By Cassie Gavin
Director of Government Relations
The latest General Assembly session ended with a late night Thursday on Jones Street, and unfortunately the environment did not fare well. Appointments to the Oil & Gas Commission were pushed through despite the fact that the nominees did not meet the conservation qualifications for the seats. And the Legislature twice this week voted to override Governor Cooper’s vetoes of bills that he opposed due to environmental concerns. House Bill 56 and Senate Bill 16 were bills that the Sierra Club fought this session due to provisions that stand to negatively impact water quality and take away local government control to manage waste.
The Legislature has again kind-of-adjourned by continuing this October session until Oct. 17 to leave to time to override any gubernatorial vetoes of bills passed this week. Then the body plans to return in January 2018.
Lawmakers Name Pro-Fracking Oil & Gas Commissioners to Conservation Seats
Jim Womack - a former Lee County commissioner and former Mining and Energy commissioner - and former state Rep. Mike Stone were named to commission seats that, by law, were to be filled by someone representing a nongovernmental conservation interest. The law was tweaked by the Legislature earlier Thursday as part of a budget technical corrections bill to allow the appointees to be “members” of a nongovernmental conservation interest instead of a “representative.” But that change is not yet officially law.
Both Womack and Stone have been outspoken proponents of fracking. Womack has made a number of pro-fracking statements, such as, “You’re more likely to have a meteorite fall from the sky and hit you on the head than you are to contaminate groundwater with fracking fluid percolating up from under the ground. It hasn’t happened.” In 2014, then-Rep. Stone said, “We want to send a clear message that North Carolina is open for natural gas exploration,” in support of a bill to lift the moratorium on fracking.
Womack was chosen for the Oil & Gas Commission by Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, and Stone by House Speaker Tim Moore. Neither appointment is in the spirit of the law, as the seats were intended for appointees with a conservation background to act as a representative of conservation interests. Womack claimed to be part of the American Council on Science and Health, which media outlets have called an industry front group. Check out a Mother Jones article about the group here.
Opportunity for Action
Please thank Reps. Pricey Harrison (D - Greensboro), Chuck McGrady (R - Hendersonville), and Bobbie Richardson (D - Louisburg), as well as Sens. Terry Van Duyn (D - Asheville) and Floyd McKissick (D - Durham) for defending the conservations seats on the Oil & Gas Commission repeatedly in committees and on the floor.
Also during this week’s session, the Senate again declined to confirm two NC Utilities Commission appointments that have awaited action since Governor Cooper announced them on May 1. Cooper called for the reappointment of ToNola Brown-Bland, who has served on the commission since 2009, and a new appointment: Charlotte Mitchell, a highly qualified attorney from Charlotte with expertise in energy regulation.
Legislature Overrides Cooper’s Veto of H 56, Repeals OBX Plastic Ban Ban
On Wednesday, the Legislature voted to override Governor Cooper’s veto of an omnibus environmental bill that repeals the popular ban on plastic bags in the Outer Banks and takes away local waste management authority by giving it to private waste haulers.
House Bill 56 offers a token amount of funding to address water contamination in the Wilmington area but provides no support to DEQ or DHHS to address environmental or public health concerns statewide regarding emerging contaminants in drinking water sources.
The bill also includes provisions that weaken environmental protections, such as unnecessary exemptions to riparian buffer protections.
H 56 directs only $435,000 to the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and UNC-Wilmington to study GenX contamination of the lower Cape Fear River by Chemours and find a way to treat local drinking water. The Legislature ignored a $2.5 million request from Governor Cooper in emergency funding for state agencies to investigate GenX contamination and other unregulated chemicals across North Carolina.
Opportunity for Action
The veto override vote on H 56 was mostly along party lines with only one member of each party breaking ranks to vote with the other party. Please thank the legislators who voted against H 56 (the vote count is here) and especially thank Reps. Harrison, McGrady, Terry Garrison (D - Henderson), and Deb Butler (D - Wilmington) who spoke up against the bill in the House debate.
Thanks for your advocacy!