Legislative Watch: Taking Up the Trash
As this legislative session nears its conclusion, its anti-environmental leadership is harvesting this year’s crop of attacks on clean water, conservation, and public health. It’s their time to take up the trash. Three bills stand out in this category.
First, the legislature completed its expected override of Gov. Cooper’s veto of the main 2018 budget bill. That bill’s worst environmental provisions include its treatment of GenX and other toxic emerging water pollutants. As noted in detail last week, these provisions undermine state authority to clean up toxic water pollution and set standards for the protection of public health, and divert needed funding from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to a pork-barrel “collaboratory” run by an anti-environmental former political aide.
Second, the legislature finished passing a “farm bill” which guts the legal rights of injured neighbors to protect themselves against the polluting practices of corporate factory farms. (See this week’s Executive Watch item for details.)
Third, the legislature adopted HB 374, this year’s so-called “Regulatory Reform Act.” As in past years, this version of the annual grab bag of rule repeals and limitations included some to neutralize environmental safeguards. Rep. Pricy Harrison (D-Guilford) called attention to three such anti-environmental provisions:
- Sec. 16(a) weakens stormwater cleanup requirements for as many as 150 subdivisions impacting coastal water quality.
- Sec. 15 opens the door to make “temporary” oceanfront “erosion control” structures permanent. The effect would allow beach sandbag walls that were intended to buy time for the relocation of threatened structures into massive permanent seawalls replacing what was once public beach.
- Sec. 23 is written to knock out of contention some of Gov. Cooper’s nominees to the N.C. Utilities Commission. This item continues an established pattern of restricting or removing Cooper’s ability to appoint the leaders of executive entities which impact environmental and energy policy decisions.
In one positive note, a provision in the “technical corrections” post-budget bill would soften the main budget bill’s blow against light rail project funding. The corrections bill retracts a provision that would have created chicken-or-the-egg scenario whereby neither state nor federal funds could be spent unless the other entity commits funds. However, the corrections bill retained a low cap on the total state funding which could go to a light rail project—a cap which the state does not apply to any other form of transportation project.
