A momentous change on the Supreme Court, and late-breaking court decisions on Congressional districts, have folks in Washington and Raleigh scrambling. This week in CIB.

Washington Watch: Partisan Politics and the Supreme Court

What impact will the absence of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, and the struggle over his replacement, have on the future of environmental law, policies, and problems? In a word, the impact could be enormous. However, in another word, it is uncertain. The outcome depends on who takes his seat on the Court, and who wins the presidency and Senate to name and confirm future appointees.

Justice Scalia was one of the Court members most reliably skeptical of federal authority to regulate air and water pollution, land use, and the protection of ecologies and species. Most recently, he was one of five who placed the unprecedented stay (hold) on the Clean Power Plan (CPP) rule even while it was still being argued in the Appellate Court. Had he not been on the Court earlier this month, it is likely that implementation would be continuing even now on the CPP nationwide. A more detailed look at Scalia’s impact on environmental law can be read here.

As CIB reported last week, both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and citizen environmental groups supporting the rule still expect the CPP to ultimately prevail in court. NCLCV’s Director of Governmental Affairs Dan Crawford said last week, “The Clean Power Plan is the serious, pragmatic plan we need to ensure our nation fights for clean air, clean water, and a clean energy future. We are confident that the Clean Power Plan will remain intact once the challenges have run their course. North Carolina should join other states that are already moving toward using more clean, renewable energy under the existing plan. Governor McCrory should believe in North Carolina by including homegrown clean, renewable energy and energy-efficiency as part of our state’s electricity future.”

Beyond the CPP, even as important as it is, the entire spectrum of environmental policy legal disputes may be profoundly impacted if Scalia’s replacement is better attuned to environmental concerns. That’s why the national League of Conservation Voters (LCV) joined in broad condemnation of what appeared to be purely partisan declarations last week that the Senate majority leadership wouldn’t even take up for debate any Supreme Court nomination by President Obama.

LCV president Gene Karpinski said, “We strongly believe that the president has a constitutional obligation to nominate a successor to Justice Scalia and that the Senate has an obligation to give that nominee both a fair hearing and a timely vote. Senator McConnell and other senators who have said that there should be no nominee until after the elections are playing partisan politics at its very worst and have sunk to a new low. Their extreme and unprecedented position makes it imperative that we engage in this Supreme Court confirmation debate in a bigger way than we ever have before. The Republican leadership has already been clear they’re going to the mat, and we will too because, from the Clean Power Plan to the Clean Water Rule and so many other environmental and public health issues, the role of the courts is tremendously important.”

Ultimately, the makeup of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts will also be decided by the next President and Senate elected this year. There is no more compelling evidence of how critical these elections are than the scramble going on now to fill one key seat on that Court. Due to the age of many of the Court’s members, it is seen as likely that the next president will have the opportunity to nominate two to three more members of the Supreme Court.

Campaign Watch: Scrambling Congress

Back in North Carolina last week, the General Assembly sped through the adoption of new Congressional district maps in order to beat a court-imposed deadline. On Friday, a new configuration with relatively more compact district formations was approved.

Under the approval legislation, all other primaries will go forward as scheduled on March 15, while the Congressional primaries will be moved to a stand-alone statewide vote on June 7. A new filing period will be held from March 16 to March 25. In addition, for this year’s contests only, there will be no runoff elections. The candidate receiving a plurality of votes on the first vote will receive the nomination.

The legislation also contained a trigger reverting the Congressional primaries to the March 15 date using current district lines if the Supreme Court were to grant the state’s request to stay (put on hold) the lower federal court’s order for new district maps. On Friday, however, the Court issued a one-sentence order denying the stay, so the March 15 voting will not determine the Congressional races. Still left uncertain is whether the Appeals Court will accept the new districts map.

