bill would also increase local opportunities to establish juvenile services.  He expressed concern that small counties would have a problem implementing the bill.  He recommended adding W.S. 14-3-301(a)(vi) to the bill to remove a questioned limitation on the authority of courts, other than juvenile courts, to order juvenile probation.

 

Mr. Rodger McDaniel, Deputy Director, Department of Health, recommended amending the language requiring a Department of Health local representative on the community juvenile services board to require a representative of the local public health office; adding "substance abuse" after "mental health" to reflect that the local provider can be either a mental health or substance abuse provider; and, W.S. 14-9-106(b)(v) should be amended to reflect what the bill would accomplish.

 

Mr. Tony Lewis, Director, Department of Family Services (DFS), distributed Appendix 6, describing efforts in some counties to provide juvenile services.  He advised that an Attorney General's opinion would allow DFS probation officers to supervise municipal and circuit court juvenile probationers, but agreed that amending the statute would be helpful.  Currently, the Departments of Health, Family Services and Education are apportioning costs for juveniles, depending on the services provided.

 

Ms. Mary Kay Hill, Department of Education, distributed Appendix 7, showing a continuum of services that are provided to children at risk.  She explained that Senator Sessions' proposal with respect to sharing of costs among agencies wouldn't pose a problem, since such payments among the agencies are already coordinated.

 

Mr. Joe Evans, speaking as the grantee of funds from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, stated this bill would address issues the WCCA has worked on for several years and the $2 million contained in the bill is very adequate for all counties in the state to implement a community juvenile services board.

 

After discussion, Senator Ross moved, seconded by Representative Olsen, for the Committee to sponsor 08LSO-0208.W2 in the 2008 Budget Session.  After consideration and adoption of amendments, the motion carried on a roll call vote of 5 ayes and 0 noes by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 7 ayes, 0 noes and 2 absent by the House Judiciary Committee.  Senators Burns, Decaria, Perkins, Ross and Sessions, and Representatives Alden, Bagby, Buchanan, Dockstader, Olsen, Shepperson and Throne voted aye.  Representatives Gingery and Mercer were absent.  The following amendments to the bill were adopted:

 

 

Post-conviction Relief¾Draft legislation

Mr. Blonigen, President of the Wyoming Prosecutor's Association, presented the draft bill on post-conviction relief based on DNA evidence 08LSO-0123.W1, developed with the participation of Mr. Matt Redle, Sheridan County and Prosecuting Attorney, Ms. Kathryn Monroe, Director, Rocky Mountain Innocence Center (RMIC), other district attorneys, Ms. Diane Courselle, University of Wyoming Law Professor, and Ms. Tina Kerin, Appellate Attorney, Public Defender's Office.

 

Mr. Blonigen explained proposed amendments to address a "trigger mechanism" for new trials (Appendix 8) and to allow DNA testing of third parties (Appendix 9).  The "trigger mechanism" proposal is intended to establish a way to allow a finding of innocence as opposed to a reversal that could occur for other technical reasons. The Prosecutors' Association believes the testing of third parties as proposed would pass constitutional muster because it is non-invasive and is based on American Bar Association standards. 

 

Mr. Blonigen addressed the staff comments contained in the bill.  Perhaps language could be added to address the concern expressed on Page 4 of the bill. The intent of the language was to prevent "fishing expeditions" by inmates.  Language would be added to require a good faith assertion, based on particularized facts that evidence is still in existence.  While the date (December 31, 1995) requiring "due diligence" on page 6 of the bill is intended to address when  reliable DNA testing standards were developed, a date of January 1, 2000 is also workable because that is the date that a contract was entered into by the state crime laboratory for DNA testing which made DNA testing widely available in the state.  With respect to the issue of the unavailability of the trial judge on page 9, the language was intended to allow another judge to hear the retrial if the original judge is unavailable for reasons that may not be foreseeable.  The question on page 10 of the bill about whether subparagraphs W.S. 7-12-305(d)(ii)(A) and (B) should be in the disjunctive (as drafted) or conjunctive was not addressed in the draft presented to LSO, but the subparagraphs are in the alternative, so an "or" as drafted would be correct.

 

Ms. Monroe stated that Utah has had its law on DNA exonerations since 2002 and there have been six cases with a single exoneration since that time.  About 22 states have restitution provisions.  Most are based on the number of years in prison with a cap on total damages.  About 20% of the 212 exonerations nationally have received restitution.  She will provide the language of the proposed law on restitution that is being considered during the current Utah legislative session and a spreadsheet showing the methods of restitution employed by the states that have authorized restitution.  Ms. Monroe recommended changing the date on Page 6 that establishes when due diligence must be shown from December 31, 1995 to January 1, 2000.

