One week we’re looking ahead. The next, we’re back to reflecting. But, there’s a good reason for that. Before we can see what’s coming down the pipeline (no pun intended), we need to understand how we got to where we are now.

Let see…how did 2014 end at the NC General Assembly…oh right. Chaotically.

Here’s a quick overview of what happened during one of the longest “short” sessions in our state’s legislative history(or – at least it felt that way):

In the beginning

The “short” session started off with a bang, fresh off a primary election that put then NC House Speaker Thom Tillis in contention for the US Senate seat of Senator Kay Hagan. Key NC leaders, including Speaker Tillis, announced their legislative priorities for 2014. While education and the economy were the two dominant issues, the environment made the list thanks to the recent Dan River coal ash disaster. Cleaning up coal ash became a target to tackle, championed, in particular, by Senator Tom Apodaca. In fact, the first environmental bill filed was Governor McCrory’s coal ash management plan (the favorability toward Duke Energy in this draft could not be understated).

“I think we’re going to be setting the trend for the rest of the country to follow when it comes to dealing with coal ash.” – Senator Tom Apodaca [from NC Insider]

Of course, once the session got started, priorities became “secondaries” as the budget tug-of-war began. But, not to fear: environmental rollbacks were still on the table. One of the first being the dubiously named Energy Modernization Act.

Fast-track to frack continues

Several legislative champions attempted to insert amendments into the Energy Modernization Act in hopes of strengthening its environmental and public health protections. Requiring reduced air emissions to receive a permit to begin fracking? That failed. Denying permits if an oil or gas company used dangerous, radioactive chemicals in the drilling process? Oh, that failed too. How about requiring companies to have written consent of the person who owned the surface property above the drilling site (i.e. no compulsory pooling)? Yep, you got it: it did not pass! The list went on and on in both the House and Senate. After substantial heated debate, both chambers passed this wieldy beast and Governor McCrory eagerly signed it into law. A recap from Dan Besse, our Conservation Insider Bulletin editor:

From start to finish, the fracking bill was rushed through the legislature in a 10-day period which allowed little time for public debate or meaningful consideration of its problems. There was no public notice of House committee hearings or the first House floor vote. “This is a real disservice to the public, especially on such a controversial and complex bill,” said Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford). She added that the bill’s backers “used procedural maneuvers to block debate and consideration of the substance of [proposed] amendments.”

SB 786 criminalizes the disclosure of toxic chemicals included in fracking fluids (the content of which could be protected as so-called “trade secrets”); pre-empts any local regulation of fracking; reduces the protective boundaries around fracking operations within which drillers are held responsible for well contamination; lacks protections against toxic air emissions and some dangerous methods of fracking waste disposal; and legalizes “compulsory pooling” under which landowners can be required to sell their rights to drill under their land – even if they object.

Reforming rules is not for the birds – literally

Rules Reform: what a great name for an up and coming indie band, right? Well, at the NC General Assembly, Rules reform in 2014 was apparently code for “slashing away at sound environmental policies.” More from Besse:

Most notably, SB 734, the so-called “Rules Reform Bill of 2014,” slashes protections for our state’s ecologically critical wetlands habitats. The new rules the bill contains triples the area of wetland that a development project can destroy without review or mitigation. On the coastal plain (east of I-95), “isolated” wetlands of up to an acre in size can be destroyed. In the rest of the state (west of I-95), “isolated” wetlands of up to 1/3 acre in size can be destroyed. These limits triple the size of a wetland that can be lost to any single development without review or mitigation, from the current rule limit of 1/3 acre east of I-95 and 1/10 acre west of I-95. (Wetland areas are typically much smaller in the upland Piedmont and mountain regions than in the flatter coastal plains.) The bill also cuts in half the mitigation required when wetlands are lost, from a 2:1 ratio to a 1:1 ratio.

In other anti-environmental moves, the “compromise” version of SB 734 also includes these steps:

• It extends the ban against state rules for protecting the environment that go beyond the often inadequate federal minimums.
• It allows the state Parks Division to waive driving speed limits in the parks.
• It arbitrarily eases stormwater rules on some coastal developments.
• It forbids the enforcement of a state or local rule change strengthening an environmental protection on any project for which a permit application had been submitted at the time the rule goes into effect.

As Rep. Paul Luebke (D-Durham) said during floor debate on the bill, “This is not regulatory reform. It is regulatory repeal. Our environment is hurt by the contents of this bill.”

