Citizens’ access to the courts in environmental cases would be cut back under provisions of a bill approved today (June 15) by the Senate Commerce Committee. The provision sought by the NC Chamber of Commerce was added to H374, Department of Labor Technical Corrections, in a PCS introduced yesterday.
Under current law, a person or a group that would be harmed by a permitted activity can challenge the permit issued by DEQ. Under the change adopted in committee today, a person, group or community that could be hurt by a permit decision would be shut out of the Office of Administrative Hearings unless they had submitted a specific comment during the public comment period.
This matters because notice of opportunity to comment early in the permit review process does not always reach affected citizens. The proposed change may also prevent review of conditions in the final permit that were never specifically put out for comment and therefore may be unknown to the public.
The provision could affect challenges to certain water, air, coastal development and interbasin transfer permits. Members of the public should be able to weigh in on state actions that are under judicial review, regardless if they were aware of and participated in a comment process at the time the permit was being drafted.
H 374 has already passed the House and is only scheduled to go to the Senate Finance Committee before reaching the full Senate. This means the provision could become law without ever being heard in a Judiciary committee in either chamber.
Statement of Molly Diggins, State Director, on today’s vote:
“This provision shuts out citizens, who don’t have lobbyists to represent their interests at every step of the permit process, from challenging permits to pollute that are harmful or wrongly issued.
“Public access to the courts is a core part of democracy. We urge the Senate to reject this provision.”