Judicial Watch: Legislature Keeps Stalling on Fixing Unconstitutional Districts
Judicial Watch: Legislature Keeps Stalling on Fixing Unconstitutional Districts Will North Carolina’s unconstitutional legislative and Congressional districts ever be fixed? The answer is hazy, while the Supreme Court continues to place remedies ordered by lower courts on hold. Late last week, a three-judge federal panel ordered the use of new state legislative maps for several […]
Coast Watch: Opposition to Atlantic Offshore Drilling Mounts
Coast Watch: Opposition to Atlantic Offshore Drilling Mounts Seven Atlantic coast governors have asked the US Interior Department to exempt their states from the plan to open their offshore waters to oil and gas drilling. NC Gov. Roy Cooper joined with a bipartisan group of governors from Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Virginia […]
Administrative Watch: Pipeline Questions Continue to Mount
Administrative Watch: Pipeline Questions Continue to Mount In another North Carolina reaction to a multi-state issue, NC state regulators are adding to their questions about the water quality and environmental justice impacts of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The ACP would transport fracked natural gas from fields in West Virginia through the state of […]
Coast Watch: Cooper Petitions to Take NC Off Drilling Plan
Coast Watch: Cooper Petitions to Take NC Off Drilling Plan Following through on his promise to oppose drilling off the North Carolina coast, Gov. Roy Cooper last week formally petitioned to take NC off the US Interior Department’s draft drilling plan. Cooper petitioned US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to exempt North Carolina from that department’s […]
Legislative Watch: House Recommends Funding Water Cleanup Work; Senate Goes Home
Legislative Watch: House Recommends Funding Water Cleanup Work; Senate Goes Home The NC House stepped up last week by voting to add some real funding to its bill to address growing water quality contamination issues. Sadly, the NC Senate decided the issue wasn’t that pressing and went home instead. Taking a bill recommended by its […]
Overview: Forecast for 2018
Overview: Forecast for 2018 Last week, CIB brought you a look at 2017 in review. This week, we pass along one observer’s take on what we can expect on the environment in North Carolina this year. In this well-considered article, environmental reporter Lisa Sorg offers her projections on 2018’s coming policy battles over water, energy, […]
Legislative Watch: Panel Recommends More Study—but No Funding—on Water Pollution
Legislative Watch: Panel Recommends More Study—but No Funding—on Water Pollution Surprise, surprise. A state legislative study committee recommends more study of a growing water pollution issue, but ducks any question of paying to fix it. The House Select Committee on River Quality unanimously voted to send forward for House consideration a set of recommendations for […]
Coast Watch: Trump Administration Offshore Drilling Madness
Coast Watch: Trump Administration Offshore Drilling Madness The Trump Interior Department has issued an extreme drill-everywhere recommendation for America’s most sensitive offshore areas—including the North Carolina coast. A wide array of opponents are fighting back. What happened? In a nutshell, the US Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released its draft 2019-2024 update […]
Overview: Top Environmental Stories of 2017
Overview: Top Environmental Stories of 2017 What were the biggest environmental stories of 2017, in North Carolina and beyond? Opinions may differ, but here are some of the takes on this question. Nationwide: The top energy and environment stories of 2017, according to one major national publication, included several from the Trump Administration’s all-out assault […]
Coast Watch: NC Holds Up Undersea Seismic Testing
Coast Watch: NC Holds Up Undersea Seismic Testing Citing concerns about adverse impacts on sea life, the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has held up forward movement on permitting for seismic testing off the North Carolina coast. New scientific reports undercut the credibility of industry claims that the seismic gun blasting to search for […]
