FRANKFORT — A bill requiring Kentucky regulators to wait until people are actively being harmed before issuing new regulations to protect public health and the environment will not continue to advance in the state legislature this year.  Sen. Greg Elkins, R-Winchester, told the Lantern Thursday his Senate Bill 178 had “conjured up a lot of fear” and misunderstanding, so he decided to hold the legislation to be worked on in the coming months after the legislature adjourns its regular session this year.  “It’s a bill that is really important to me, so I think it requires a more robust discussion than just pushing something through in one session,” Elkins said. “We’ll collaborate and work together. And we may not all agree that this is exactly what we need, but at least we can calm some of the fears and concerns.”  Republicans voted last month to advance the bill out of a Senate committee amid strong pushback from environmental advocates and groups who decried the bill as handcuffing state regulators at the risk of Kentuckians’ health and lives.  Elkins, along with lobbyists for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, argued SB 178 would have prevented state regulators from hastily adopting regulations for emerging chemicals and pollutants “driven by unfounded fears or flimsy science.”  Under SB 178, a new state regulation protecting public health or the environment could not be more stringent than an existing federal standard on a similar topic. For a state regulation to be more strict than a federal standard, the bill would create a number of requirements including that a pollutant would have to be injuring people or making them sick before a new regulation could be implemented. The GOP-controlled Kentucky Senate had given SB 178 its second reading last month on the Senate floor, meaning that it could have been voted on by the full Senate and potentially sent to the Kentucky House of Representatives.  The bill was instead “recommitted,” or sent back to the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, on March 4. The post Bill that would curb state environmental, health protections will not advance this year appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less