In drawing the new district map, the Republican majority in the General Assembly announced its intent to draw the lines in a way which gave partisan advantage to Republicans in 10 of the 13 districts. Their stated rationale was to protect the status quo party makeup of the state’s Congressional delegation. Democratic legislators fiercely criticized the new maps, arguing that they merely substituted party registration as an approximate marker for race, in order to protect a numerical result which was created in the first place by an unconstitutional reliance on race as a predominant factor in the mapmaking.

In terms of impact on incumbents, the most noteworthy impact of the new map is to displace 12th District Rep. Alma Adams from her district. The current 12th District winds from Greensboro (where Adams lives) to Charlotte. The new map would consolidate the 12th District within Mecklenburg County. A quirk of the U.S. Constitution permits any resident of the state to represent any Congressional district within that state, so Adams would not be legally disqualified from running for re-election to represent the new 12th District. However, as a first-term representative, she would likely be significantly disadvantaged by the total removal of her natural home territory from the district. Adams received the endorsement of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund during her 2014 campaign.

The new map also shifted the 13th District out from under its incumbent Rep. George Holding. Holding’s residence now lies within the 4th District, represented by Rep. David Price. However, Holding reputedly views his chances of retaining a seat in Congress as stronger if he runs against incumbent 2nd District Rep. Renee Ellmers. Both Holding and Ellmers score poorly on the LCV Environmental Scorecard. Ellmers’ career score is 5%, while Holding’s is 3%.

Legislative Watch: A Worried Grab at the REINS

The anti-regulation John Locke Foundation (JLF) is pitching its latest twist on polluter-friendly lawmaking, another way to make it harder to rein in polluting industries, ironically labeled the REINS Act (“Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny”). It would tighten the legislative advance-approval requirements for any new rule which could cost a regulated industry more than $1 million.

Analysts note that state law already requires a painstaking review (in progress now) of the existing body of environmental regulations, as well as the Rules Review Commission process for new rules. However, they note that some on the anti-regulatory right seem nervous about the prospects for a change this year from the anti-regulatory McCrory Administration to a more environment-friendly Cooper Administration. As a result, JLF representatives this month asked the joint Legislative Administrative Procedure Oversight Committee to call for a tighter grab at the REINS before they possibly slipped out of their grasp. The JLF is one of the Art Pope-founded network of groups which regularly press for ideas developed nationally and channeled through the anti-regulation American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

We don’t know whether the idea has much momentum for consideration during an already-contentious election year, but we have learned not to ignore the potential for anti-environment attacks from the JLF, ALEC, and friends. The citizen conservation community will keep close watch on this bad idea.

Administrative Watch: Backpedaling on Clean Water Rules

Well, now, really, not so fast. An NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) spokesperson last week said that DEQ does not plan to push for weakening clean water rules during this year’s legislative session.

That response from DEQ Deputy Secretary for Public Affairs Crystal Feldman came in an email response to questions posed by Coastal Review Online. The issue was raised by DEQ Assistant Secretary Tom Reeder’s testimony the week before to the legislature’s Environmental Review Commission (ERC). Reeder told the ERC that nutrient control and stream buffer rules weren’t working and should be reconsidered.

Reeder’s comments were met with vigorous pushback from environment-friendly legislators like Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) and citizen conservation groups. As it turns out, perhaps Reeder’s candor about the present DEQ leadership’s attitudes on pollution control got him into a bit of hot water, as it were, at least during an election year.

Around the State: Why Democracy Matters Tour

NCLCV will participate in the “Why Democracy Matters” voter education tour, sponsored by NC Voters for Clean Elections (NCVCE) and other public interest organizations, to promote active and informed public involvement in the elections process. The tour’s first stop will be this Thursday, February 25, in Asheville.

NCVCE director Melissa Price Kromm says that the tour events will help to “highlight the intersections of environmental issues, public education, racial justice, labor and pro-democracy reforms.” They will also spotlight the problems associated with money in politics. Full details on the event can be found here.

The Asheville event will be held this Thursday, February 25, 6:30-8:30pm, at the Wesley Grant Southside Center, 285 Livingston Street, Asheville. There is no charge for participation, but RSVPs are requested here.

That’s our report for this week.