NCLCV launches an independent campaign to educate western NC voters, plus more news, this week in CIB.

Campaign Watch: NCLCV Campaign Targets Dirty Water Votes

NCLCV last week launched a half-million dollar campaign to educate voters in three western NC House districts about irresponsible decisions made by their incumbent representatives. Television, mail, and phone calls will call out Representatives Nathan Ramsey, Michele Presnell, and Tim Moffitt for their votes interfering with coal ash cleanup and fast-tracking fracking in our state.

“Western North Carolina deserves leaders who will place their constituents’ well-being ahead of corporate polluters. Representatives Moffitt, Presnell, and Ramsey have voted for special interests at every turn, and the people need to know about their poor decisions,” said Dan Crawford, NCLCV’s Director of Governmental Relations and a native of Asheville.

Moffitt and Presnell both have lifetime scores of 0% on NCLCV’s Conservation Scorecard. Ramsey scored a low 13% during his first term. Environmental concerns – especially the threats to clean water, public health, and natural resources posed by toxic coal ash and the potential for pollution from fracking – are heating up election contests across the state in 2014.

Read NCLCV’s full news release with links to the two television ads here.

Around the State: Recalculating…

Users of GPS devices can attest to the high annoyance factor of the perpetual “recalculating…” messages received when they take a wrong turn.

Perhaps that helps explain our aggravation at Duke energy’s latest “whoops” on coal ash. According to Duke, it appears that they ‘miscalculated’ the amount of toxic coal ash they have stored at leaking pits around the state by, oh, about six million tons or so.

The biggest error acknowledged by Duke (thus far) was a 142% miscalculation of the coal ash stored near Sutton Lake in Wilmington – now believed to be about 6.3 million tons instead of 2.6 million tons. The ash is stored in two pits near the Cape Fear River, associated with a closed former Progress Energy coal-fired power plant that Duke acquired as part of its merger with Progress two years ago.

Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) senior attorney Frank Holleman called the changed estimates a “stunning increase” showing that “Duke Energy did not know some of the most basic facts about its own coal ash storage and pollution until we [SELC] and conservation groups began enforcing the law.”

Holleman further commented, “That coal ash has been contaminating groundwater, threatening public water supplies, polluting Sutton Lake, and killing hundreds of thousands of fish.”

Duke now estimates that it has 107.9 million tons of toxic coal ash buried in 32 pits around North Carolina.

Wait, 32 pits? Didn’t that used to be 33? Well, yes – in another recent ‘recalculation’, Duke announced that the four pits (“basins”) at Buck Steam Station near Salisbury really ought to be considered just three, reducing the overall total. See? They’re fixing the problem already.

Climate Change Update: Climate Stability is for the Birds

Bird lovers have been highly upset over the past month by news that climate change could put half of North America’s bird species at risk of severe habitat loss, population collapse, or even extinction. That’s the projection reflected in a National Audubon Society report looking at the potential impacts of climate change over the next 65 years.

Even those who don’t take delight in the song and variety of avian life are well advised to reflect on the old parable of the canary in the coal mine. More details on the report can be read here and here.

Conservationists: NCLCV Holding October Campaign Events

NCLCV is holding receptions in three cities over the next three weeks in support of our active campaign efforts this fall. We’ll be in Charlotte on October 16, Asheville on October 22, and Kernersville (between Winston-Salem and Greensboro) on October 23. Events like these are opportunities for direct personal involvement in NCLCV’s work – and necessary for the effectiveness of that work.

Members and supporters are invited to join us at any of the events. Click on the links for more details and to register for our Charlotte, Asheville, and Kernersville events.

Education & Resources: Dirty Money, Dirty Water

How does legislative action to repeal a theoretically neutral campaign law – public financing for state appellate judicial candidates – become a potentially critical environmental concern? Researchers for the Center for American Progress argue that in North Carolina, this change puts our courts at increased risk of influence buying by the biggest sources of toxic water pollution.

Repeal of the public financing option for judicial candidates was one of the lesser-noted items in what opponents have characterized as the big “voter suppression” law approved by the legislature and governor last year. Repeal of public financing eliminated the route by which most statewide judicial candidates in recent years had avoided the need to appeal for major campaign donations in order to run for office. Unfortunately, most potential donors (individuals and groups) to judicial candidates are parties who stand to lose or gain depending on the outcome of court cases. Thus, the branch of government most dependent on objectivity and neutrality gets opened wide to the potential (and certainly the appearance) of corrupting influence.

For example, an unprecedented $1.3 million was spent attempting to influence the outcome a single state Supreme Court primary in May of this year. More than half of that came from a single, out-of-state group, among whose major donors is Duke Energy. Duke, of course, is deeply invested in the outcome of electric rate cases, which will ultimately be in the hands of the state Supreme Court. Major lawsuits regarding coal ash cleanup are pending now in federal court, but related state laws will also be interpreted and enforced – or not – in state courts. Observers predict $5 million in spending on the judicial campaigns this fall.

See how researchers follow the trail of corporate money influence here.

That’s our report for this week.