Another anti-environmental omnibus bill rolls in the House, while a pro-environment bus rolls across the state. This week in CIB:

Legislative Watch: Another Anti-environmental Omnibus

Another terrible collection of anti-environmental provisions has passed through one chamber in Raleigh (this time the House) and is headed to the other body for concurrence. In what has become a favorite trick this year, the House Regulatory Reform Committee stuffed a different bill from the other chamber with unrelated new provisions to create the unwelcome new SB 112, renamed “Create Jobs Through Regulatory Reform”. It might be better named “Finish the Job of Gutting Environmental Protections in North Carolina”–or perhaps the “Polluters Paradise Act”.

Among its key bad sections, the bill now includes the automatic expiration of existing rules on an accelerated schedule, posing a threat to all existing limits on water and air pollution. In addition, it goes further and even bars the passage or enforcement of nearly all local ordinances which act to conserve land or protect air or water more strongly than minimum state or federal standards. In other words, it clears the deck to get rid of state safeguards for air, water, and land, and prohibits more forward-thinking localities from trying to do more to protect their citizens’ health.

We’re frankly running out of new ways to explain just how egregiously wrong-headed the bills moving forward in this General Assembly have become on the environment. We can only report, and ask that concerned North Carolinians remember during next year’s elections.

SB 112, the Polluters’ Paradise Act, passed the House and heads to the Senate for concurrence.

Climate Change Update: ‘I Will’ Tour Rolls Into NC

A 21-state tour sponsored by multiple local, state-based, and national public health and environmental groups rolled into North Carolina last week, with the pledge “I Will” Act on Climate as its focus. This climate action tour combines support for President Obama’s new climate change action plan with an emphasis on continuing the local and state work that is already underway.

North Carolina stops took place in Asheville and Greensboro on Friday, and will finish in Wrightsville Beach today (July 15). In each location, local leaders are telling the stories of creative efforts in their area to promote energy efficiency and clean energy development. Other speakers discuss the problems already being seen from extreme weather events, and forecast the even more severe threats which would come from unchecked climate change.

The League of Conservation Voters was the chief group sponsor for the Greensboro stop, which featured comments by NC Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) and former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) (now president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund).

Administrative Watch: ‘Accounting Errors’ and Political Cash

Duke Energy was left red-faced last week when it was discovered that its latest rate hike request included a request for ratepayers to pay for more than $326,000 in Duke political contributions to the Republican Governors Association, the North Carolina and South Carolina Republican parties, and the group Strategies for the Global Environment. Duke characterized the inclusion of the political contributions as an ‘accounting mistake’.

That amount is small change compared to the $446 million in rate hikes originally sought by Duke in its February filing. However, it served to headline claims by consumer advocates that the reduced request of $200 million still contains more than $100 million of improper charges.

Duke says that the request is needed to cover investments in new power plants and other equipment, as well as a healthy hike in its profits. The case is before the N.C. Utilities Commission for a decision. (Associated Press, 7/9/13; and NC WARN statement, 7/8/13.)

North of the Border: Not Near Us, Please

Apparently, the North Carolina legislation which would put our state back in the mega-landfill business stinks badly enough to be smelled in Virginia.

SB 328, titled the “Solid Waste Management Reform Act of 2013”–a.k.a., the “Please Dump on Us Act”–is chock full of provisions weakening existing state safeguards against pollution from landfills, including elimination of buffer separations from wildlife refuges. The net effect (and seemingly the intent) would be to attract the import of trash from other states into huge megadumps, especially in the northeastern part of the state.

This has made some of Virginia’s elected representatives in Washington unhappy, and they’re asking that it be stopped. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) has asked the EPA to examine the bill, which he says would enable a huge proposed dump across the state line from Chesapeake VA, threatening drinking water quality, the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge, and U.S. Navy operations nearby. (The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has also written to NC DENR citing the importance of the existing five-mile buffer requirement between landfills and wildlife refuges.)

In addition, U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) has asked N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory to stop the bill. Plainly, there’s bipartisan agreement in our neighbor to the north that NC’s proposed new landfill rules stink.

Around the Globe: Coal Kills in China

A study released last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that residents of southern China are living an average of five years longer than residents of industrialized northern China, because of the destructive health effects of air pollution from heavy coal use in the north.

The American member of the international research team, Michael Greenstone (an environmental economics professor at MIT), told the New York Times that the impact was surprisingly large, and that it was found across all age groups. Health statistics recorded over two decades by the Chinese government and examined by the study showed that the 5.5 year drop in northern Chinese life expectancy was related almost entirely to an increase in deaths associated with heart-lung diseases.

The results of this new study echo an increasing number of studies showing the severe damage to human health resulting from China’s air pollution, which has reached new heights during the past year. More discussion of the study’s findings can be found here.

Education & Resources: Local Activism Training

Finally this week, we note that NCLCV is co-sponsoring a training on how to get involved in making a difference on environmental issues in your local communities. The event is titled “Taking Passion & Activism to the Next Level in Local Communities”, and will be held this Thursday, July 18, 6 to 8 p.m. in Raleigh (Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, 3313 Wade Avenue). Space is limited and registration required, but there is no charge. Register here.

That’s our report for this week.