 

After discussion, Senator Burns moved, seconded by Representative Olsen, for the Committee to sponsor 08LSO-0123.W1 in the 2008 Budget Session.  After consideration and adoption of amendments, the motion carried on a roll call vote of 5 ayes and 0 noes by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 7 ayes, 0 noes and 2 absent by the House Judiciary Committee.  Senators Burns, Decaria, Perkins, Ross and Sessions, and Representatives Alden, Bagby, Buchanan, Dockstader, Olsen, Shepperson and Throne voted aye.  Representatives Gingery and Mercer were absent.  The following amendments to the bill were adopted:

 

 

Meeting Recess

The Committee recessed at 5:15 p.m.

 

Call To Order (January 23, 2008)

Chairman Ross called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.  The following sections summarize the Committee proceedings by topic.  Please refer to the Appendix to review the Committee Meeting Agenda.

 

 

CARBON CAPTURE AND SEQUESTRATION

 

08LSO0047.W7, Carbon capture and sequestration

The Committee discussed 08LSO0047.W7, a new version of prior legislation, drafted jointly by the Department of Environmental Quality ("DEQ"), Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission ("OCGG") and the Governor's Office.

 

Governor Dave Freudenthal addressed the Committee.  Governor Freudenthal thanked the Committee for its hard work on carbon dioxide sequestration legislation and for taking steps to secure the long-term success of Wyoming's minerals industry.  The Governor praised the most recent versions of the legislation and warned the Legislature should not try to tackle every issue relating to carbon dioxide sequestration.  Governor Freudenthal explained his opinion that this legislation must maintain a distinction between sequestration for long-term storage and enhanced oil and gas recovery operations.  He stressed that this legislation must allow current oil and gas operations to continue under their current regulatory scheme.  The Governor also stated that the Legislature should not attempt to regulate carbon credits in its legislation.  Governor Freudenthal addressed the issue of pore space ownership and explained that the current legislation is important because it permits the citizens of Wyoming to realize the economic benefit of owning pore space, rather than allowing the federal government to realize that benefit through its ownership of mineral rights.

 

Mr. John Corra, Director, DEQ, addressed the Committee.  Mr. Corra explained 08LSO0047.W7 and the details of DEQ regulation of long-term carbon dioxide storage.  Mr. Corra spoke in favor of regulating carbon dioxide storage as part of the existing UIC program.  Mr. Corra explained that, by staying within that framework, the Wyoming DEQ would be able to integrate future regulatory changes by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

 

Mr. Don Likwartz, OGCC, commented on the OGCC's part in the proposed regulatory scheme.  Mr. Likwartz described the OGCC's expertise in technical matters concerning injection wells and well siting. 

 

Mr. Corra then reviewed the bill for the Committee.  Mr. Corra also addressed the amendments proposed by Representative Lubnau (Appendix 10).  With the exception of the proposed amended definition of "geologic sequestration," Mr. Corra did not have any objections to the proposed amendments.  Mr. Likwartz also had no objection to the amendments.

 

The Committee discussed the specifics of 08LSO0047.W7 with Mr. Corra and Mr. Likwartz.  Mr. Kevin Frederick, DEQ, discussed a deep-well injection site near Cheyenne and DEQ's experience with regulating these types of wells.  The Committee questioned Mr. Corra and Mr. Likwartz about the bill's notice provisions, the volume of materials injected currently, the distinction between permanent storage and temporary storage and the current bonding scheme used by the DEQ and OGCC.

 

The Committee then received public comment on 08LSO0047.W7.  Mr. Rick Robitaille, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., was the first to speak.  Mr. Robitaille detailed some of Anadarko's large-scale enhanced oil recovery operations and explained that the company is currently capturing some credit for the carbon dioxide that the company leaves in the ground.  Mr. Robitaille stated that enhanced oil recovery should not be treated as a commercial carbon dioxide storage operation, even when they are receiving some credit for storing carbon dioxide.

 

Mr. Mark Northam, Director, School of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming, addressed the Committee.  He discussed the need for higher regulatory burdens on long-term storage of carbon dioxide and explained why he believes carbon storage will become a much larger issue only when the market and government spur an active market for carbon credits.  Mr. Northam discussed the permanency of carbon dioxide storage and suggested that long-term storage could be discontinued if a the new use for the carbon dioxide could guaranty the gas would not be released into the atmosphere.

 

Ms. Laurie Goodman , Wyoming Landowners' Association, advocated for proper notice to landowners and suggested that the current statutes requiring land owner consent in coal mine operations be incorporated into this legislation.  She also suggested that surface owners be given specific immunity from and indemnification for damages caused by carbon dioxide storage.

 

After Representative Lubnau explained his proposed amendments (Appendix 10), Representative Olsen moved, seconded by Representative Bagby, for the Committee to sponsor 08LSO-0047.W7 in the 2008 Budget Session.  After consideration and adoption of amendments, the motion carried on a roll call vote of 5 ayes and 0 noes by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 7 ayes, 0 noes and 2 absent by the House Judiciary Committee.  Senators Burns, Decaria, Perkins, Ross and Sessions, and Representatives Alden, Bagby, Buchanan, Dockstader, Olsen, Shepperson and Throne voted aye.  Representatives Gingery and Mercer were absent.  The following amendments to the bill were adopted:

 

 

"Article 5.  Geologic Sequestration Activities.

