Provides with respect to the Department of Environmental Quality fees (RE +$12,383,369 SG RV See Note)

House Bill 758 amends multiple sections of Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 30 to restructure how the Department of Environmental Quality establishes and adjusts fees for environmental permits, licenses, registrations, certifications, and various review processes. The bill removes specific dollar amounts from statutory fee schedules and grants the Department authority to establish fee structures through rulemaking. For commercial laboratory accreditation, the bill replaces fixed fees with a formula-based approach considering test category, accreditation type, and laboratory location. The bill converts "initial fees" to "application fees" for permits and similar authorizations and modifies the restriction on fee increases from a five percent annual cap to a mechanism allowing adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index, which can be aggregated across multiple years. The Department gains authorization to adjust fees for new technology, error correction, new industries, federal obligations, and budgetary concerns. New provisions establish authority for emergency processing fees capped at one and one-half times regular fees, late fees capped at fifteen percent of the original amount, and fees for expedited permits, environmental condition reviews, and self-audit reviews. The bill also raises underground storage tank registration fees from sixty to sixty-six dollars and motor oil tank fees from two hundred seventy-five to three hundred dollars annually.

The practical impact falls on multiple regulated entities and the regulated public. Laboratories seeking accreditation will now face variable fees determined by departmental formula rather than statutory schedule, creating flexibility for the Department to adjust costs but potentially increasing uncertainty in budgeting for applicants. Permit holders, license holders, and entities seeking registrations or variances will experience application fees as distinct from annual monitoring and maintenance fees, with both subject to formula-based adjustment through the regulatory process. Owners of underground storage tanks will pay modestly higher registration and maintenance fees. Businesses or individuals requesting expedited permits, environmental condition reviews, or self-audit evaluations will face new fees calibrated to the Department's actual cost of processing those requests. Failure to pay prescribed fees within ninety days becomes enforceable through permit denial, suspension, or revocation, creating financial consequences beyond simple debt collection. Small businesses and industries subject to multiple fees may see cumulative cost increases if the Consumer Price Index adjustments are applied across fee categories.

The bill operates within the existing framework of the Louisiana Environmental Quality Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. All amended fees must be adopted through formal rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act, ensuring public notice and opportunity for comment. The bill expressly references Article VII, Section 2.1 of the Louisiana Constitution in authorizing fee modifications for activities authorized under the environmental quality regulatory scheme, suggesting legislative reliance on constitutional provisions governing dedicated fund accounts and revenue collection for environmental protection. The amendments preserve the Environmental Trust Dedicated Fund Account as the repository for most environmental fees unless otherwise specified and maintain the Motor Fuel Underground Storage Tank Trust Dedicated Fund Account for tank-related revenues. The changes to fee authority represent a significant delegation of fee-setting discretion to the executive branch, with the Legislature retaining oversight through the rulemaking process and specific guardrails such as the Consumer Price Index limitation and the prohibition on creating wholly new fees not previously authorized. The repeal of prior statutory fee schedules and the five percent cap eliminates prior limitations on departmental fee flexibility while establishing new limitations through the rulemaking requirement and the specific grounds for fee adjustment.