NCLCV encourages public comments now to urge stronger pollution control rules on fracking, plus other news, this week in CIB:

Administrative Watch: NCLCV Urges Comments on Fracking Rules

It’s time for concerned citizens to speak up for strong enforcement of pollution controls on any fracking operations that come to our state.

As we reported last week, the NC Mining and Energy Commission (MEC), the regulatory body empowered by the state legislature to oversee the regulation of fracking in our state, has sent its primary slate of initial rules out to public hearing and comment. The proposed rules are complex, with multiple sections. To encourage clear and effective public participation in this rulemaking process, we are focusing on two areas: enforcement of pollution controls on fracking wells, and permitting of proposed fracking wells.

This week we’re looking at enforcement. Any regulation is only as good as the plans and mechanisms in place to make it stick– and that’s especially true of rules intended to control pollution of our environment. NCLCV’s staff experts have looked carefully at the proposed rules on the process of “fracking”– drilling for natural gas deposits using special techniques of horizontal drilling and forcing huge amounts of fluids down the drilled wells to crack open rock layers and release the gas (“hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking” for short).

We’ve found the enforcement plans seriously lacking in several key regards:

• They’re underfunded and understaffed.
• They don’t allow local governments to help investigate for problems.
• Inspections won’t happen often enough and can’t take place without advance notice to the driller.
• They don’t include authority to order that work be stopped until a dangerous problem is fixed.

We encourage concerned citizens to submit their comments and request that these weaknesses in the enforcement rules be fixed. Click here for our fast and easy way to make short comments on the enforcement rules.

For those who want to dig further into the details and make more extensive suggestions, here’s the link to our detailed fact sheet on the proposed fracking enforcement rules.

In either event, please take action now to help reduce the dangers to our groundwater, surface water, air and public health that will result from poorly regulated fracking in North Carolina!

Conservationists are pushing for a strong base of public comments before the start of in-person hearings on the proposed MEC fracking rules. Those hearings begin August 20 in Raleigh, and are scheduled to continue August 22 in Sanford, August 25 in Reidsville, and September 12 in Sylva.

Legislative Watch: Budget Bummers and Coal Ash Confusion

Governor Pat McCrory last week signed the final budget bill presented to him by the 2014 legislative “short session.” From an environmental perspective, the budget disappoints in a number of ways. Included among the environmental budget bummers are the following:

• NO funding for coal ash cleanup is included in the budget bill.
• State Parks took another funding cut.
• More funding (the interest on balances) was siphoned away from most of the special environmental trust funds into the general budget.
• A special provision allows the governor to waive state environmental review and permitting for changes to NC Highway 12 on the Outer Banks.

Compared to the big bashes of last year, these provisions may look like little bites, but they continue an unacceptable legislative trend of relegating environmental protection to a back bench of concerns.

On our other legislative note, there’s still no word regarding when the House and Senate will get back to trying to reconcile their conflicting versions of SB 729, the Coal Ash Management Act. The General Assembly may or may not actually meet for business this week. Lending new meaning to the word “dysfunctionality” on the state level, the two chambers could not even agree on the terms of an adjournment resolution week before last. The Senate was set to come back briefly this week, if necessary, to deal with any McCrory vetoes. The House wanted to come back and take up more uncompleted issues as well. In an unwarranted assumption of cooperation, CIB erroneously reported last Monday that the chambers had agreed on a schedule. No such luck. This week, we’ll just report that as of CIB’s update deadline the two chambers were barely talking to each other, much less the public.

Judicial Watch: Bonner Bridge Plan Returned to District Court

A federal appeals court last week returned the state’s plan for replacing the Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet to a lower court for further review. Both sides– the environmental groups challenging the state’s plan, and the state agencies under Gov. Pat McCrory– claimed victory in the specifics of the decision. A review of the decision itself suggests that the win at this stage goes to the environmental groups on points.

Simply put, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the District Court’s key conclusion that the bridge replacement could move forward as planned. While the Appeals Court agreed with the District Court that the state Transportation Department’s review process did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) so far, it ruled against the state on another key issue. Specifically, it said that the state has not yet proven that it is entitled to build on more of the the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, which takes up the northern end of Hatteras Island where the new bridge would come ashore.

As a result, the case was sent back to the District Court for further factual investigation and review. Opponents of the state’s current bridge plan (and who support a longer bridge which would not impact the wildlife refuge) live on (judicially speaking) to press their case in court.

Here is one third-party analysis of the Appeals Court decision and its outcome. The news release from plaintiffs’ representative Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). And for all you legal beagles, the link to the 4th Circuit’s ruling in full.

Education & Resources: Thinking About Climate Change; Utilities in Danger

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) will hold two seminars on climate change topics this week and next.

The first, “Understanding American Values on Climate,” will look at the question of how we think about the problems that climate change represents. How can we, as advocates for effective action, engage others in understanding the solutions and why we need to act now? This seminar will be held Friday, August 15, from 2 to 3pm.

The second, “How Climate Change Threatens the Utility Sector and How We Create Resilience,” looks at the specific risks to our system of electricity supply and what we can do about them. This webinar will be held Wednesday, August 20, from 11am to noon.

There’s no charge for participating in either, but registration is required. Click here for more information or to register.

That’s our report for this week.