Adopt the Safe Battery Collection and Recycling Act, provide for the Home Weatherization Clearinghouse and for mitigation of incidental taking of threatened or endangered species habitat, change provisions relating to the Water Recreation Enhancement Act, ground water allocation, and permits and stamps issued by the Game and Parks Commission, and create the Research Excellence Cash Fund
LB36 is a broad natural resources and state administration bill that primarily creates the Safe Battery Collection and Recycling Act. The act establishes a producer responsibility framework for covered batteries and battery-containing products sold in Nebraska, requiring producers to join an approved battery stewardship organization, fund and implement a stewardship plan, provide statewide collection access, label products for proper disposal, and submit annual reports and audits. The bill also prohibits disposal of covered batteries in landfills or incinerators, sets civil penalties for violations, and creates a Battery Stewardship Cash Fund to support administration and enforcement.
The bill also adds or revises several unrelated but significant programs. It establishes a Home Weatherization Clearinghouse within the Department of Environment and Energy to coordinate information on weatherization grants, loans, and other assistance. It authorizes the department to create a mitigation bank or in-lieu fee program for transportation-project impacts to threatened or endangered species habitat and wetlands, and it changes groundwater allocation and integrated management provisions affecting municipalities and nonmunicipal commercial or industrial users. In addition, LB36 revises Game and Parks permit and stamp provisions, updates the Water Recreation Enhancement Act, creates a Research Excellence Cash Fund for the University of Nebraska, and repeals several original sections at the end of the act.
LB36 would substantially expand the Department of Environment and Energy’s regulatory and administrative responsibilities by adding a new statewide battery stewardship program, a weatherization information hub, and authority to administer mitigation banking or in-lieu fee programs. It would also affect producers, retailers, recyclers, local collection sites, and battery stewardship organizations by imposing product-marking, collection, reporting, financing, and disposal requirements. Separate sections would alter water allocation rules for municipalities and industrial users, adjust Game and Parks permit and stamp statutes, and create new cash funds for battery stewardship and research, with associated fee and fund-management provisions.
The available voting history suggests strong legislative support for the bill overall. Key amendments were adopted unanimously or near-unanimously, and the bill advanced and passed with broad margins, including final passage by 43-6. That pattern indicates general approval of the bill’s environmental, recycling, and administrative goals, even though the measure is expansive and combines multiple policy areas. No committee transcript excerpts were provided, so the record here reflects the floor votes more than detailed committee debate.
The bill’s main areas of potential contention are the new producer responsibility obligations for batteries, the disposal ban, and the costs of compliance and implementation. Producers and retailers are required to finance and participate in stewardship plans, while battery stewardship organizations must provide statewide collection access and meet recycling-efficiency targets. The bill also contains complex water-allocation changes and new authority for mitigation banking, which could draw concern from municipalities, industrial water users, landowners, and environmental stakeholders over administrative discretion, water-use controls, and land acquisition for mitigation. Despite these possible fault lines, the recorded votes show little visible opposition during floor consideration.