RALEIGH — While much of the attention in the week ahead will be on the rollout of the N.C. House version of the state budget, there is plenty going on behind the scenes as environmental bills dealing with jetties, regulations, fracking wells and landfills are readied for a new round…
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McCrory, DENR Oppose Jetty Bill
RALEIGH — A move by coastal senators to scuttle a two-year-old compromise on the use of terminal groins to halt beach erosion has gotten a cold reception from the McCrory Administration. Michelle Walker, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the department is opposed to…
Senate Budget Remakes Conservation Funds
…personalized license plates. The Clean Water Management Trust Fund helped preserve the longleaf pine forest of the Holly Shelter Gamlands in Pender County. Photo: CWMTF The clean water fund, which spent almost a billion dollars preserving land and protecting water quality all across the state, was once the premier source…
Bill Guts Safeguards for Terminal Groins
RALEIGH – Small jetties, called terminal groins, could be built at all the inlets along the N.C. coast, under a bill that a state Senate committee passed yesterday, and state taxpayers could be asked to pay for all of them. The bill lifts the cap of four groins that was…
Busy Week Ahead at Legislature
RALEIGH — As the legislature enters a busy week with a key deadline for bill passage fast approaching, local officials on the coast continue to raise concerns about how the N.C. Senate’s latest proposal for changing environmental rules would affect their communities. Among the many provisions in the omnibus Senate…
‘Reform’ Bill Could Have Sweeping Effects
RALEIGH — The Senate wrapped up work last week leaving a host of stakeholders in environmental policy with a serious homework assignment: Try to decipher the implications of a revised omnibus bill that would make major changes to the state’s environmental regulations. Senate Bill 612, yet another “regulatory reform act,”…
Compromise on Committees Bill Goes Up in Flames
RALEIGH — Time will tell whether there’s some yet unknown backstory or whether as described on the floor of the N.C. House, a compromise worked out on a controversial government reorganization bill suffered a fatal technical flaw. Regardless of the reasons, the compromise on Senate Bill 10, which was closely…
New Bills Target Stormwater, Wind Energy
RALEIGH — As the N.C.General Assembly passes the halfway mark in the session, environmental organizations are tracking several key bills, including new legislation on stormwater rules, permitting and wind energy and old bills on hydraulic fracking and inlet dredging. House Bill 480 – the legislature’s latest version of permitting “reform”…
Opposition Brewing to Injection Wells
RALEIGH — A resolution up for a vote next week by the Dare County commissioners and a position paper from a regional water resources group in Onslow County are the latest indications of the fast-growing coastal opposition to using coastal aquifers to eliminate wastewater from hydraulic fracking. The position paper…
McCrory’s Budget Slashes Conservation Funds
RALEIGH — State trust funds dedicated to conservation, parks and clean water would take a big hit under Gov. Pat McCrory’s first budget proposal. McCrory unveiled his recommended $20.6 billion budget Wednesday at the old state Capital building in Raleigh. The budget, the first by a Republican governor in two…
State House to Go Slow on Injection Wells
RALEIGH – Coastal legislators are worried that a bill passed by the N.C. Senate to clear the way for fracking of natural gas could also allow fracking waste to be injected into coastal aquifers. The bill will get a thorough review in the N.C. House, said Rep. Rick Catlin, R-New…
House Committee Reworks Commissions Bill
…heated up after its surprise introduction in late January, drawing fire on editorial pages across the state for the wholesale replacement of key boards and commissions. Bob Emory, the chairman of the CRC, was among those who expressed deep concern about the consequences of the bill. Speaking in Chapel Hill…