A weak coal ash bill passes the House, plus other news, this week in CIB:

Legislative Watch: Not Good Enough on Coal Ash

“We could and should have done better for the citizens of North Carolina,” declared Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford).

The N.C. House last week approved its version of SB 729, “Coal Ash Management Plan of 2014”, but the bill was not the significantly strengthened alternative that conservationists had been hoping to see. Instead, it continued to show the same major flaws found in the original Senate bill, plus one associated with its proposed new coal ash board:

• It fails to assign financial responsibility for cleanup to Duke Energy and its stockholders, leaving the likelihood that ratepayers will end up paying billions to correct Duke’s coal ash management errors.
• It allows coal ash pits to be “capped in place”, avoiding genuine cleanup and leaving groundwater and surface waters vulnerable to continued leaking and contamination.
• It fails to direct expeditious closure and cleanup of most coal ash pits, allowing long delays before corrective action.
• It authorizes a newly created Coal Ash Management Commission to delay cleanups and extend deadlines even further if it concludes that needed fixes are too expensive.

During extended floor debate, a majority of House members voted to reject numerous proposed strengthening amendments to the bill, including suggested additions to the priority cleanup list of sites. The House even rejected, 51-59, a modest suggestion of adding to the membership of the proposed ash commission an individual resident of a neighborhood near a coal ash pit.

More description of House debate can be found here.

SB 729 now returns to the Senate, which is expected to reject the House version and set up a conference committee to work out a compromise between the chambers. Conservationists regret that those talks appear unlikely now to include the strong and swift cleanup plans actually needed.

Also last week, discussions continued on budget legislation, but no final actions were taken. Various regulatory “reform” bills also continued to be held awaiting reconciliation of conflicting versions between the chambers. Most of the legislative action this week is expected to take place out of the public’s eye in various leadership meetings and conference committee deliberations.

Judicial Watch: Coal Ash Cleanup Citizen Suit Notice

Citizen environmental groups last week filed notice of a new legal action against Duke Energy and the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), seeking cleanup of coal ash pits and pollution at Duke’s Cape Fear, Lee, and Buck plants (on the Cape Fear, Neuse, and Yadkin rivers, respectively). The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), representing the citizen group litigants, filed the required 60-day advance notice for anticipated citizen enforcement action under the federal Clean Water Act. These citizen suits are law enforcement tools available to affected citizens when public regulatory agencies have failed to take corrective action against clean water violations.

SELC attorney Frank Holleman said, “These coal ash lagoons threaten public drinking water supplies, flow illegally into rivers and groundwater, and have unsafe dams. Yet, Duke Energy has not cleaned up these sites, and DENR has not required Duke Energy to clean them up.” SELC is representing Cape Fear River Watch, Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation, Yadkin Riverkeeper, and Waterkeeper Alliance in the actions.

In statements explaining the reason for filing this new citizen suit notice at this time, group representatives noted that the coal ash legislation under debate currently in the General Assembly fails to require the prompt cleanup of the problem sites named. More on this action can be found here.

Around the States: State of Denial

As President Lincoln once noted, in pertinent part, you can fool some of the people all of the time. When it comes to climate change, it appears that 15 United States governors can be included among those people.

An analysis by the group ThinkProgress categorizes 15 sitting governors as included in the ranks of “climate deniers” – policymakers who reject the objective scientific consensus that dangerous climate change is occurring and is being driven in substantial part by human activity. Sadly but not surprisingly, they include North Carolina’s governor in those ranks.

To see the map of climate-denial and read more detail, go here.

Executive Watch: McCrory to Address ALEC

Speaking of Gov. Pat McCrory, we note the news that he will travel later this month to address the national anti-environmental group ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) at its July 30 meeting in Dallas. More here.

ALEC drafts “model” legislation on a number of topics of interest to its corporate members, including proposals designed to undercut the effectiveness of environmental rules and pollution controls. A number of items that have made their way into various regulatory “reform” bills have originated with ALEC. Notably in North Carolina over the past two years, legislation which attempted to repeal our state’s renewable energy portfolio standard (REPS), as well as provisions to keep secret the chemicals used in fracking fluids, can be traced back to ALEC. Current attacks on the “net metering” that encourages small solar production are also ALEC-backed. More discussion of current ALEC attacks on the environment can be found here.

That’s our report for this week.