More environmentally destructive actions fly through the Senate, and battles loom ahead in the House. This week in CIB:
- Legislative Watch: Budget Battles Loom
- Legislative Watch: Destroy More Wetlands
- Nuclear Update: NRC Opens Harris Inspection
- Administrative Watch: Watchdogs or Sleeping Dogs?
- Washington Watch: Stall-Ball on the Environment
- Conservationists: Green Tie Dinner, NCLCV Meeting
Legislative Watch: Budget Battles Loom
A budget that slashes funding for wildlife and wildlife lands management, eliminates key dedicated funding for land and water conservation, and adds the injury of various anti-environmental non-budgetary “riders” sloshed over from the Senate last week. It now lies like an oily pool in the hands of the House for the next act of what could be another environmental tragedy.
Fast analysis of legislation as complex as a state budget bill is always challenging, so oversights around the edges are possible. However, based on the best reads of NCLCV advocates and allies, here are some of the low points of the damage:
A key dedicated source of funding (land transfer tax) for land and water conservation is eliminated, and partially offset by a shrunken appropriation from the general fund. The Clean Water Management Trust Fund and Natural Heritage Trust Fund are consolidated into a new Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The total LWCF appropriation is a small fraction of what its two predecessors received prior to the 2011 takeover by current legislative leadership.
Funding for the Wildlife Resources Commission is cut by a whopping 49% (from about $18 million to $9 million annually). A special alert from the N.C. Wildlife Federation calls the cuts “staggering” and projects they would result in “crippling” cuts to staffing, services, and management of facilities and programs from boating and fishing access areas and game lands to education centers and non-game wildlife projects.
In the transportation budget, passenger rail and transit would be excluded from state and regional account funding; and the use of state funds for bike and pedestrian projects would be prohibited altogether.
An annual surcharge on motor vehicle registration fees of $50 for hybrids and $100 for electric vehicles could add a fiscal disincentive to drivers choosing these energy-efficient alternatives.
Destructive ‘special provisions’ carried over from the earlier commission-stripping bills would immediately eliminate all sitting members of the key Environmental Management Commission (EMC) and make substantial changes to membership of the Coastal Resources Commission (CRC). The conflict-of-interest requirement that at least a majority of the EMC not derive significant income from parties they regulate is eliminated. The requirement that most CRC members live in the coastal zone is eliminated.
(Thanks to NCCN’s Grady McCallie for timely detailed budget analysis.)
Legislative Watch: Destroy More Wetlands
So much environment-damaging legislation is being jammed through this session of the General Assembly that it’s difficult to keep track of it all. Thus, it’s no surprise that one little-noted change buried in the so-called “N.C. Farm Act of 2013” could prove to become massively destructive to water quality in North Carolina.
Via a technical change in the legal definition of “waters”, the bill would remove much of our state’s wetlands from protection under pollution control laws. As former Assistant Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Robin Smith explains in her SmithEnvironment blog, “The bill takes a term (“waters of the United States”) that describes federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction and uses it to remove state protection for wetlands that fall outside federal jurisdiction. For reasons that mostly have to do with limits on federal authority under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, not all state waters or wetlands are considered “waters of the United States”. The limit on federal jurisdiction has nothing to do with the importance of the wetland — it has to do with how the Constitution divides responsibility between the federal government and the states. The change in definition would mean that someone could fill or discharge pollutants to wetlands that fall outside federal jurisdiction without any water quality permit from the state. In committee, the change was described as one intended to help farmers, but developers are likely to benefit more.”
This environmentally destructive change passed the Senate without opposition, almost certainly because it flew through with inadequate examination before the ‘crossover’ deadline. It deserves more than a neglectful passing glance in the House.
Nuclear Update: NRC Opens Harris Inspection
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week announced that it is conducting a special inspection of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant outside Raleigh. The NRC said in a news release that two additional inspectors from the agency will “assess the circumstances surrounding the discovery” of a corrosion-related flaw in the reactor vessel head.
Duke Energy last week temporarily shut down the sole operating nuclear reactor at Shearon Harris in order to repair the problem. It’s damage to the lid on the container that prevents superheated, highly pressurized water from escaping the reactor. This part of a reactor is so dangerously radioactive that the necessary repairs must be done by robotics.
Duke took over the Harris plant from Progress Energy when it acquired Progress in a merger last year. NRC inspectors are investigating why the containment vessel problem, which was identified from ultrasound records made in spring 2012, wasn’t identified, reported, and acted upon earlier.
Administrative Watch: Watchdogs or Sleeping Dogs?
The latest disagreement between the Attorney General and the (soon to retire) head of the Utilities Commission Public Staff seems sure to revive an ongoing question regarding the effectiveness of the Public Staff as watchdogs for the public’s interests.
Following the Attorney General’s successful appeal of the Utilities Commission’s award of a 7% rate increase to Duke Energy, that case has been remanded by the N.C. Supreme Court to the Utilities Commission for a new decision. Attorney General Roy Cooper used that chance to urge the commission’s Public Staff to take a new look at its agreement with Duke to support a rate hike.
Robert Gruber, the outgoing director of the Public Staff, wasn’t having any of it. Said Gruber, “If the Public Staff abandoned the settlement in light of the Supreme Court’s decision, as you suggest we do, [certain negotiated] benefits would be in jeopardy and consumers could face even higher rates as a result.” Since those ‘benefits’ primarily translate out to a rate hike–just a lower one than originally requested–some observers question whether the Public Staff’s position amounts to tough bargaining or just timidity.
See the Bruce Henderson blog piece on this topic here.
Washington Watch: Stall-Ball on the Environment
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator-Nominee Gina McCarthy now holds a new record–one she would just as soon have done without. Her nomination has sat unratified by the Senate for longer than any previous nominee for EPA head.
Action in Congress has been dragged down to such a historic crawl that this particular milestone passed with little notice. Unfortunately, it reflects a larger problematic trend in the way important scientific technical matters are being handled by a body that collectively seems to understand little about science.
As noted in the scientific journal Nature, having agency heads filled on an acting basis can slow down critical budget negotiations and regulatory decisions. Whether that is a consequence of neglect or deliberate political mischief, it’s bad for the effectiveness of the agencies we depend on for action to protect public health and natural resources.
Conservationists: Green Tie Dinner, NCLCV Meeting
It’s here! NCLCV will hold its annual Green Tie Awards this Wednesday, May 29, 6-9 p.m., in Raleigh (Downtown Sheraton, 421 South Salisbury Street). The green heroes being honored this year are the following:
- Defender of the Environment: Rep. Deborah Ross.
- Senator of the Year: Sen. Dan Blue.
- Representative of the Year: Rep. Susan Fisher.
- Catalyst Award: Sue Sturgis, The Institute for Southern Studies.
NCLCV’s annual membership meeting and officer elections will also take place at that event. Here is the nominated slate of officers for the coming year:
- President: Maria Kingery
- Vice President / Interim Treasurer: Bill Padgett
- Secretary: Chandra Taylor
Conservationists are encouraged to attend the Green Tie Awards Dinner to honor the legislative leaders who are carrying forward the fight for a clean environment. There’s still time to get more information and to register.
That’s our report for this week.
