RALEIGH, N.C.—Today the LCV Victory Fund named North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and state Rep. Steve Ross of Alamance County to their “Dirty Dozen in the States” list. Modeled after LCV Victory Fund’s federal “Dirty Dozen,” the “Dirty Dozen in the States” highlights the worst environmental candidates in the nation at the state and local level.

Members of the “Dirty Dozen in the States” have consistently sided against the environment and — regardless of party affiliation — are running in races targeted by LCV state affiliates in the Conservation Voter Movement, including the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters’ Conservation PAC. Those races include:

North Carolina Governor

• Lt. Gov. Dan Forest has openly questioned the science of climate change, as well as protections for coronavirus.
• He wrote to the White House asking them to remove national clean water protections, advocated for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, and expressed support for expanding offshore drilling and fracking throughout the state.

North Carolina House District 63

• Rep. Steve Ross has a lifetime NCLCV environmental score of 9% (PDF). He has taken campaign contributions from some of North Carolina’s biggest polluters, and voted for multiple bills that damage the environment. These include repealing the OBX plastic bag ban, limiting the compensation people can receive in nuisance lawsuits against industrial hog farms, allowing the aerosolization of leachate (“garbage juice”), and deregulating other common-sense environmental protections.

Over the last four years, the country has seen enormous environmental progress at the state level. Nine states now have laws committed to 100% clean electricity; 1 in 4 people live in a state on the path to 100% clean energy (PDF). In the face of the most anti-environmental administration ever, state and local action has reduced emissions 37%, keeping the country on the path to meeting our Paris Climate targets.

“Gov. Cooper’s Clean Energy Plan will put North Carolina on the map of states dedicated to 100% clean energy by 2050 — if our Green Caucus is put in charge of the General Assembly next year,” said NCLCV Executive Director Carrie Clark. “The current anti-environment leadership, including Rep. Ross, has blocked clean energy progress at every turn. North Carolinians want leadership that will advance a clean energy economy, not continue to prop up dirty fossil fuels.”

“Since Trump has been in office, our biggest victories have been in the states,” said Pete Maysmith, LCV Senior Vice President of Campaigns. “We need federal leadership, but beating candidates dedicated to gutting environmental protections up and down the ticket has never been more important. This year’s list proves there are still far too many candidates bought and paid for by big polluters, and we cannot allow them to continue blocking the progress the country demands.”

In the 2017-18 election cycle, LCV state affiliates defeated ten of the twelve “Dirty Dozen in the States” candidates, including now former Rep. Chris Malone of Wake County’s House District 35.