With Voting Underway, NCLCV Releases Environmental Scorecard Helping You Educate Your Vote
The North Carolina General Assembly’s 2026 “short” session was most notable for the environmental issues on which it did not act:
- Duke Energy’s soaring profits and increasing reliance on expensive methane gas which left families footing the bill,
- The jaw-dropping costs of data centers,
- Widespread PFAS contamination of public waters,
- And attacks on democracy at the federal and state levels.
Despite these growing threats, our state legislature this year simply did not take action—positive or negative—on enough key environmental/energy issues to craft a meaningful full 2026 Environmental Scorecard. Therefore, the 2026 Scorecard summarizes the primary topics of debate in those four key issue areas. See our 2026 Environmental Scorecard.
A Year of Inaction
“The NC General Assembly only passed a handful of bills this ‘short’ legislative session—too few to create a full scorecard,” said NCLCV Executive Director Carrie Clark. “And the pro-polluter majority will come back after the election—regardless of what the voters say—to further their agenda. However, we still think it is important to share the stories of the 2026 legislative session with you as you head to the ballot box this November. From dirty, expensive energy to toxic PFAS contamination, our state leaders continue to prioritize corporate profits over public good. While families are left paying for expensive water infrastructure upgrades, recent legislative maneuvers have eroded voting access, hidden pollution records, and limited public oversight. Accountability cannot exist without a fair, representative democracy. Polluters—not taxpayers—should pay to clean up their mess.”
To help our readers understand the long-term performance of their state legislators on these issues, NCLCV has also included a special section in this year’s scorecard providing the lifetime voting scores of currently serving legislators.
This scoring information is intended to provide material for evaluating legislative candidates as voters go to the polls for the 2026 mid-term elections in North Carolina.