By Cassie Gavin
Senior Director for Government Relations
This week at the NC General Assembly, the big news was that the House and Senate agreed on a state budget spending cap. That means budget negotiations between the chambers will begin in earnest. Reports indicate that the majority leadership did not negotiate this spending cap with Democrats or the Governor, though, so this may set up another budget stand-off between the parties. In recent years that's led to no state budget at all. Read more about the budget process.
Environment & clean energy in the budget?
The state budget is important for funding a wide array of conservation and environmental programs, and the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Governor Cooper’s proposed budget, released in March, includes significant funding for DEQ to address toxic forever chemicals such as PFAS. In addition, Governor Cooper proposes more than $100 million for clean energy and over $300 million for environmental stewardship, parks, and resiliency. Whether the legislature will include these proposals in the budget is yet to be seen.
House Agriculture Committee debates Farm Act
On Tuesday, the House Agriculture Committee spent an hour debating S 605, the Farm Act, but did not vote on the bill. We expect that the committee will take up the measure for a vote next week. NC Sierra Club is opposed to the bill because of a provision that requires DEQ to provide a general permit to hog operations for adding biogas digesters, instead of the individual reviews that are currently required. This would mean less review and less public input on these decisions, which impact people and communities near industrial hog operations. Representatives Graham (D - Robeson), K. Smith (D - Pitt), Ager (D - Bunbombe), and Lofton (D - Mecklenburg) raised good questions during the discussion. The bill sponsor, Sen. Brent Jackson (R - Duplin, Johnston, Sampson), and Representative Dixon (R - Duplin, Onslow) voiced support for the biogas provision. Although the bill was officially up only for discussion, Dixon tried to call for a vote but was blocked when several committee members objected.
Opportunity to take action
Please reach out to your House Representative using our action alert to let them know that you oppose the Farm Act due to the biogas provision.
Senate committee approves lead bill
The Senate Health Committee unanimously approved Representative Warren’s (R - Rowan) helpful bill, H 272, “Revise Health Standard for Lead.” This bill has just one more stop in Senate Rules before going to the full Senate for a vote. H 272 will align our state trigger for remediating lead in water with the federal trigger - a needed update.
Senate and House move election bills
A Senate committee approved S 326, the “Election Integrity Act,” sponsored by Senators Daniel (R - Avery, Burke, Caldwell), Newton (R - Cabarrus, Union), and Hise (R - Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Yancey), despite opposition from voter rights groups including NC Voters for Clean Elections and Democracy NC. The bill would require boards of elections to throw out any domestic absentee ballots received after 5 p.m. on election day, removing the three-day grace period for ballots postmarked by election day. This change may unfairly prejudice absentee voters, such as rural voters who have limited access to mail services. S 326 would mean that absentee voters would have to send in their ballot days or weeks ahead of election day to ensure that they are counted. Even then, there’s no guarantee that their votes would be counted if the mail is slow. Before the 2020 election, the US Postal Service warned that the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot would not provide enough time for the request to be processed, delivered, and then returned by the voter, and that was with a special grace period.
Also this week, S 722, “Revise Local Government Redistricting/Census,” sponsored by Senators Daniel, Newton, and Hise, passed the House unanimously and is headed back to the Senate for consideration because the House made changes. The purpose of the bill is to give municipalities time to review and revise their districts based on the 2020 census results, which are delayed due to COVID-19. S 722 sets dates and deadlines for postponing 2021 municipal elections to 2022 while districts are redrawn. S 722 says that boards of election may seek public input before census results come out, but that if elections are to be delayed, they must provide opportunity for public input and hold at least one hearing before adopting revisions. Current elected officials would hold office until election results are certified, and the terms of most officials elected in 2022 would not be extended. This measure has broad bipartisan support so is expected to become law.
Governor announces offshore wind energy executive order
In case you missed this good news, Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order this week committing North Carolina to support offshore wind development goals of 2.8 gigawatts by 2030 and 8.0 gigawatts by 2040.
Executive Order No. 218 highlights the environmental and economic benefits that can be realized from developing offshore wind energy production. It calls for naming a clean energy economic development coordinator and a task force to support offshore wind development in the N.C. Department of Commerce, along with roles for other state agencies to help meet the executive order's goals. Listen to Governor Cooper talk about the order and energy policy in a podcast by NC Sustainable Energy Association.
The N.C. Sierra Club, in a February blog post, encouraged Governor Cooper to set specific targets for offshore wind development to encourage industry investment and build on Cooper's 2018 executive order on clean energy and climate change.