07/09/2012

It was a shameful end to a terrible legislative session for the environment. This week in CIB:

• Legislative Watch: Shameful Session
• Campaign Watch: Time for a Change!

Legislative Watch: Shameful Session

It was a shameful end to a legislative session filled with poorly-reviewed and ill-advised changes to laws and programs which had been crafted over decades for the protection of public health and our environment.

On Sunday July 1, Governor Perdue vetoed SB 820, the fast-track fracking bill. Everyone knew the decision on whether to override that veto would come down to a few votes in the state House. The future safety of groundwater as a drinking water supply in several North Carolina counties could be riding on a razor's edge.

That Monday evening, immediately after the House voted to override Perdue's budget veto, House leadership called up SB 820 for the vote. No debate was allowed. The totals flashed on the board: 72-47 in favor of override, the minimum 72 votes needed. But Rep. Becky Carney (D-Mecklenburg) jumped up, waving and calling out for the Speaker's attention. She'd pushed the wrong button--yes instead of the no she intended--and recognized her error as soon as her vote appeared with the others on the board. A simple, good-faith late-evening mistake.

She was ignored. Instead, Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) recognized House Majority Leader Paul "Skip" Stam (R-Wake) for the start of the reconsideration/tabling maneuver used to wall off any opportunity for a review and change of the vote just taken. Tillis continued to reject Carney's pleas for the routinely-granted legislative courtesy of the chance to correct an immediately-recognized voting error.

This was merely the last and most flagrant of the "means justify the ends" approach demonstrated by the legislative leadership in attacks on environmental protection through the 2011-2012 legislative sessions.

As part of the same fracking veto override vote, a deal had clearly been struck to win the support of Rep. Susi Hamilton (D-New Hanover). Legislative observers suggested that Hamilton's change came in response to the addition to a corrections bill of support for film industry incentives of interest to Hamilton's home district and county. Hamilton voted for the override--despite having signed on to a letter earlier which urged the governor to veto the bill.

In a swift and unprecedented response, NCLCV the next day announced the retraction of a "Rising Star" recognition awarded to Hamilton just two weeks before. NCLCV Executive Director Carrie Clark explained that the group felt obligated to maintain accountability to its members and the public for its own decisions. "We don't take this action lightly," said Clark. "But we want our friends, our colleagues, and other legislators to know that we hold ourselves and them to a high standard."

NCLCV's response set off a round of intense scrutiny of Hamilton's actions and the overall low behavior of the legislative leadership in this matter. Kevin Siers' editorial cartoon in the Charlotte Observer may have best illustrated how this episode illuminated the worst of the session just ended.

While the fracking veto override may illustrate the worst of this legislative session, it hardly begins to encompass the environmental damage done. In the final week of the 2012 "budget session" alone, the legislature approved these environmental regressions:

• Jordan Lake cleanup rules affecting development were delayed another two years.
• State agencies, including the Coastal Resources Commission, were blocked from establishing rules to respond to rising sea level for another four years.

Those moves were added to many earlier actions, such as weakening controls on toxic air pollution and defunding the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, which were aimed at moving our state backwards in the defense of our clean water, air, and land.

At the same time, we should recognize that the environmental damage could have been even worse. One of the gubernatorial vetoes never overridden was Perdue's rejection of SB 709, the so-called energy jobs act, which would not only have promoted fracking but environmentally dangerous offshore drilling as well. In the final week, legislation which would have forced cities to extend water/sewer service to badly planned and environmentally harmful developments outside their boundaries died. Other bad bills which were adopted were reined back to a degree by the need to ensure sufficient supportive votes to avoid a veto.

As a result, we are left by the session with this recognition: It could have been worse, and it almost certainly will get worse next year--unless supporters of a clean and healthy environment do better at the state's polls this fall than in 2010.

Campaign Watch: Time for a Change!

If a legislative session ever demonstrated the truth that "who we elect matters," it was the 2011-2012 North Carolina General Assembly. It's time for conservationists in our state to step up and work together to take back the future of our state for a clean, green, and beautiful North Carolina.

Here's a first step. Contribute today to the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters' election accountability campaign for legislators.

The 2011-2012 legislative session adjourned on July 3. From weakening our air toxics protections, to legalizing fracking without the proper health and property protections in place, to undermining the state's ability to prepare for sea level rise by limiting the use of sound science (but only for 4 years), to defunding our state agency tasked with enforcing environmental laws, to a host of other bad decisions... We need to tell our electeds that "That Wasn't Right!"

On July 4th, the day after this disastrous legislative session adjourned, NCLCV turned our sights to holding our legislators accountable for these bad decisions. And we have till November 6th. Your support today means that NCLCV can work in key districts to support or oppose candidates, let the voters know how the decisions made by their electeds are going to impact their communities, their landscapes, their drinking water, and make sure everyone knows that the most important thing we can do for the environment is vote for candidates who share our environmental values.

Please make a non-tax deductible donation today!!

100 people like you, investing $100 today, is $10,000 we can use to help support our environmental champions or oppose some of the most anti-environmental legislators. And be assured, we'll be working strategically where we can have the most impact on our issues. We need to make sure our voice is loud enough to be heard in the next legislative session!

Follow this link to start now to fight back for the future of our state's environment: nclcv.org/involved/donate/accountability