Some are calling the General Assembly’s actions last week a legislative coup d’état. This week in CIB:

Legislative Watch: Legislative Republicans Launch Sweeping Pre-emptive Assault on Incoming Governor Cooper

Some observers called it a legislative coup d’état: an attempt by a group of ‘elites’—the state legislative majority—to illegally take over complete control of state government, despite the impending change in the governor’s office and the state Supreme Court. By any measure, it was a sweeping and unprecedented assault by the legislative majority on the powers of the incoming governor, just days before he takes office.

NCLCV Director of Governmental Relations Dan Crawford criticized the legislature’s actions: “North Carolina voters and taxpayers deserve better than politicians who want more power and to push through pet projects on our dime. Just like we don’t want refs changing the outcome of games, voters don’t want their leaders to keep changing the rules just because they’re not happy.”

As the special legislative session to approve disaster relief for victims of the recent hurricane and mountain wildfires came to a close, Republican legislative leaders revealed that they had secretly gathered the signatures of enough legislators to call themselves into yet another special session, starting immediately. The new session would consider a broad range of complex overhauls in the executive branch, the appellate courts, and the apparatus of governing elections in North Carolina. The plain purpose of the changes was to put the majority party in the legislature in continuing control of as much of the total functions of state government as possible.

Two bills in particular were the conduits for this power play. One, Senate Bill 4, overhauled the State Board of Elections and county boards of elections. In place of the five-member state board and three-member county boards, it created an eight-member state board and four-member county boards. For decades—under both Democratic and Republican governors—these boards were controlled by the party which held the governor’s office (3-2 on the state level and 2-1 on the county level). Now, both state and county boards will have even numbers of Republicans and Democrats, and any actions must be taken by a ¾ vote of approval. Critics note the potential here for deadlock and confusion in the conduct of elections.

SB 4 also made important changes to how cases are heard on appeal in the state’s appellate courts. Instead of a decision being appealable from a three-member panel of the Appeals Court directly to the state Supreme Court, those decisions are first appealable to the entire Court of Appeals sitting “en banc” (all the judges hearing and ruling on the case). The change is significant in that it will likely delay hearings before the state Supreme Court on the constitutionality of decisions by the state legislature (including legislative district maps).

The plain motivation for the change is to increase one party’s influence, since a majority of the Appeals Court seats will be held by elected Republican judges. Following last month’s elections, there will be a 4-3 majority of Democratic judges on the state Supreme Court for the first time in years.

The other major state government overhaul bill, House Bill 17, made major cutbacks in the powers of the NC governor, transferring authority to the legislature, as well as to the Lieutenant Governor, the Superintendent of Public Schools, and the State Treasurer, all elected offices now held by Republicans. Of particular significance to environmental policy, the bill requires that the Governor’s choices to head state Cabinet agencies (including the departments of Environmental Quality, Natural and Cultural Resources, and Transportation) be confirmed by the State Senate.

This is the same State Senate, since 2010, that has been relentlessly hostile to strong environmental protections. It is likely to be used to hinder Governor-elect Cooper’s reform of state agency management to more environmentally-friendly positions. The governor’s ability to install policy-implementing staff at his/her discretion is also reduced from the 1,500 positions controlled by outgoing Gov. McCrory to just 425 positions.

SB 4 has been signed by McCrory. HB 17 has gone to McCrory for his signature.

On one positive note, the legislative special session adjourned without acting on yet another proposed “regulatory reform” bill, which included more major cutbacks to clean water protections. That proposed legislation, House Bill 3, would have made major cutbacks to local stormwater pollution controls and doubled the length of streams that could be destroyed without any mitigation requirement. State conservation advocates vigorously opposed HB 3, and citizens around the state contacted their legislators in opposition to it.

Thankfully, the General Assembly finally has gone home for what’s left of 2016. It is scheduled to re-convene with its newly elected members on January 11. We anticipate that it will find lawsuits filed by the new Governor, as well as other citizen good government advocates, waiting for it when it returns.

Washington Watch: Trump Puts Big Oil in Charge of State Department

After his anti-environmental pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Donald Trump has named three other fossil-fuel enthusiasts to lead three other key federal departments. The headliner of the group is the head of oil megacorporation Exxon-Mobil as nominee for Secretary of State.

Rex Tillerson, Trump’s State nominee, is the current CEO of ExxonMobil, an obvious leader in the worldwide quest to locate and exploit petroleum deposits on land and sea, from the coastal shelves to Russia. Among Exxon’s positions during Tillerson’s tenure, support for offshore drilling off the Mid-Atlantic and Arctic coasts is clear. ExxonMobil was previously a leading opponent of limiting carbon emissions from fossil fuels, although it has more recently been favorable toward a carbon tax. Tillerson has at least acknowledged the reality of ongoing climate change.

The nomination of former Texas governor Rick Perry for Secretary of Energy represents a somewhat clearer case of Trump’s naming another climate-change denier to his Cabinet. As governor of Texas, Perry also moved that state into construction of new coal-fired power plants at a time when many other states were moving away. For what it’s worth, he also supported wind energy development there.

In one entertaining point of irony, the Department of Energy was one of three federal departments that Perry promised to eliminate if elected president during his 2008 presidential campaign. In fact, it was the one which he famously was unable to recall during a Republican primary presidential debate. That high-visibility memory lapse led to his infamous “oops” moment, cementing his reputation as an intellectual lightweight and arguably sending his campaign into its fatal tailspin.

Finally, Trump last week nominated to head his Interior Department a member of Congress from Montana, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke. On the positive side, Zinke has opposed efforts to carry out wholesale transfer of federal public lands to the control of western states. He’s well-liked by hunting and fishing groups for this, as well as for his support for renewing the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Unfortunately, Zinke is also a supporter of more exploitation of public lands for energy production, and has an overall poor record on the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Environmental Scorecard for his terms in Congress (a career score of just 3%). He opposes both the EPA’s Clean Water Rule and its Clean Power Plan. LCV President Gene Karpinski criticizes Zinke for supporting “drilling in the Arctic and continuing outrageous subsidies for dirty energy development on public lands.”

Coast Watch: NC Supreme Court Dismisses Challenge to Public Beaches

The NC Supreme Court last week dismissed a challenge to the historic “public trust” doctrine as it affects the oceanfront shoreline. As a result of the dismissal, an Appeals Court ruling in the case stands, affirming that the ‘dry sand’ beach stays a public access area from the dunes to the water.

In the dismissed case, two second-home property owners on the Emerald Isle oceanfront challenged the town’s right to use the dry-sand beach in front of their vacation house for vehicle access (including town emergency vehicles). The vacation house owners were backed by a private legal foundation (the “Pacific Legal Foundation”) which attacks public land interests around the country. The Town of Emerald Isle was supported by business and environmental groups, tourism groups, every oceanfront county and municipality in North Carolina, and both the governor’s and state attorney general’s office.

Conservationists: Help NCLCV Fight Back

The “special session” of the state legislature that took place last week underscores why it is more urgent than ever before to have the NC League of Conservation Voters fighting to replace anti-environmental legislators with more environmental champions in our General Assembly.

New district lines and new elections for the General Assembly have been ordered by a panel of federal judges for 2017. As NCLCV Executive Director Carrie Clark says, “We cannot wait around for the new legislative district maps to be drawn and debated before we act. If we wait, we’ll be behind. The nation’s eyes will be on us and our elections next year. This is the headline we want to write: ‘NC Voters Turn Out, Elect Pro-Conservation Champions.'”

You can help to make that a reality by signing on as a monthly sustaining contributor (a “Green GEM”—Give Every Month) here.

That’s our report for this week.