It’s Election Day tomorrow for cities and towns around our state, plus more news, this week in CIB:

Campaign Watch: City, Town Elections Conclude Tomorrow

The 2013 elections for city and town offices in North Carolina end tomorrow, with contests of environmental interest to be decided in assorted municipalities across the state.

Close contests for mayor or council seats or both can be found from Asheville and Boone in the mountains, to Charlotte and Winston-Salem in the Piedmont, to Fayetteville, Greenville, and Wilmington on the coast.

Candidates (incumbents and challengers) in hot races differ broadly on questions like the importance of land use planning; whether or not to move forward with green transportation alternatives like public transit improvements; and the role of local government in protecting clean water and air.

If you live in a town or city in our state, the odds are good that you have the chance to vote in one of these contests this year. Take a look at your local races and vote tomorrow.

Washington Watch: Obama Names ‘Climate Preparedness’ Group

On Friday, the White House announced that President Obama has established a “Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience” to advise his administration on ways the federal government can more effectively respond to the needs of communities feeling the effects of climate change. The membership of the Task Force includes state and local leaders with experience in dealing with those issues.

Details on the Task Force, including its membership, can be found here.  (Unfortunately, no North Carolinians are included on the list.)

The executive order establishing the Task Force also directs federal agencies to take several steps:

• Modernize federal programs to support “climate-resilient investments” (e.g., construction designed to withstand extreme weather events).
• Manage lands and waters for “climate preparedness and resilience” (management policies and programs to enhance ecosystem resilience to changes).
• Provide relevant information, data, and tools to aid local governments and businesses in policy development for climate change resilience.
• Plan for climate change related risks to federal facilities and operations.

Realistically speaking, at least a minimum degree of long-term climate change is inevitable from the atmospheric changes already in place. In addition, perhaps the work of preparing to deal with those inevitable impacts will help to focus the attention of rational officials on acting to minimize the severity of the changes with which they and their successors will have to deal.

Legislative Watch: Zapping the Zombie

Just in time for the spooks of Halloween, the NCLCV Foundation last week released new radio ads warning against a “zombie fracking policy”. The campaign represents a joint effort by NCLCVF and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

In the radio spot, the ad notes concerns about the effects of fracking on water and air quality, and says, “Now big oil and gas companies like Halliburton don’t even want to tell us what’s in the toxic chemical brew they’ll be pumping into our land. That’s scary.” The ads target the McCrory Administration and named State Senators for launching this “zombie fracking policy”, and call for listeners to tell these representatives to rein in the monster. (The ads ran in the districts of State Senators Thom Goolsby, Wesley Meredith, and Ron Rabin.)

While McCrory’s Mining Energy Commission is tasked with establishing fracking rules that protect public health, private property, and our natural resources, we are seeing signs that the MEC is too readily influenced by the industries promoting fracking. Citizens need to have a voice in this process to ensure their communities are protected. You can see further details, find contact information for the MEC and other decision-makers, and listen to a sample ad, here.

Education & Resources: Accountability Challenge Update

As CIB noted last week, we North Carolina conservationists have a challenge laid out for us in bringing our state legislature back from the depths of environmental irresponsibility.

Holding legislators accountable for their environmental decisions requires reaching voters in their districts. Which takes mailings and ads. Which take money.

Supporters have helped NCLCV make a strong start toward our fall goal of raising $10,000 for our accountability campaign. Yet there’s still much more help needed. Details can be found here.

Your help in defending North Carolina’s clean air, water, land, and public health will make a difference!

That’s our report for this week.