Legislative Watch: Protect Clean Streams and Clean Energy
The same bad bills are back again, pushing for less clean energy and more destroyed streams. We can’t afford to ignore these renewed threats to our clean air and water.
First, the old cliché of “regulatory reform” is trotted out again in the Senate. As we all know by now, “regulatory reform” in Senatespeak translates to “polluter protection.” This year that comes in the form of SB 131, “Regulatory Reform Act of 2016.” The year in the title is no typo—it underscores the General Assembly’s deadlock last year over much the same bill, when the Senate demanded such extreme measures that even their colleagues in the conservative-run House refused to go along.
The worst single provision in SB 131 is found in its Section 2.4, which would double the length of stream that a development could destroy with complete immunity from state clean water protections. For 20 years, North Carolina has required developers to keep their impact on the small streams that are critical to protecting clean water and wildlife to less than 150 feet of stream length—or to compensate for the damage through restorations elsewhere. SB 131 would double the length of stream which could be destroyed with no compensation (“mitigation”) to 300 feet per project.
Is there any scientific, environmental, public health, or even economic impact analysis sufficient to justify this radical weakening of key state clean water standards? No—it’s a pure political gift to the developers who back certain politicians. SB 131 with this radical gift to dirty development has now passed the Senate. It needs to be stripped of this gift to polluters in the House.
Meanwhile, members of the NC House have re-introduced another terrible idea, to freeze progress toward cleaner electricity in North Carolina, in HB 267, “Utilities/Amend REPS Requirements.” REPS stands for Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, which means the percentage of clean renewable energy that a power company (i.e., Duke Energy) is required to include in its generation mix. Due to legislation adopted in 2007, we currently require Duke to include 8% renewable energy in its generation mix. (That’s mostly solar now and is a primary reason North Carolina has become the #2 state in the nation in solar electric power installation.)
North Carolina’s REPS requirement is scheduled to increase to 12.5% in 2021. There’s no question that we can meet that; there’s plenty of solar in the pipeline, and now wind energy is starting to come online in our state. Both are a boon to rural economies in our state. But HB 267 would threaten to stop that growth in clean energy by freezing NC’s REPS at its current level instead.
The same bad idea didn’t make it through in previous sessions, and conservationists are hopeful that an alliance of conservationists and rural representatives who understand the economic value of solar and wind to their constituents will be able to stop it again. You can add your voice in support of clean energy here.
