Executive Watch: Veto the Big Hog Injustice Bill
Environmental justice advocates are urging Gov. Roy Cooper to veto the bill which “jeopardizes the health and property of vulnerable neighbors” being harmed by corporate factory farms.
NCLCV joined the coalition of nonprofit groups calling on Cooper to veto SB 711 because it “eliminates property rights that pre-date North Carolina statehood and strips neighbors and communities of access to the courts in an effort to protect a single industry from liability” and “entrenches” the disproportionate impacts of this industry’s pollution on nearby residents who are often poor and minorities. Fourteen citizen environmental, rural advocacy, and environmental justice groups signed the letter urging Cooper to veto the bill.
SB 711, “NC Farm Act of 2018,” goes beyond prior industry efforts to limit the amount of damages that can be awarded to injured neighbors. The bill says those neighbors have no right even to seek an order of protection from or compensation for these “nuisance” injuries at all. It’s no coincidence that this move comes after a federal court in North Carolina recently awarded a group of hog farm neighbors millions of dollars in damages for these very polluting practices. Majorities in both legislative chambers have now voted to protect the international corporation whose contracts mandate these polluting practices, instead of protecting the neighbors they damage.
In a word, this bill stinks. Now it’s up to the governor to tell legislators that they must commit this injustice only over his veto.
