[Durham INC] NC Sierra Club Legislative Update

Thu Aug 12 17:21:00 EDT 2021

Latest report on the toxic things the General Assembly is up to (why don't they just go homee!)

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From: NC Sierra Club Legislative Update <NC-LEGISLATIVE-UPDATE at LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG> on behalf of Cassie Gavin <cassie.gavin at sierraclub.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2021 3:46 PM
To: NC-LEGISLATIVE-UPDATE at LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG <NC-LEGISLATIVE-UPDATE at LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG>
Subject: [NC-LEGISLATIVE-UPDATE] NC Sierra Club Legislative Update

Good afternoon,

This week was a busy one at the N.C. General Assembly as the House passed the budget and a Senate committee hosted a public hearing on the controversial energy bill. The legislature also began holding joint House and Senate redistricting committee meetings in preparation for redistricting with new census data.

House Sends Mixed Messages on Resilience with Budget

The House passed a state budget (S 105<https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2021/s105>) with a vote of 72-41 on Thursday afternoon, mostly along party lines with a handful of Democrats voting yes along with all Republicans present. Since the Senate and House versions of the budget vary greatly, the bill will next go to conference where a conference committee made up of legislators appointed by leadership will work out the differences in private.

While there is strong funding in the budget for conservation and resilience, the House inserted numerous environmental policy provisions that normally would have to be passed as bills. The budget is supposed to be about allocating funding but, year after year, environmental rollbacks show up in the budget because the legislators championing the provisions hope policies that didn’t pass in individual bills may succeed as part of the budget.

Opportunity for Action

Please contact your state representative and senator ask them to prioritize removal of four harmful environmental budget provisions from the budget:

  *   Anti-tree Bill: Earlier this year, the House passed H 496<https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2021/h496>, which would prohibit communities from adopting tree protection ordinances that regulate the removal of trees from private property without the express authorization of the General Assembly. The Senate has not taken up the bill but provisions from H 496 were added by the House to the budget. This is harmful because we should be helping, not hindering, local efforts to protect trees. North Carolina is losing urban tree cover at a fast rate. Tree cover provides shade during increasingly hot summers, lessens the impact of stormwater runoff and improves the aesthetic beauty of neighborhoods.

  *   More Protections for Billboard Industry: The billboard industry regularly seeks giveaways from the legislature to limit local government controls over signage. N.C. Sierra Club supports local government efforts to regulate billboards to protect trees and community aesthetics. This provision includes language that was in a 2019 billboard bill (H 645<https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2019/h645>) that was vetoed by Governor Cooper. It would ease billboard relocations at the expense of local government control, and it may threaten local ordinances that ban digital billboards.

  *   Disallow Local Stormwater and Buffer Protections: A provision would bar all local stormwater ordinances and riparian buffer protections that are not required by federal or state law. This would hamper local flexibility, and makes no sense at a time when many N.C. communities are trying to protect residents from intensifying storms and flooding.

  *   Less Funding for Environmental Projects in Eastern N.C.: North Carolina’s attorney general awards grants annually to projects to improve and protect natural resources through the Environmental Enhancement Grant (EEG) program<https://ncdoj.gov/protecting-the-environment/eeg/>. Funds for the EEG program came from a legal agreement with Smithfield Foods, a hog company. The AG has awarded almost $34M to more than 150 projects, resulting in the closure of 240 abandoned hog waste lagoons and the restoration or conservation of more than 31,000 acres of land, wetland restoration, stormwater remediation, and stream stabilization, as well as environmental education and research initiatives. Since addressing pollution from hog farms was the subject of the Smithfield agreement, projects in eastern N.C. are prioritized because more hog farms are in that area of the state. A budget provision would direct EEG funds to a new program at the Division of Public Instruction to be spent on "environmental enhancements" by schools. The funding is already being used as intended by the AG and should not be reallocated.

Senate Hears Broad Opposition to Energy Bill

The Senate Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources committee held a hearing Tuesday to hear from the public on H 951, the omnibus energy bill. Most speakers voiced opposition to the bill, other than Duke Energy, the Chamber of Commerce and a few others. Concerns voiced included new gas plants, increased costs, and limiting Utilities Commission authority over energy policy. N.C. Sierra Club’s comments focused on the need to retire coal but not replace it with fracked gas and the need to improve the securitization section of the bill to save ratepayers money when coal plants retire. Check out this Policy Watch article<https://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2021/08/10/5-takeaways-from-todays-hearing-on-the-energy-bill/> about the hearing.

A reminder that it’s timely to reach out to your senator about the energy bill - please use our action alert<https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/ncenergybill?_ga=2.190917226.1781903167.1628697459-1835934188.1596136205&_gac=1.61273566.1628264220.Cj0KCQjwu7OIBhCsARIsALxCUaM2k1y6erK-k_uyD4F-uoRG57Xla78OdJSHegZAc1f3QJmfPjnzGy4aAk9qEALw_wcB> to do so!

Thank you for your advocacy!

--
Cassie Gavin, Senior Director of Government Relations
NC Sierra Club
cassie.gavin at sierraclub.org<mailto:cassie.gavin at sierraclub.org>
19 W. Hargett Street, Suite 210
Raleigh, NC 27601
Phone: 919.360.8803
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassiegavin
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