Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration sues the EPA over its Clean Power Plan, while his environmental officials try to ram through a non-functional ‘plan’ in support of the litigation. This week in CIB.

Judicial Watch: McCrory Administration Sues EPA Again

The McCrory Administration has filed suit challenging the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, putting our state government in the position once again of siding with polluters against a critical environmental protection rule. As CIB has previously outlined, the Clean Power Plan (CPP) represents the Obama Administration’s keystone regulatory effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It will also have enormous additional clean air and public health benefits associated with the reduction of other air pollutants.

Regardless, Governor McCrory and his administration have joined with 23 other states to attack the rule. Arrayed in support of the EPA rule are 15 states and the District of Columbia. Various industry groups are taking sides, and major citizen environmental groups (including LCV) strongly back the Clean Power Plan as a positive step.

In North Carolina, McCrory’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is bringing the lawsuit, rather than the state’s Attorney General, who normally represents the state. NC Attorney General Roy Cooper has declined to support the challenge to the CPP.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) said that DEQ was “once again putting politics before pollution cleanup.”

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told reporters, “We are confident we will again prevail against these challenges and will be able to work with states to successfully implement these first-ever carbon emissions in the United States.”

Administrative Watch: Citizens Challenge DEQ’s ‘Plan’ on Carbon

Citizens this week are challenging the state Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) plans regarding carbon emissions. According to NCLCV and other conservation groups, the DEQ ‘plan’ is designed to be rejected by the EPA, and to leave the state with no fallback position if the EPA and the Clean Power Plan prevail in court.

Neutral analysts and even other challenging states are leery of NC DEQ’s all-or-nothing, anti-EPA approach. Most of the challenging states, including South Carolina and lead litigant West Virginia, are developing plans that will meet the EPA requirements in case their challenge fails. In North Carolina, the head of Duke University’s Climate and Energy Program, Jonas Monast, said “The irony with the DEQ approach is it could leave the state with less control of its carbon-reduction program.” If the EPA successfully defends against the lawsuit and denies NC’s designed-for-rejection plan – as many observers predict – then the EPA can simply impose its own plan on the state.

DEQ is pulling out all the stops to attempt to rush its plan through the state’s approval process with little review, and get it shipped off to the EPA for rejection. The NC Environmental Management Commission (EMC), the state’s agency for approval of such clean air plans, will be presented with the DEQ proposal this week. DEQ is asking the EMC to waive its usual 30-day review period and send the plan out to immediate comment.

Observers see no objective reason for such haste beyond political expediency. A coalition of citizen conservation groups (including NCLCV) are urging the EMC to hold action on DEQ’s plan, and instead to convene a ‘stakeholder’ review process to help develop a better North Carolina carbon reduction and clean air plan that will meet the EPA requirements.

Concerned conservationists can sign on to a petition in support of that position here.

Executive Watch: Ads Question McCrory Environmental Record

Dueling ad campaigns have targeted Governor McCrory over the past week. In his favor, ads sponsored by conservative advocacy groups have praised changes in tax laws and other factors under his administration. On the negative side, a new ad has been airing which criticizes his environmental record, specifically his support for fracking.

The 30-second ad on fracking is sponsored by a coalition of groups operating under the name of North Carolina Environmental Partnership. Participating groups are primarily river protection organizations, along with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

A spokesperson for the partnership indicated that future ads would target supporters of the recently approved Polluter Protection Act. To review the fracking-McCrory ad, see here.

Campaign Watch: Municipal Elections Conclude Tuesday

If you live in one of the many cities or towns in North Carolina that are holding local elections this year, then tomorrow (Tuesday, November 3) is your last chance to vote for your municipal leaders in this campaign. Mayoral and/or city council seats are up for election in cities and towns including Fayetteville, Greensboro, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and more. These posts are of natural concern to conservationists. Many key environmental policy and program decisions are made at the local level. These include decisions on roads and public transit (including rail), parks and greenways, land use and zoning, and stormwater and water quality protection.

It’s easy to check on what’s up for voting in your city or town. (Note—not all communities have elections this year. Some won’t come up until next year or 2017.) To help you find out which (if any) offices are on the ballot tomorrow in your city or town, the citizen group Democracy NC has created a handy website: ncvoter.org.

Among other tools, this site includes a link to voter guides for this year’s elections in Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, and Raleigh.

Don’t miss this important opportunity to influence the environmental future of your community.

That’s our report for this week.