I just wanted to pass along the lead article from our Conservation Insider Bulletin, edited by Dan Besse. Hopefully the conferees will be in agreement soon and summer vacations can start. Feel free to email us at dan@nclcv.org or rebekah@nclcv.org if you have any questions.

Legislative Watch: NCLCV Calls for Accountability on Coal Ash

NC House Speaker Thom Tillis didn’t much care for being called on the public carpet for severe shortcomings in the coal ash bill passed out of the legislative chamber he leads. That became clear last week after NCLCV launched a public education campaign asking citizens to contact Tillis in support of tough action on coal ash cleanup.

In a major advertising effort in four of North Carolina’s largest media markets, NCLCV asks citizens to contact Speaker Tillis in support of holding polluters accountable for the costs of coal ash cleanup, as well as action to keep coal ash pollution out of our waters in the first place. See the ad here.

A spokesperson for Tillis’ U.S. Senate campaign called the ad a “blatantly misleading attack”. But as NCLCV director of governmental relations Dan Crawford said, “Speaker Tillis failed to use his clout as one of our most powerful legislators to protect public health and our drinking water from coal ash spills.” In the coal ash legislation passed by the House, Crawford points out, “Tillis catered to polluters instead of adopting badly needed safeguards, and left the possibility that North Carolina ratepayers will bear the cost of cleaning up this [coal ash pit] mess.”

NCLCV’s Tillis coal ash ad is running from July 11-24 in the Triangle, Charlotte, Triad, and Asheville markets. Even before the ad began airing, it drew attention from reporters around the state, who asked about the large investment ($845,000) in the ad’s initial run. Crawford responded, “Yes, that’s a major investment for us, but the stakes are high. This is about protecting clean water in our state – and since we can’t seem to get the attention of people in the legislative building directly, we’re reaching out to the public, asking them to step in. They need to tell the House, through House Speaker Thom Tillis, that it’s time to stop protecting the special interests and instead protect ordinary citizens whose clean water and pocketbooks both are at real risk.”

The ad campaign and related efforts are especially timely now because of the upcoming negotiation between NC House and Senate conferees over the content of final coal ash legislation. As the appointer of House conferees and the top official to whom they will look for guidance – Tillis is in a critical position to influence the outcome of negotiations. If the bill ends up in the mess it appears to be headed for now, Tillis will shoulder a major part of the responsibility.

Conservationists had hoped for major improvements in the coal ash bill in the House. Instead, the House under Tillis’s leadership retained the same major flaws found in the original Senate bill, plus a big new one all its own. As we noted in last week’s CIB, the big problems with the House bill include these:

• It fails to assign financial responsibility for cleanup to Duke Energy and its stockholders, leaving the likelihood that ratepayers will end up paying billions to correct Duke’s coal ash management errors.
• It allows coal ash pits to be “capped in place”, avoiding genuine cleanup and leaving groundwater and surface waters vulnerable to continued leaks and contamination.
• It fails to mandate timely closure and cleanup of most coal ash pits, allowing long delays before corrective action.
• It authorizes a newly created Coal Ash Management Commission to delay cleanups and extend deadlines even further if it concludes that needed fixes are too expensive.

This is the time to take part in fixing these problems by adding your voice to the call for responsible action to clean up the coal ash mess in our state. Here’s how you can help, contact Speaker Tillis today.

OPPOSE

SB729 COAL ASH MANAGEMENT ACT OF 2014

SB38 AMEND ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS 2014

The HotList is a weekly email the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters (NCLCV) sends out during session where we talk about relevant legislation and share information on key environmental issues as they come before the General Assembly. While primarily intended for elected representatives, the HotList is also made public to any and all who are concerned about the environment.