The governor launches personal attacks against one of North Carolina’s leading environmental groups, plus more news, this week in CIB:

Executive Watch: Governor Leads Attacks on SELC Over Bridge Lawsuit

What do you do when you’re stalled in the courts on a major transportation project? If you’re Governor Pat McCrory, you launch a personal attack against the citizen conservation group that’s challenging you.

It’s a ploy straight out of the old anti-environmental playbook. When poor planning by a government agency or greed by a polluter leaves a community in a fix, then blame the environmentalists who’ve been telling you about the problem (and how to fix it) for years. Tell the community facing the problem that it’s the nasty environmentalists (not you!) who have put them there–and try to win by intimidation what you can’t achieve by law.

In this case, the debate is over the replacement of the aging Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet to Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks. A battle in the press and now the courts has raged for years over whether to replace the bridge with another in essentially the same place, or to install a much longer bridge in the sound. The longer bridge would bypass the areas most immediately threatened by the shifting inlet sands and by repeated storm washouts of Highway 12 along narrow northern Hatteras Island. Of special environmental significance, it would also bypass the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge at the northern end of the island.

State and local officials and some tourism interests have fought that alternative because it would cost much more to build, and because it would make the northern-most beach areas less easily accessed by off-road vehicles. Two years ago, the state Dept. of Transportation approved a contract to rebuild the shorter bridge. Two citizen conservation groups, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), filed a challenge in federal court, asserting that the state’s course of action unnecessarily threatened the wildlife refuge and ignored the more logical longer option. So far, just another legitimate public policy debate.

Last week, however, the McCrory Administration seized news of the temporary emergency closure of Bonner Bridge due to structural issues and erosion around the base of some supports to launch a public attack. State Transportation Secretary Tony Tata pointed blame toward the SELC: “These ivory tower elitists file these lawsuits from their air-conditioned offices in Chapel Hill. And they do so with their lattes and their contempt, and chuckle while the good people of the Outer Banks are fighting hard to scratch out a living here based on tourism and based on access.” More here.

McCrory himself piled in a press conference Friday, in which he blamed SELC for delays in replacing the bridge, called them “irresponsible”, and said he would send letters to SELC’s directors asking them to drop their legal challenge. A prepared statement by NC legislative leaders Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and Rep. Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) howled that SELC’s “frivolous lawsuit is only the latest episode in their scheme to agitate the left and raise funds for an extreme, fringe agenda–this time, at the expense of Northeastern North Carolina’s economy.” In a Nags Head radio station interview, McCrory went further over the top: “They’re [SELC] putting people in jeopardy. They’re putting jobs in jeopardy.” More here.

That odor wafting off this display of public fulmination is the scent of political opportunism: Take a genuine hardship like another temporary bridge closure of the only road route onto an island, and use it in a flagrant effort to create a “boogeyman” in advance of the 2014 election cycle. SELC fired back Friday, calling the comments by McCrory and crew “irresponsible personal attacks” and pointing to political leaders’ decision to pursue a flawed solution as the root of the problem. More here.

Read SELC’s statement on the matter here.

Sources within SELC report that its North Carolina and Virginia offices have received “abusive and threatening” calls following the attacks, but note that the organization and its clients have no intent of backing down. At this point, it appears that the episode is scrolling out as the latest attack by the current state administration and legislative leadership on environmental protection and those who advocate for it.

Administrative Watch: MEC Reviews Revised Fracking Rules

At its December meetings last week, the Mining and Energy Commission (MEC) and its committees made progress on drafting rules covering waste disposal and chemical disclosure regarding fracking fluids.

Significantly, the draft waste disposal rule maintains the ban on deep-well injection of wastes. It permits onsite pretreatment, reuse, transfer to a waste treatment plant, or transportation out of state.

On the chemical disclosure debate, MEC held continued extended discussion of options. These included a proposal for capturing alleged trade secrets in an “electronic lockbox”, held by a third party, and accessible by regulators in the event of emergency.

As noted last week, the MEC remains divided between members who want public disclosure rules for the chemicals used in fracking fluids, and other members who claim that there is no risk to the public and the industry should be trusted to police itself.

A vote on the chemical disclosure rule is expected at the January 14 MEC meeting. The draft rule posted last week already has further changes proposed, and so is not the final version expected to be considered in January.

Around the Globe: EPA Chief Heads to China

By now it’s well understood that there can be no solution to the climate change crisis without the cooperation of the huge and growing Chinese economy. That makes the upcoming trip of new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Gina McCarthy to China worth noting.

EPA announced last week that McCarthy would arrive in China today (Dec. 9) to undertake discussions over “US-China cooperation on air quality, climate pollution and environmental issues.” She will travel to Bejing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong for the trip this week. McCarthy’s announced itinerary includes co-chairing the U.S.-China Joint Committee on Environmental Cooperation, a keynote speech at Tsinghua University, and meetings with “senior officials, business leaders, and [non-governmental organizations].” (EPA 12/5/13 news release.)

McCarthy’s China visit comes hard on the heels of the most recent global climate summit, in which a central topic was the necessity of emissions controls by both the established industrial economies (like the U.S., Europe, and Japan), and emerging economic powers (especially China and India).

The Other Side: ALEC Under Siege

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), once regarded as “right of center but known for thoughtful policy research”, has evolved in recent years into an aggressive promoter of an extreme agenda including concerted attacks on pollution control laws and conservation-oriented resource management. Its corporate funders are dominated by groups like Exxon Mobil, Peabody Energy, and Koch Industries–a who’s-who of politically active oil and coal industries. ALEC connects these corporate interests with sympathetic state legislators, who then take back ‘model’ legislation to their home states.

There’s evidence growing now that ALEC’s support among moderate corporate leadership and legislators has started to break down. It has been reported that the group has lost almost 400 legislator members and more than 60 corporations over the past two years. For an interesting discussion of the state of ALEC, see this 12/4/13 article by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, see here.

That’s our report for this week.