Legislation rushed through most of the bill approval process last week would weaken review of air pollution from fracking. This week in CIB.
Legislative Watch: EMC Relieved of Clean Air Mandate for Fracking
Controversy over fracking rules blew up again in the General Assembly last week, as pro-drilling legislators rushed through a provision that would repeal a mandate for independent North Carolina rules to control air pollution from fracking operations. This provision came in the form of a high-profile and hotly debated amendment to a package of more routine changes to state environmental laws.
Current North Carolina law requires the state Environmental Management Commission (EMC) to adopt rules to control air pollution from fracking operations. The amendment would allow the EMC to conclude that federal rules were adequate, and avoid adoption of any additional state rules on the matter.
Critics of the move called it a broken promise which goes back on a commitment in previous legislative debate to adopt strong state rules on all aspects of fracking for natural gas. They call federal rules severely lacking, and intended to set merely a low floor of protection that fails to take into account state-by-state circumstances.
Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) says that the recent actions by states like Colorado, Wyoming, Ohio and Pennsylvania to adopt their own rules on air pollution from fracking help show that federal rules have fallen short of the need for protection. Harrison says that “the limited federal regulations currently in place do not extend beyond the wellpad and exempt wildcatters as well as exploratory wells. This is just another broken promise by the General Assembly, which assured North Carolinians that we would have the strongest and safest regulations in the country overseeing fracking.”
“Amend Environmental Laws” (HB157) has received final House approval and preliminary Senate approval with the amendment on fracking air pollution rules attached. It is scheduled for a second and final vote in the Senate tonight (Monday, March 16). Competing legislation that would have disapproved the fracking rules adopted by the Mining and Energy Commission (MEC) has not been heard, and under legislative rules could not now be heard in time to take effect prior to the rules’ effective date of March 17.
Administrative Watch: DENR Proposes Weak Duke Permit
The state Deptartment of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has released a draft permit for Duke Energy’s leaking coal ash pit at the Riverbend plant near Charlotte that would allow the leaks to continue indefinitely. That includes 12 documented leaks of pollution into the groundwater there.
DENR says that the violations of state law were that Duke hadn’t reported the leaks, not that they existed. In effect, the proposed new permit legalizes the pollution (DENR says) until some undefined future point when things will all be cleaned up again.
Environmental advocates shared a different perspective. Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) attorney DJ Gerken noted: “Ordinarily a compliance measure like this would have interim steps toward eliminating the illegal discharge – not a vague promise for doing it.”
Other commenters agreed. The Fayetteville Observer editorialized: “Unfortunately, there’s an element missing from DENR’s permitting plan that creates a massive loophole for continued pollution: There’s no timetable for Duke to make progress. That puts DENR’s policy back into the absurd category.”
It seems that DENR still has not learned its lesson from a series of debacles on coal ash over the past two years. Vague promises and “customer friendly” best wishes don’t get the job done in protecting the public from pollution. It takes on-the-job regulators willing to insist on tough-minded negotiations and real corporate responsibility. That attitude is still missing from action by the current administration’s DENR management.
Environomics: NC Leads in Solar
According to the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), North Carolina finished second in the nation last year among states for new installation of electricity produced from solar energy. That marks the state’s third straight top-ten finish, climbing from sixth place in 2012. North Carolina now ranks fourth among states in total solar capacity installed, with more expected in 2015. See details here.
A major driver of the state’s surge in solar power remains the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS), passed several years ago and successfully defended from attack in the legislature last session. While REPS remains unpopular with so-called “conservative” groups financed by oil industry money, it actually commands majority support from conservative voters in the state. See the next CIB item for further details.
Education & Resources: Poll Shows Conservatives Support Clean Energy
Polls showing broad public support for clean, renewable energy sources are hardly new. But what about a poll showing that this support extends to self-described conservative Republicans? That could undercut the unfortunate partisan divide on energy policy that can manifest in current legislative debate.
Support for clean energy on the right of the political spectrum is just what has been found by recent polling commissioned by the North Carolina based citizen group Conservatives for Clean Energy. The poll was taken in early February of 800 state voters by Republican consultants’ polling firm Strategic Partners Solutions. According to the survey results, strong majorities of Republican voters support both the state’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS), which requires utilities to use a minimum percentage of renewable energy sources in their electric generation mix, as well as a change in state law which would allow solar and other renewable-energy producers to sell power to third-party customers (not just the electric utilities).
Conservationists: Connecting Our Coasts
Join NCLCV and the Gulf Future Coalition for a conversation between communities in the Gulf Coast impacted by drilling and in the Mid-Atlantic states at risk of drilling. We will explore the realities of offshore oil drilling, from onshore infrastructure to vanishing coastlines to effects of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster.
This conversation will take place on Thursday, March 26 from 6:30 to 8:30pm, EST. Register here. After you sign-up, you will receive further information regarding the event, including locations where you can attend in person or the appropriate call-in number to participate from home. If you have any questions, please contact Justine Oller at justine@nclcv.org or 919.839.0006 x 105.
That’s our report for this week.
