All our state’s clean water rules could be on the chopping block, plus more news, this week in CIB:

Administrative Watch: No Rules for You

One of the under-reported bombshells in the terrible Regulatory Deform bill (HB 74), now awaiting action on the Governor’s desk, is its immediate threat to rules protecting clean water and wetlands in North Carolina. The Governor has until August 25th to decide whether or not to veto this bad bill. Please contact the Governor’s office today at (919) 814-2000 to let him know that you want him to veto House Bill 74.

Under this bill, all existing environmental rules must pass through a byzantine re-approval examination in order to remain in effect. There’s a schedule for those reviews–but all “rules adopted by the Environmental Management Commission related to surface water quality and wetlands” must pass the review and re-approval process within the first year of the program. Or die.

Thus, everything that has made North Carolina’s laws work to defend clean water would go on the immediate political chopping block. Special interest groups whose Raleigh lobbyists have fought for years to kill critical wetlands protections are straining at the leash for their chance to gut the rules which limit environmental destruction from poorly designed land development.

If Gov. Pat McCrory signs Regulatory Deform into law, the clock will begin ticking on all clean water in our state. Environmental advocates must gear up for an outrageous–but necessary and urgent–fight to defend the heart of our state’s clean water protection laws.

Climate Change Update: Rebranding Climate Change

What is it about the issue of climate change? Most people agree that it’s real, and that it’s a problem. Despite this, only a very low percentage of the general public (according to all polling feedback) get worked up enough about it to act on it (including voting on the basis of candidates’ positions on the issue).

Is it perceived as being too remote in time? Too difficult to affect? Not impacting things that people care deeply about?

What about all of the above?

Recent polling analysis suggests some “rebranding” approaches that might elevate the priority of this issue in the minds of many. In particular, there are these suggestions:

• Emphasis the public health aspects. Instead of pointing to melting icecaps or threatened polar bears, point to increasing heat stress deaths and illnesses. President Obama recently told an audience, “Don’t tell folks that we have to choose between the health of our economy and the health of our children.”
• Go ahead and lean on current examples of the phenomena likely to be compounded by a warming planet: droughts, waves of wildfires, increasing frequency of the most severe weather events.
• Keep the concepts of needed change accessible: Don’t hammer on the carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration numbers needed, or the drastic reach of the changes needed. People’s eyes glaze over and they shrug fatalistic acceptance. Instead, use achievable steps and examples, ideally with cross-benefits (like cost-cutting energy efficiency).

For more discussion of this issue and links to original studies, see this article in Time.

Education & Resources: Making Solar Accessible

Solar-generated power is an increasingly competitive energy source, with an already significant and growing market share. In the public mind, however, it still suffers from an outdated image as a power source of tomorrow–but not today.

The need to change that image makes this webinar especially timely: “Demystifying the Value of Solar” will be held Tuesday, August 20, at 1 p.m. Karl Rabago, a consultant with 20 years of experience in the electricity industry and important public energy positions at the state and federal levels, will present cost/benefit analyses that show the value and practicality of solar today, in this webinar sponsored by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE).

For more information and to register, see here.

Conservationists: Catherine Sloan, River Protector

Catherine Sloan, former president of the Conservation Council of North Carolina (CCNC, NCLCV’s predecessor organization) and a long-time champion of the South River, passed away this month. Born in 1925, Sloan professionally was a pioneering woman journalist with a special focus on North Carolina documentaries. Environmentally, her most important contributions followed her professional retirement and return to her hometown of Garland in inner-coastal plains of Sampson County.

Sloan founded the South River Association, which promoted protection of the unique blackwater river habitats of the region through public education and direct land conservation. She also led the successful fight against a proposed nuclear power plant on the South River. For years during her presidency and other leadership roles, Sloan hosted meetings of CCNC at her Garland home.

Those who knew her personally describe Sloane in terms of her quiet but passionate commitment to a broad spectrum of community work. Her efforts and example will remain an inspiration to future generations of North Carolina conservationists.

That’s our report for this week.