Several other award categories, including Senator of the Year and Defender of the Environment, were notably absent from this year’s Green Tie Awards. This is due in large part to the rising tide of anti-environmental legislation finding its way through the NC General Assembly.
“With the continued attacks on long-standing sound environmental policies, we at NCLCV feel that our past and current Green Tie recipients deserve to be called Defenders of the Environment,” said Dan Crawford, Director of Governmental Relations with NCLCV. “Despite the odds, our legislative allies are working tirelessly to pass bills that promote clean air and water and not allow corporate polluters to put their profits over the good people of this state.”
The 2015 legislative session has been no different for North Carolina’s environmental protections. With legislation to freeze the state’s successful Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio (REPS), eliminate riparian buffers designed to naturally filter local drinking water supplies, and additional budgetary cuts to the state’s environmental regulatory program, the people and natural resources of this state need far more, not fewer, champions in Raleigh.
“If we fail in protecting our environment and communities now,” noted Attorney General Cooper, ”future generations of North Carolinians will be robbed of the beauty and splendor our mountains, oceans, and open spaces have offered so many of us. It’s time to see a change in how we treat these once-in-a-lifetime resources.”