By Cassie Gavin
Senior Director of Government Relations
This was a busy week at the N.C. General Assembly as bill-filing continued and committees approved numerous bills in advance of a spring break next week.
Updates on environmental bills:
H 220, Assuring Choice of Energy Service, a fracked gas industry bill sponsored by Reps. Arp (R - Union), Saine (R - Lincoln) Szoka (R - Cumberland) and Miller (R - Brunswick, New Hanover), was approved by the House this week with a vote of 78-41 mostly along party lines, with many Democrats voting no. The bill would prevent communities from choosing strategic electrification of buildings and neighborhoods to reduce fossil fuel use, a trend in parts of the country.
Rep. Deb Butler (D - New Hanover) asked great questions about the bill in Commerce Committee. And please thank Rep. John Autry (D - Mecklenburg) for speaking against the bill and in favor of local government options to address climate change in the House debate. Rep. Autry proposed an amendment that would have prevented local governments from effectively banning utility-scale solar, which some N.C. counties have done, but it was not approved. H 220 next goes to the Senate.
Opportunity for Action: Please ask your senator to oppose H 220 to protect community options to address climate change. Use our action alert to contact your senator and share it with your contacts so they can do the same!
H 296, EV Charging Station/Parking, sponsored by Reps. Warren (R - Rowan), von Haefen (D - Wake), Autry and Szoka (R - Cumberland), is a helpful bill to allow for the enforcement of electric vehicle parking spaces. It was approved by the House on Wednesday with bipartisan support 115-4. H 296 will next go to the Senate.
New bills:
S 360, Prohibit Collusive Settlements by the AG, sponsored by Republican Senators Hise (Madison, McDowell, Polk, Yancey, Mitchel, Rutherford), Daniel (Avery, Burke, Caldwell) and Newton (Cabarrus, Union), appears to be a legislative power-grab bill to take authority away from Attorney General Josh Stein (D) to settle certain cases for the state. The measure would require the attorney general to get approval from the House speaker and Senate president pro tem before settling a lawsuit if the General Assembly is a party to the case or has filed a motion to intervene. Since the legislative leaders could choose to intervene in any case, this would be a broad change. S 360 has implications for environmental cases as the attorney general must defend state decisions on environmental permits and handle other important environmental cases.
H 444, PFAS Mitigation Measures Cost Reimbursement, sponsored by Representative Butler, would require Chemours to pay for filtering Wilmington-area drinking water that the corporation contaminated with PFAS - so-called "forever chemicals." Currently, customers downstream of the facility in Wilmington and surrounding areas will end up paying for the technology required to remove the dangerous chemicals from their drinking water. If this bill becomes law, Chemours and other polluters would be responsible for the costs associated with removing forever chemicals from drinking water. We agree with Representative Butler that polluters should pay for cleaning up their messes! H 444 was assigned to the House Rules Committee.