Overriding a rare veto, state legislators last week acted to chill the rights of employees to expose illegal activities threatening the public. This week in CIB.

Legislative Watch: Legislature Overrides Ag-Gag Veto

His fellow Republicans in the General Assembly wasted no time in delivering another slap in the face to Governor Pat McCrory last week. Just the week before, McCrory had vetoed HB 405, the so-called “Property Protection Act”, better known to its opponents as the “ag-gag” bill. Opponents contend that the bill’s significant expansion of potential liability for employees who report information from or take photos on their employer’s property without permission will chill whistle-blowers of illegal and other outrageous activities, within factory farming operations and elsewhere.

In his veto message, McCrory called for changes to the bill to address the concerns. Instead, the legislative majority simply drove over all objections, including the gubernatorial speed bump. Once again, to the leaders of this legislature, protecting consumers and the environment from health, safety, or pollution problems ranks well below protecting their business backers from any cost or embarrassment.

Opposition to the “ag-gag” bill represented a rare point of agreement between McCrory and pro-conservation legislators. Representative Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) agreed that under this bill “honest employees would be subject to prosecution, even when exposing criminal activity.” Supporters of the legislation discounted those concerns, claiming that the bill included protections for such “whistle-blowers.”

In sorting through the competing claims from bill supporters and opponents, let’s turn to an objective expert source: environmental attorney and former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Robin Smith. As she explains, the bill allows an employer to sue an employee who enters any “nonpublic” area of the workplace and takes photos, makes recordings, or copies records and then uses that information “against the interest of the employer.” The suing employer can recover a $5,000/day penalty from the employee, plus any other “damages” it can prove.

To many of us, that’s eyebrow-raising enough. The debate over the bill focuses especially on whether “whistle-blowers” of illegal activity are protected. To a concerned citizen conservationist, Smith’s key conclusion on that score is that “none of the ‘whistle-blower’ provisions in H 405 protect a private-sector employee who documents a violation of environmental standards, public health regulations, or other laws protecting the general public. Under H 405, an employee who (without the employer’s permission) photographs illegal dumping of hazardous waste and provides the photo to DENR could be required to pay damages to the company that caused the violation.”

To read Smith’s full article, see here. And in the meantime, thanks to this General Assembly, don’t expect any legal protection from a bad-actor employer who you may catch and expose for dumping hazardous waste in your local drinking water supply.

Environomics: Collapsing Coal

Pro-pollution politicians routinely accuse advocates for clean air and clean energy of waging a “war on coal.” Now, however, we see the troops in the real war on coal: stockholders.

“The stocks of the nation’s biggest coal producers have been hit hard in recent years and there’s no sign of an imminent turnaround,” reports a 5/29/15 Associated Press feature. “The use of coal is in decline in the U.S. because of weak power demand, cheap natural gas and tighter pollution regulations that are making coal plants more expensive to run. China, already the world’s biggest coal consumer and working hard to increase access to electricity, was thought to be a big future market for coal producers in the U.S. But China too is turning away from coal out of environmental concerns.”

The article details the decline in market value of three top American coal producers from 12/31/10 to 5/27/15:

• Peabody Energy, from $17.3 billion down to $953 million.
• Alpha Natural Resources, from $7.2 billion down to $121 million.
• Arch Coal, from $5.7 billion down to $108 million.

It looks as though the private stock markets are sending coal to the woodshed, as what were once the cost externalities of air pollution are showing up in the form of tighter pollution controls, as energy conservation continues to improve, and as the competition from gas, solar, and wind gets stronger. Conservationists need to work to see that this trend continues.

Coal had its day as our preeminent energy source. That day is passing, and our breathing will be easier as a result.

Judicial Watch: Appeals Court Upholds Ozone Nonattainment Areas

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last week issued its ruling upholding the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2008 designations of ground-level ozone air quality “nonattainment” areas.

No, that’s not a typo. That’s the 2008 designations.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is the one which most typically hears and determines challenges to federal agency rules. In this case, it ruled on a collection of 29 separate challenges made by states and other parties to the EPA pollution designations. These cases were rolled into one for a court decision on whether the EPA was following the law on ruling which geographic areas were in violation of the ozone air pollution standards, and therefore where states had to develop cleanup plans. Challenges were made both by parties who wanted fewer (or smaller) designations, and other parties who wanted more or larger designations. The Court ruled in favor of the EPA across the board.

Ozone is a primary precursor of urban smog formation, which is responsible for triggering asthma attacks and worsening other serious heart and respiratory problems. Elevated smog days are associated with spikes in emergency room admissions, sick days, and other indicators of adverse health impacts.

By now, the EPA has already moved on to set an entirely new and updated ozone air pollution standard, and a new round of nonattainment designations will follow. This is an example of how finely (and eternally) ground are our national pollution control efforts. Every important decision is challenged in court, and fought out to the bitter end.

The process isn’t pretty, but it can’t be neglected, or public health and our environment ultimately lose. In the fight to maintain a breathable atmosphere, we can’t afford to lose.

Campaign Watch: Keep the Ballot Box Open

The NC State Board of Elections (NCSBE) is still accepting public comments on its proposed rules implementing the state’s new voter photo ID requirement. NCLCV urges comments in support of rules which will make the new restrictions less onerous.

Voting rights advocates are concerned that the photo ID requirement is likely to discourage voting by hundreds of thousands of qualified voters who lack the required government photo ID, or whose ID less than perfectly matches their full name and current address. Depending on the details of the implementing rules, the problems for these voters can be made more or less severe.

By supporting less restrictive and more inclusive rules, conservationists can help to reduce the adverse impacts of this restrictive new law if it survives the pending court challenge. To submit comments, see NCLCV’s post here.

You can help to “keep the ballot box open” to everyone!