New Legislative Maps Head Back to Court
The North Carolina General Assembly delivered its proposed new state legislative maps before the court-ordered deadline last week. Now we’ll see what a state court has to say about legislators’ latest go. In early September, a three-judge panel struck down the legislative maps which were used in the 2018 elections, ruling they were extreme partisan […]
Trump vs. States in Clean Air Showdown
Last week, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein joined 22 other states’ chief consumer protectors…
Energy Efficiency Roadmap
A new North Carolina Energy Efficiency Roadmap is available online to help policymakers and advocates review a broad range of solutions to boost our state’s energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The roadmap and supporting documents were developed by collecting and compiling the ideas of more than 100 regional stakeholders in this policy area. Up […]
EPA Repeals Keystone Clean Water Rule
Last week, the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its repeal of the Clean Water Rule, a keystone of the Obama Administration’s legacy of environmental protection. The rule represented a major step in effective protection of waters including headwater streams and wetlands, which are especially critical to filtering pollutants and providing essential habitat for wildlife […]
Legislature Starts Drawing New Maps
The district map-drawing ball is back in the legislature’s hands, and both the state House and Senate are scrambling to draw new maps under the court’s rules before the clock runs out this Thursday, September 19. Those rules made for an exceptionally open and publicly transparent process, in which private partisan caucuses and use of […]
Override by Ambush
In a move that shocked the world early last Wednesday morning, a narrow quorum of the state House voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the anti-environment state budget. The vote occurred just after 8:30 a.m., almost exactly 18 years to the day after planes struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Immediately after […]
Dorian Blasts Past
Residents across North Carolina shuddered last week when they learned that another slow-moving category…
Vote Now in Special Congressional Races
It’s down to the wire in two special North Carolina congressional elections, including a nationally watched contest featuring an environmental champion. Special elections for two vacant congressional seats wrap up tomorrow (Tuesday, September 10) in North Carolina’s Third and Ninth Congressional Districts. The Ninth District contest has drawn particular nationwide interest. The Ninth is the […]
Victory for Democracy
North Carolina’s state legislative maps are unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders, said a special three-judge panel last week, and must be redrawn immediately to fix that bias. Partisan gerrymandering is when districts are drawn specifically and systematically for the purpose of elevating candidates of one political party over all opponents. The case, Common Cause v. Lewis, challenged […]
Trump Drops Methane Emissions Controls
As if his plans to increase carbon dioxide emissions won’t be bad enough already, the Trump Administration now wants to eliminate controls on emissions of methane, an even more powerful greenhouse gas pollutant than CO2. Last week, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to undo the Obama EPA’s tightened restrictions on methane emissions from the […]
