The republican supermajority passes another bill for polluters.

Some spectacular attacks on our environment have been passed into law already this session by the pro-polluter legislative supermajority. They include the total gutting of most protections for wetlands and small streams, and budget provisions barring North Carolina from adopting cleaner standards for vehicle emissions and from joining an interstate agreement for reducing greenhouse gas pollution. But the crew in charge of lawmaking in Raleigh aren’t finished yet.

House Bill 600, this year’s version of the recurring so-called “Regulatory Reform Act”, is a grab bag of special favors to the big polluters who control corporate hog and poultry farming, build fracked gas pipelines, or discharge dangerous and long-lasting pollutants from chemical wastes. Environmental reporter Lisa Sorg of NC Newsline provides a good, more detailed summary of just how bad this pro-polluter bill is.

HB 600 has passed both chambers of the General Assembly and is on Governor Cooper’s desk for signing or veto now. It will almost certainly become another veto fight between our current pro-environment governor and the pro-polluter supermajority controlling the NC state legislature.