30-5-501.  Oil and  gas activities at geologic sequestration sites.

Nothing in W.S. 35-11-313 shall be deemed to affect the otherwise lawful right of a surface or mineral owner to drill or bore through a geologic sequestration site as defined by W.S. 35-11-103(c)(xxi), if done in accordance with the commission rules for protecting the geologic sequestration site against the escape of carbon dioxide.".

(c )  If an oil and gas operator converts to geologic sequestration upon the cessation of oil and gas recovery operations, then regulation of the geologic sequestration facility and the geologic sequestration site shall be transferred to the department.  If the oil and gas operator does not convert to geologic sequestration, the wells shall be plugged and abandoned according to the rules of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.".

"Section 4.  Nothing in this act is intended to impede or impair the ability of an oil and gas operator to inject carbon dioxide through an approved enhanced oil or gas recovery project and establish, verify, register and sell emission reduction credits associated with the project.

Section 5.

The Department of Environmental Quality and the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission shall submit a joint written report, on or before November 1 of each year, to the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development and Joint Judiciary Interim Committees as to all aspects of compliance with this legislation including, but not limited to, the promulgation of rules and regulations, the formation of the working group, permitting and changes to pertinent federal regulations affecting the same.".

 

08LSO0080.W3, Ownership of subsurface pore space

 

The Committee considered 08LSO0080.W3, relating to ownership of subsurface pore space.  Representative Lubnau gave an overview of the bill and reviewed his suggested amendments, distributed to the Committee (Appendix 11).

 

The Committee took public comment on the bill.  Mr. Walter Eggers, Questar Corporation, asked the Committee to consider amending the bill to specifically exclude from its coverage existing natural gas storage units.

 

Representative Olsen moved, seconded by Representative Bagby, for the Committee to sponsor 08LSO-0080.W3 in the 2008 Budget Session.  After consideration and adoption of amendments, the motion carried on a roll call vote of 4 ayes and 1 no by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 7 ayes, 0 noes and 2 absent by the House Judiciary Committee.  Senators Burns, Decaria, Ross and Sessions, and Representatives Alden, Bagby, Buchanan, Dockstader, Olsen, Shepperson and Throne voted aye.  Senator Perkins voted no.  Representatives Gingery and Mercer were absent.  The following amendments to the bill were adopted:

 

Page 4-line 29 through page 5, line 19 Delete entirely.

Page 5-line 30  After "estate" insert "and carbon sequestration right".

 

Meeting Adjournment

There being no further business, Chairman Ross adjourned the meeting at 4:00 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

Senator Tony Ross, Cochairman                                              Representative Ed Buchanan, Cochairman


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Appendix

 

Appendix Topic

 

Appendix Description

 

Appendix Provider

1

 

Committee Sign-In Sheet

 

Lists meeting attendees

 

Legislative Service Office

2

 

Committee Meeting Agenda

 

Provides an outline of the topics the Committee planned to address at meeting

 

Legislative Service Office

3

 

Judicial Systems Automation Account

 

Annual Report required under W.S. 5-2-120 describing the Wyoming justice information network

 

Ms. Holly Hansen, Wyoming Supreme Court

4

 

Guardian ad litem (GAL) Report

 

Provides data relating to distribution of funds to counties to reimburse GALs

 

Ms. Holly Hansen, Wyoming Supreme Court 

5

 

Proposed Amendments to 08LSO-0208

 

Proposes amendments to draft legislation on community juvenile services being considered

 

Senator Kathryn Sessions

6

 

Letter on Community Juvenile Services Board

 

Describes the efforts in Laramie and Sweetwater Counties to serve to juveniles

 

Mr. Tony Lewis, Director, DFS

7

 

Chart of Continuum of Learning Supports for At-risk Children

 

Describes the continuum of educational services available for at-risk children

 

 Ms. Mary Kay Hill, Department of Education

8

 

Proposed Amendment to 08LSO-0123.W1, Post-conviction relief petitions-DNA evidence

 

Proposes to amend new W.S. 7-12-310 by creating new subsections (c) and (d) providing a process for exoneration and expungement of records for a wrongly convicted person, based on DNA evidence

 

Ms. Kathryn Monroe, Rocky Mountain Innocence Center

9

 

Proposed Amendment to 08LSO-0123.W1, Post-conviction relief petitions-DNA evidence

 

Proposes to create a new W.S. 7-7-106, authorizing third party DNA sampling

 

Legislative Service Office 

10

 

Proposed Amendments to 08LSO-0047.W7, Carbon capture and sequestration

 

Proposes new language to amend various provisions of  08LSO-0047.W7

 

Representative Tom Lubnau

11

 

Proposed Amendments to 08LSO-0080.W3,
Ownership of subsurface pore space

 

Proposes deletion of  W.S. 30-1-108 and 30-1-109, which would have been created by this bill.

 

Representative Tom Lubnau

 


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