Weekly Conservation Bulletin
06/11/2012
We have a progress report on our anti-environmental legislature, and our campaign for a better one, this week in CIB:
Legislative Watch: Stacking the Deck; Cheating on the Numbers; Frack Full of Flaws
How many ways to backwards can one institution find? The 2012 General Assembly seems determined to find out. Here are three:
Stacking the Deck: Legislation which would strip North Carolina's chief environmental rulemaking body of most of its citizen conservationists advanced in the state Senate last week. SB 851, the so-called "Boards and Commissions Efficiency Act", was approved by one committee before being sent to the Senate Finance panel for further review. Among other changes, the bill would eliminate one of the local public health seats, the air pollution control expert seat, and the fish and wildlife conservation seat, as well as the three at-large members, from the state Environmental Management Commission (EMC). It would also remove the governor's authority to designate the commission's chair. By a remarkable coincidence, the EMC seats being eliminated just happen to be the ones filled by the EMC's most independent, environmentally-expert members. As the Sierra Club's Molly Diggins puts it, "SB 851 eliminates balance by removing seats designed for areas of environmental expertise and public interest, leaving the Commission largely in the hands of representatives of regulated interests."
Cheating on the Numbers: Ridicule from sources as varied as Scientific American and the Colbert Report didn't stop the Senate Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee from approving a bill which would block the use of scientists' projections of future sea-level rise in state planning. HB 819, "Coastal Management Policies", prohibits all state agencies and boards from using sea-level rise information that is not "consistent with historic trends." In other words, if it hasn't already happened and been measured, we can't take into account indications that it's about to happen. This is like requiring emergency management agencies to ignore satellite pictures of a hurricane bearing down on the coast, and projecting rain and wind speed on the past week's averages. As coastal geology expert Dr. Stan Riggs said to the Charlotte Observer, "We're throwing this science out completely, and what's proposed is just crazy for a state that used to be a leader in marine science. You can't legislate the ocean, and you can't legislate storms." It seems that the spirit of King Canute, who famously ordered the tide not to come in, lives on in the North Carolina General Assembly.
Frack Full of Flaws: By a 29-19 vote, the N.C. Senate last week passed deeply flawed legislation designed to fast-track the development of fracking for natural gas in North Carolina. Among its many flaws, the bill legalizes hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling now, mandates that rules for the process be finished within two years, and creates a new industry-dominated board to oversee the process. Now the public is supposed to have confidence that the oil and gas industry will nobly exercise self-control in protecting groundwater, wells and landowners from toxic chemical injections underground, among other hazards. In a strange twist for legislators who love to declare their support for "private property rights", SB 820, the so-called "Clean Energy and Economic Security Act", even sets up a route for the gas industry to override local landowners' objections to fracking beneath their land. It seems that government's involuntary taking of land for economic development purposes is evil, but the oil and gas industry's involuntary taking of private land from its owners is business as usual.
Campaign Watch: NCLCV Questions Candidates; More SuperPAC Cash; Conservationists Respond
We have several notes from the campaign trail this week.
NCLCV Questions Candidates: NCLCV has sent out its candidate questionnaire in general election contests. Responses to this issue survey are one of the important factors used in evaluating which candidates NCLCV will endorse and support with publicity and resources. Among the topics on which thoughtful discussion is sought, this year's survey includes fracking, offshore drilling, climate change, environmental protection and natural area conservation budget cuts, wind energy development, annual electric rate increases for nuclear plant construction, and renewable energy development financing.
More SuperPAC Cash: The torrent of special interest money into this year's elections continued with the announcement of a planned $321,000 advertising campaign on behalf of ten state legislators. The "Carolina Business Coalition Education Fund" reported that it received $350,000 from the Carolina Business Coalition. The highest reported expenditure was $61,000 going to benefit Sen. Neal Hunt (R-Wake). More details can be found here: http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/10_state_lawmakers_benefit_from_new_business_super_pac
Conservationists Respond: The efforts of competing PACs underscore the importance of NCLCV's ongoing efforts to raise resources for the support of legislative friends of the environment. On that note, we're pleased to report that NCLCV's recent Charlotte fundraiser netted over $10,000 in contributions from sponsorships and ticket sales.
Education & Resources: Solar Entrepreneurship
CIB strongly suspects that inside some of those ambitious young business majors you know is a solar entrepreneur just waiting to get out. So, what about introducing them to a resource that will help that identity emerge?
The N.C. Solar Center at N.C. State University offers resources for small sustainable energy businesses, including a Solar and Clean Energy Financial Modeling package that caught our eye in the Center's online newsletter. It includes a customizable dashboard for demonstrating to those potential investors the economic viability of a proposed new project. Take a look at that tool here, and then browse through the Solar Center's other offerings afterwards: http://ncsc.ncsu.edu/index.php/services-2/solar-financial-modeling-dashboard/ Who knows? You may already know the next Steve Solar Jobs.
Conservationists: Green Tie Citizen Groups
The Green Tie Awards Dinner is just nine days away, and CIB is taking an early opportunity this week to recognize the active sponsorship support from some of our sister citizen organizations, including the Sierra Club (Capital Group), EarthShare North Carolina, Environmental Defense Fund, Conservation Trust for North Carolina, the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, and WakeUP Wake County. Thanks, colleagues!
Don't miss the chance to reserve your seats. For details and to reserve tickets for the Green Tie Awards Dinner in Raleigh on June 20, go to: http://nclcv.org/what/honoring/green_tie_2012/
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