The Agriculture subcommittee heard the two-year bill, and approved it. It is now expected to go to the full committee on Feb. 14, and to be on the House floor by the end of this week.
In addition to making it illegal to intentionally dispose of the switches, the bill would offer scrap recyclers a $2.50 tax credit for each switch they properly removed. The state also would fine any company that failed to remove the switches $200.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Billy Witherspoon, R-Conway, was able to have significant input from a diverse collection of companies and groups during the public hearing. Some of the people who provided testimony included Nucor Steel, representatives from the state’s auto dismantling industry, the Chambers of Commerce, and other parties. “We had 17 different people in the room,” Witherspoon notes.
According to the bill, once the scrap dealer or dismantler collected enough material they would contact the state of South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control. The collected switches would be shipped to a program geared to handle the switches that was developed by the domestic auto manufacturing industry.
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