The hapless SolarBees spin down the Jordan drain, plus more news, this week in CIB:

The NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced last week that its support for the hapless SolarBee water mixers had spun its last. Official pretense that the expensive gadgets held any prospect for solving the serious water pollution problems of Jordan Lake has sunk below the surface of the lake’s still slightly green-tinged waters.

DEQ Secretary Donald van der Vaart said in a news release, “I’m discontinuing the SolarBee project after reviewing nearly two years of scientific data that show it will not yield the intended results.” 

While the project burned $1.3 million in its failure, environmental advocates were even more concerned about the way it has been used to justify delay of the much-needed real cleanup plan that had been painstakingly prepared for Jordan Lake. Haw Riverkeeper Elaine Chiosso said, “There was never any scientific rationale that these water mixers could work in such an enormous lake. It would be funny, except that it cost the taxpayers a lot of money and meant the Jordan Lake Rules were suspended since the start of the experiment.” 

NCLCV’s Director of Governmental Affairs, Dan Crawford, was even blunter in his assessment: “For two years Governor McCrory has been wasting taxpayer money on an experiment he was told would fail. Hundreds of thousands of people depend on Jordan Lake for their drinking water and it’s time for Gov. McCrory and legislative Republicans to stop wasting time, stop wasting money, and start cleaning our water.”

Campaign Watch: LCVAF Endorses Walser; Conservatives Support Clean Energy

Two positive stories from last week give us the opportunity to remind folks that a clean environment shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

LCVAF Endorses Walser: The national League of Conservation Voters Action Fund (LCVAF) announced an endorsement in the Republican primary for North Carolina’s new 13th Congressional District. LCVAF recommends Jason Walser, the former head of The LandTrust for Central North Carolina. See details here.

Conservatives Support Clean Energy: Conservatives for Clean Energy (CCE) last week released the results of a new poll which shows that support for clean energy development runs strong across party lines among North Carolina voters.  Among other findings, the poll found that 86.5% of voters want elected officials to encourage renewable energy options such as solar and wind, and 87.6% want home and business owners to have additional options for financing energy-efficiency upgrades.

Strong majorities of Republicans, independents, and Democrats all support both North Carolina’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS) (specifies minimum power company investments in renewable energy) and renewable energy tax credits. Voters said that they are more likely to vote for legislators who expand these energy innovations. You can read NCLCV’s takeaway from these results here.

Legislative Watch: Mixed Bag of Bills

Both good and bad bills, in terms of their environmental quality implications, have been introduced for consideration during the legislative “short session” now underway in Raleigh. 

Last week we highlighted (lowlighted?) the introduction of SB779/HB1005, titled “Issuance of Advisories/Drinking Water Standards”. Becoming known as the “Contamination Cover-Up Bill”, this proposal would bar state and local environmental and public health agencies from warning the public about contaminated drinking water unless there was already a specific federal or state standard set for, and being exceeded by, the toxin found in the water. That would act to block warnings like the ones given (and later withdrawn) to citizens using well water near coal ash pits, contaminated by high levels of known cancer-causing agent hexavalent chromium. Writers and advocates around the state continued to rip that proposal last week.

Beyond that issue, legislators have also introduced SB763/HB1024, titled “Prohibit Certain Stormwater Control Measures”. This bill would bar state environmental regulators from requiring the use of on-site stormwater runoff controls to protect clean water downstream, unless those controls were otherwise “required by state or federal law.” It seems that there is a common theme in progress in these and other bills, of blocking state environmental scientists from using their professional knowledge and judgment to protect public health and natural resources.  

On the other hand, not all new bills introduced this session have been environmentally unfriendly. On the House side, HB988, titled “Repeal Light Rail Funding Cap“, with 31 bipartisan sponsors, would repeal the provision slipped into last year’s final budget that tops out the state’s contribution to new light rail transportation projects at $500,000 per project. Supporters of repealing the cap point out that no other major transportation mode is subjected to this arbitrary ceiling, and that it would effectively kill even rail projects that make their way through the state’s merit-based specific review process. (For comparison, large sidewalk construction projects regularly exceed $500,000 in costs.)

Education & Resources: Why Voting Rights Matter to the Environment

CIB reminds our readers that NCLCV will participate in a forum in Greensboro tomorrow evening on “Why Democracy Matters”—with our focus (naturally) directed at discussing why voting rights matter to protecting human health and a clean environment. We’ll be joining with NC Voters for Clean Elections, the League of Women Voters, and other groups in exploring this topic.

After all, if who we elect matters, then clearly so does the right of all citizens to readily participate in the election process. Among other connections, pollution problems are far more likely to hit hardest in lower-income households and communities. Those are the same folks who are disproportionately impacted by laws that make it harder for those without a driver’s license to vote, or who have a harder time getting to the polls on election day and are therefore more impacted by cutbacks in early voting.

The program and panel discussion in Greensboro on Tuesday, May 10, starting at 7 p.m., will examine “Why Democracy Matters” on matters like environmental protection and economic opportunity. See here for more details.

Conservationists: Green Tie Wednesday

Four-term NC Governor Jim Hunt will keynote NCLCV’s annual Green Tie Awards event in Raleigh this Wednesday evening, May 11. In addition to Governor Hunt, attendees will hear from the outstanding legislators and others being recognized for their environmental leadership in our state over the past year.