She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain

Finally, coal ash came circling back, like a runaway train. Remember: this was a top legislative priority. And, here it was, far past the ideal short session adjournment, and the gritty mess was still at the feet of the General Assembly.

From the originally filed McCrory bill to what transpired, the Coal Ash Management Act became another battle within the House and Senate. Legislator after legislator stood up and requested that the coal ash pond in their communities – you know the ones with those toxic metals – be closed. The Coal Ash Management Act only identified four sites as top priorities for closing and left the future of the remaining 10 ponds in the hands of the soon-to-be-formed-and-sued Coal Ash Commission. Here’s additional analysis from CIB editor Dan Besse:

After months of stutter-stepping over coal ash legislation, the General Assembly last week delivered a disappointingly weak bill that does little more than codify Duke Energy’s proposed plans.

The final version of SB 729 adopted by both chambers falls far short of the cleanup and public protection action plan needed, and even weakens existing state pollution control law in a key fashion. The bill uses weaker groundwater protection standards than one state judge has already relied upon to order Duke to clean up its messes.

• It requires priority cleanup efforts at just four of 14 sites – the four that Duke Energy already agreed, under public pressure, to prioritize.
• It allows poorly defined “low-risk” sites to be “capped in place” rather than cleaned up, which amounts to simply covering them over and letting their toxic pollution continue to leak into groundwater.
• It leaves open the possibility that electric customers (not Duke’s owners) will have to pay the tab for whatever cleanup is done – potentially billions in costs taken out of ratepayers’ pockets.

Anything else from 2014?

Yes, quite a lot. We don’t want to overwhelm you in what is already a long post, so here are 5 more takeaways from our look back at last year:

1. Over the strong objections of citizen conservation groups, Gov. Pat McCrory and his (now former) DENR Secretary John Skvarla shut out the public and reporters from a high-level multi-agency meeting on oil and gas drilling off the North Carolina coast. Ten citizen groups, including NCLCV, signed on to a letter to McCrory and Skvarla calling on them to open this critical coastal policy session to public scrutiny. In rejecting the call for sunshine on state transaction of the public’s business, McCrory’s DENR dubiously asserted that industry would not be let in either. That claim rang hollow and disingenuous (at best) after investigation revealed that presenters at the meeting included staff from oil industry-financed “think tanks” who used their participation to sing the praises of offshore drilling.
2. The NC Mining and Energy Commission finalized its proposed fracking rules, which were reviewed by the Rules Review Commission (RRC) in late December. While it kicked back some rules further clarification and corrections, the RRC green-lighted 117 others, paving the way for fracking permits to start being issued in 2015. But, we’re watching the push back due to falling oil prices and the lack of luster around fracking if this current energy trend keeps up.
3. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed tightening its rule limiting ground-level ozone, one of the most important contributors to urban smog and related health problems. EPA’s move represents a long-awaited next step by the Obama Administration to toughen rules last updated by the Bush Administration in 2008. Almost immediately, a number of industry groups and Congressional Republicans attacked the proposed new standards as too costly, with allegedly severe adverse economic impacts. Environmental and health groups reacted positively to the proposal, although many also support the stronger standard of 60 ppb for ozone. The deadline for final rules is December 1, 2015.
4. Another piece of news from the US EPA: its long-awaited final rule on the handling of coal ash. As many anticipated, EPA decided to regulate the ash as a solid waste, with minimum national criteria for disposal, tracking, and publicly-accessible record-keeping. EPA says that the rule will address the risks from leaking of contaminants into groundwater, airborne dust, and the risk of catastrophic failure of surface impoundments. The details of the rule and EPA’s explanations can be found here. Environmental groups had urged EPA to take the alternative course of defining and regulating coal ash as a hazardous waste. Environmental advocates offered immediate negative comments on the EPA final rule, assessing that it “falls far short of what’s needed to protect the public and our waterways from the millions of tons of dangerous sludge that is produced annually.” (Natural Resources Defense Council [NRDC] statement, 12/19/14.)
5. The solar industry’s rise in North Carolina over the last year has been nothing short of incredible. Throughout 2014, our state was near the top of the lists for new solar capacity built and in total solar capacity already producing power. Multiple companies announced proposals to construct solar farms in Halifax, Duplin, Bladen, Lee, Catawba and several other North Carolina counties. With solar tax credits set to expire at the end of 2015, the race is on – and it has already brought major financial investments and jobs to our state. Look for more on this in our next blog post – what to watch for in 2015.

What did we miss? Tell us what other environmental issues impacted your life in 2014 below! You can tweet at us @NCLCV or follow us on Facebook.