NCLCV continued to put the heat on the shortcomings of coal ash legislation, plus other news, this week in CIB:

Legislative Watch: NCLCV Steps Up Heat on Coal Ash

NCLCV is not going to let buck-dodging legislative leaders “greenwash” their painted pig of a coal ash bill. Conservationists last week called on House Speaker Thom Tillis to stop spinning and start fixing the severe shortcomings of a plan which fails to protect North Carolinians’ clean water. Tillis ignored the call – and instead put out a news release which praised himself for his bad coal bill.

NCLCV director of governmental relations Dan Crawford fired back in response. “Thom Tillis is not coming clean about his responsibility for bad coal ash legislation. He clearly feels stung by well-justified criticism of his failure to protect North Carolina families from more water pollution and higher electric bills. This is the time for North Carolinians to keep the heat on Speaker Tillis and the N.C. House and Senate to fix their mess of a coal ash pollution bill,” said Crawford.

Crawford points out that Tillis has never been known as an advocate for environmental health, instead possessing an abysmal 26% career scoring average on the NCLCV legislative scorecard of key environmental votes. Crawford adds, “If Speaker Tillis has finally seen the light of day on coal ash, then he should begin to put North Carolina families before his polluting allies and implement the strongest possible safeguards for our drinking water supplies.”

As NCLCV and other conservation advocates have consistently pointed out, the coal ash bill under consideration now by House and Senate conference committee falls far short of the aggressive action plan needed. Instead, the bill which Speaker Tillis rushed through the House contains these fatal flaws:

• It fails to assign financial responsibility to Duke and its stockholders, which may leave ratepayers to share the burden of costs.
• It allows some coal ash pits to be capped in place without a liner or any other separation between coal ash and water supplies.
• It attempts to weaken existing groundwater protection laws.
• It creates a politically appointed commission with the authority to reject a cleanup plan if that board deems needed fixes as too expensive.

The NCLCV-sponsored ad calling for citizens to contact Speaker Tillis in support of a real cleanup bill continues to run this week in four major media markets in North Carolina. Concerned citizens are urged to speak up for our clean drinking water. Take action here.

Washington Watch: Obama Issues Climate ‘Resilience’ Executive Actions

President Obama last week announced a series of executive actions designed to help prepare for, and ward off, some of the worst effects of advancing climate change. They dealt with key matters such as protecting the electric system, improving local planning for flooding, coastal erosion, and storm surges, and predicting landslide risks associated with extreme weather.

The actions announced last week were drawn from recommendations by his State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, which has been working on the proposals since last November. A variety of federal agencies, from the Agriculture Department to the U.S. Geological Survey, will be involved in carrying out the actions.

See details here and more here.

Around the Globe: US, China Cooperate on Climate Action Steps

In his trip to China about a week ago, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called attention to concrete climate action steps being taken by cooperating American and Chinese centers. In particular, Kerry highlighted the work of the Center for Climate Strategies (US) and the Global Environmental Institute (China).

Kerry explained, “The Center for Climate Strategies in the United States has been working very closely with the Global Environmental Institute in China in order to develop ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And the Center has already worked with 36 states in the United States on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it is transferring these best practices to Chinese provinces. It is doing so directly. In the next three years, the partnership will develop 30 low-carbon plans across China.”

Kerry cited this as a leading example of how concrete action plans can work around the painfully slow-moving comprehensive international negotiations and make substantive local progress.

China and the U.S. are the two leading emitters of the greenhouse gases that drive global warming. One of the biggest challenges in addressing climate change is finding ways to get China and other major developing economies to implement reductions in their emissions.

Read more about the specifics of these cooperative projects here.

That’s our report for this week.