The legislature appropriated $2 million to restore Morehead City’s Sugarloaf Island, a barrier protecting waterfront attractions from coastal storms that has been rapidly eroding for decades.
budget
Understaffed environmental agency ‘stretched to the limit’
With nearly 20% of N.C. Department of Environmental Quality jobs unfilled and hundreds of staff set to retire, cracks are revealed in permitting, regulatory functions.
New laws: Biogas, clean water funds in budget; rule tweaks
The new state budget includes millions for oyster sanctuary work, living shorelines and infrastructure improvements, but a biogas provision worries riverkeepers.
Grants, outsourced testing for PFAS features of state budget
The legislature’s plan addresses pre- and polyfluorinated substances in drinking water mainly with grants from state revolving funds that would pass along millions in federal dollars.
Comment period open for stormwater project funding
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality is asking for public comment on a proposed plan to administer American Rescue Plan Act’s money for stormwater projects.
Plan would fund clean energy, hog farm buyouts, resilience
The governor’s proposed $29.3 billion 2022-23 budget funds offshore wind industry infrastructure, buyouts of hog farms in floodplains, forest preservation and management, and expansion of climate resiliency programs.
Public to soon see Hatteras museum’s long-stored artifacts
With $4.2 million in the state budget for exhibit space, hundreds of never-seen artifacts at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum will at last be able to be brought out of storage.
Fine print in budget worries environmental advocates
The state budget recently signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper, his first since taking office, provides significant funding for resilience and conservation, but the 1,200-page spending plan also includes provisions that could undermine environmental protections.
Years of flood disasters drove NC’s new resiliency funding
After years of climate disasters across North Carolina, the newly approved state budget includes hundreds of millions of dollars for new programs and initiatives to address flooding and bolster resilience to storms.
Cooper signs state budget, other bills
Gov. Roy Cooper signed Thursday the $53 billion spending plan, the first biennial state budget since 2017.
Energy bill with carbon-reduction goals clears legislature
The measure would require Duke Energy and other major electricity producers to cut carbon dioxide emissions 70% by 2030, with a goal of zero carbon by 2050.
House, Senate in budget talks as key differences remain
Both chambers plan to spend $25.7 billion this year and $26.7 billion next year, but a House and Senate conference committee are set to begin working through differences large and small.
House budget boosts resilience, but wetlands plan draws ire
The House budget unveiled Thursday includes almost $2 billion for flood prevention, resiliency and stormwater and wastewater infrastructure, but a provision affecting wetlands protection may conflict with those goals.
After years of cuts, House eyes boost for Land, Water Fund
North Carolina’s Land and Water Fund for conservation and restoration projects is on track for an appropriation at a level not seen in more than a decade.
For first time, Hatteras museum on track for state funding
For the first time since becoming a state museum, an appropriation of $4.2 million to implement an exhibit plan has been included in both the governor’s and the state Senate’s proposed budgets.
Senate budget includes fisheries studies, ferry funding
The state Senate’s two-year spending plan approved last week includes funding for fisheries research, expanding the shellfish lease program and a new loan program for growers, along with a new dedicated fund for Ferry Division capital expenses.
