fbpx

CIB 9/26/2016: Environmental PAC exposes McCrory’s pro-polluter record

Another major conservation campaign effort targets McCrory, plus more news, this week in CIB:

Campaign Watch: Exposing the McCrory Record

Conservation Votes PAC videoConservation Votes PAC announced last week a major new push in its campaign to expose the anti-environmental record of NC Gov. Pat McCrory. Conservation Votes is investing $700,000 in a television message detailing McCrory’s efforts to “let Duke Energy off the hook” for its toxic contamination of drinking water sources in North Carolina.

“McCrory has left North Carolinians behind in the name of corporate cronyism, protecting his former employer, Duke Energy, while our families were exposed to unsafe drinking water – that’s beyond reprehensible, and we’re going to make sure voters know about his failing record,” said Dan Crawford, director of Conservation Votes PAC. “He’s done everything he can to get Duke Energy sweetheart deals to avoid cleaning up their messes, some of which continue to poison our drinking water. They’ve returned the favor with political contributions. McCrory even signed the Polluter Protection Act, gutting environmental protections by letting big polluters police themselves.”

This new ad is running on broadcast and cable channels in the Triad and Asheville media markets between September 22 and October 5. The ad itself can be viewed here.

Conservation Votes PAC previously invested $750,000 in a door to door canvassing persuasion campaign which has already reached 115,000 homes in the Charlotte area, and is continuing through election day.


Administrative Watch: EPA Investigates DEQ over Intimidation Claims

Is the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) colluding with the hog industry in attempting to intimidate citizen complainants against hog waste pollution? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Civil Rights is investigating a complaint involving that question now.

The question arose out of complaints originally made in 2014 against new state permitting standards for swine waste operations. Among other problems, the new standards allow spraying liquid hog waste on fields as close as 100 feet from a drinking water well. (One of the citizen complainants says that hog waste sprayed on a neighboring farm gets blown onto her house.) Citizen environmental groups including the NC Environmental Justice Network are representing residents who report being impacted by the waste.

According to an article published online last week by NC Policy Watch, the complaint was eventually assigned to a mediator for a hearing scheduled for last January. The only parties to the complaint were the affected citizens and DEQ. By law, the details of such mediations are supposed to be confidential. Despite that, three weeks before the scheduled mediation session, attorneys for two hog industry groups filed a legal request to be allowed to intervene in the case and participate in the mediation session. Attorneys for the citizens objected—but the hog industry attorneys showed up anyway, and the DEQ reps chided the citizens for resisting intervention by the industry groups.

Who told the industry attorneys—who were not recognized parties to the case—about the time and place of the mediation session? Not the EPA. Not the citizen complainants or their attorneys, they say. That would appear to leave only DEQ.

According to citizens involved in the case, some of the individual resident complainants report direct intimidation efforts against them by swine farm representatives. Collusion with the industry by DEQ, the supposed regulator protectors of the public’s health, would be a particular outrage under such circumstances.

This serves as another timely reminder of the importance of state environmental agency leadership that understands that their job is to protect the public from pollution, not to shield polluters from the public.


Climate Change Update: Health Professionals Call for Climate Action

Health and medical professionals in North Carolina and nationwide last week joined in a timely call for “swift action on climate change to protect public health.”

According to the joint statement, signed by hundreds of leading health and medical professionals across the United States, “The health impacts of climate change demand immediate action. Delay only undermines our success, and the longer we wait, the more lives will be affected.”

The statement (“A Health Professionals’ Declaration on Climate Change”) says that American communities are already experiencing these serious impacts of climate change (which will only worsen the longer responsive action is delayed):

  • Exacerbated ozone and particulate air pollution, linked to asthma attacks, cardiovascular disease and premature death;
  • Extreme weather patterns, such as heat and severe storms, that cause droughts, wildfires and flooding that destabilizes communities, especially those least equipped to defend themselves; and
  • Increased vector-borne diseases by expanding seasons and geographic ranges for ticks, mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects.

The American Lung Association led the joint declaration effort.

The health professionals’ call for urgent action on climate change reminds us of the critical nature of this fall’s elections. We can’t weather a four-year (or longer) retreat from action on the crisis of climate change. We must elect candidates at all levels who believe in science and will act to protect future generations from the consequences of climate catastrophe.


Coast Watch: ‘Sonic Sea’ Screenings

Sonic Sea documentaryNCLCV with its Don’t Drill North Carolina coalition partners will be hosting free screenings of the powerful documentary Sonic Seas across the state. The first showing is tonight, September 26, at 7pm in Durham (Fullsteam Brewery). The 60-minute film shows the detrimental impacts from seismic airgun blasting, the first step big oil uses to determine where to drill in our ocean waters, on whale, dolphin and fish populations.

Register for tonight’s screening here. As of today, the Don’t Drill NC will be hosting additional screenings on the following dates and times:

Wednesday, October 5th NCSU’s Talley Student Union (Raleigh), 7pm

RSVP here
Facebook event page

Thursday, October 6th: Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro), 7pm

RSVP here
Facebook event page

Thursday, October 13th: West Bouelvard, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (Charlotte), 6pm
RSVP here
Facebook event page

If you have any questions about the screenings or if you are interested in showing one in your area, please contact Katie Todd, NCLCV’s Director of Digital Strategies, at katie@nclcv.org or at (919) 244-5868.

That’s our report for this week.

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Privacy Policy

environmental justice

Join the Fight

Help us fight for fair maps, free elections, clean air, clean water, and clean energy for every North Carolinian!

legislative battlegrounds on climate

Stay Informed

Keep up to date on the latest environmental and political news. Become an email insider.