Thanks to You, 06 Legislature Ends with Victories

[Triana]

This year's NC General Assembly session has come to a close and
we are happy to share with you several victories for the
environment and public health you helped make happen!

We've asked you to do a lot since the state legislature started
this year's session in May. You've acted on a number of
important issues over the last three months: protecting the
drinking water for NC's well users, implementing a landfill
moratorium, reducing toxins in our children's schools,
encouraging energy efficiency measures for the state, and
protecting the state's existing strong groundwater rules for
pollution cleanup. THANK YOU!

Thousands of people, like you, from all over North Carolina have
been responding to alerts from the NC Conservation Network
during this legislative session. As a subscriber to our alerts,
you are part of a growing community of North Carolinians that
hold our decision-makers accountable for protecting our
environment and public health. Many thanks for your actions,
commitment, and voices that have truly made a difference this
year.

Check out what you all have accomplished in just three months:

* Sent over 13,000 emails to your elected officials and
decision-makers.

* 150 activists gathered at the General Assembly for Clean Water
Lobby Day, while hundreds of others who couldn't make it sent
emails and made phone calls.

* Dozens of volunteers working in two cities called over 1,000
activists across the state to ask them to call their legislators
for energy efficiency legislation.

* Over 1,500 of you attended our two statewide tours, most
recently with Kilowatt Ours filmmaker Jeff Barrie.

* You generated almost 5,000 messages this year to legislators
regarding the landfill moratorium, which passed despite the
nearly 30 waste industry lobbyists and the tens of thousands of
dollars in campaign contributions from the waste industry.

As an advocacy organization, our power comes from you-the people
of North Carolina. During this year's legislative session your
calls, emails, and visits effectively provided support to our
advocates here in Raleigh. Numerous times we would hear from
legislators that your calls and emails were being heard and
making a difference. Great work!

~~~~The Budget-Overall Good News~~~~

The environment faired fairly well in the final budget (SL
2006-66). Funding was provided for shellfish protection
programs, private drinking water wells, public water supply
systems, a state park expansion at Hickory Nut Gorge,
restoration of funding for the pesticide disposal program, and
full funding for the Clean Water Management Trust Fund. One key
item that did not get funded was for new sedimentation and
erosion control inspection positions. These positions are sorely
needed to protect water quality around areas of new development
and we hope will be a legislative priority for funding in 2007.

~~~~Victories for the Environment You Helped Make Happen~~~~

The first victory in the short session was the protection of
groundwater quality for those relying on private drinking water
wells. Your phone calls to committee members helped secure
funding in the budget for notification and well water testing
for residents living near known contamination "hotspots."
Additionally, after a Raleigh News and Observer exposé in March
on groundwater contamination, the Governor put his weight behind
H2873, Safe Drinking Water/Private Wells, a bill to enforce new
well construction standards statewide, which passed in the final
days of session.

The second major victory came in the final hours of session,
when the House agreed to pass the Senate-backed moratorium on
new landfills. S353, Landfill Moratorium and Studies, puts a 1
year halt on permitting new mega-landfills. This will give the
state time to study issues associated with mega-landfills being
proposed in 6 eastern counties. The bill also calls for an
environmental justice study to look at why landfills are being
sited in low income minority communities. Grassroots action was
strong on this effort. Your phone calls and emails helped
dislodge the bill from House Rules committee to a floor vote. It
passed second reading (99-11) and third reading (102-8) in the
House, and passed the Senate unanimously.

The other major victory of the session was the passage of H1502,
Schoolchildren's Health Act. This bill, which reduces children's
exposure to toxics in school, was held up last year by the
arsenic treated wood industry (playground equipment can contain
wood treated with arsenic.) This year, thanks to grassroots
pressure, the bill was moved to a more favorable committee,
where it passed. It moved on to a floor vote, where it beat off
a weakening amendment (for the arsenic treated wood industry),
and on to a final unanimous vote in both the House and Senate.

While the legislature passed up the timely opportunity to
implement a strong package of energy efficiency incentives, they
did take two positive steps in that direction. The first was
passage of S402, Water/Utilities Savings in Government
Facilities, which enables government buildings to finance energy
efficiency measures with future energy cost savings. The second
was passage of S2051, State Energy Use Planning/Energy
Assistance. This bill, which started as a strong package of
energy efficiency incentives called the Energy Independence Act,
ended as a milder set of steps involving studying and planning
for energy efficiency. While not the strong victory a broad
coalition of groups was after, the bill plants the seed for
stronger legislative action next year.

Several other initiatives did not move but were turned into
studies, leaving the door open for action next year. A major
community priority to pass authorization for the Land for
Tomorrow bond referendum was not successful this year; instead
the legislature authorized a study of the best ways to finance
land conservation (S1122). Similarly, a proposal to include land
managed for wildlife conservation in the lower tax rate present
use value program was given the green light for a study (S1451),
as was the "clean cars" program aimed at reducing vehicle
emissions (H1723).

~~~~Lobby and Ethics Reform Cloud~~~~

Ethics reform was a significant backdrop to this year's
legislative session. The session opened amidst calls for Speaker
Jim Black's resignation due to potential ethics violations and
closed just before a former legislator, Rep. Michael Decker,
pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion, implicating
Black in an illegal money-for-vote deal. Not surprisingly, a top
priority this year was passing an ethics and lobbying reform
bill, which they did in the final hours of session. The bill
(H1843) makes some inroads, but will need further work next
year.

~~~~Bad Bills That Passed~~~~

There were two significant losses this session, in which strong
industry interests succeeded in undoing environmental
protections already in place. The first affects air quality, and
will let Duke Energy emit more pollution than current law would
have allowed as they expand their Cliffside, NC power plant.
Specifically, the bill allows Duke Energy to count pollution
reductions it makes under the Clean Smokestacks Act-reductions
that have been paid for by taxpayers-when calculating the
emissions it can add to the air from new plants. The effect is
that the calculated emissions from planned boilers at their
Cliffside plant will not trigger a federal review from the
Department of the Interior that would likely require stronger
controls. This special exemption was inserted into a routine
"cleanup" bill (S1587), and passed despite loud opposition from
both grassroots activists and friendly legislators. Statewide
environmental groups are fighting the expansion of new polluting
power plants, urging the state to utilize energy efficiency
measures and renewable energy options first.

The second big loss this year was a blatant end run by
developers around the rulemaking process, resulting in a
lowering of the fee developers pay to reduce water pollution
from nutrient runoff. Developments often cause runoff of
nitrogen and phosphorous into waterways which degrades water
quality and can lead to fish kills. The state offers developers
an opportunity to pay into a fund to control these pollutants
somewhere nearby rather than control them right there on the
development site. The state went through a long rulemaking
process to increase the fee from the sorely inadequate $11 per
pound of nitrogen pollution to $57 per pound. The developers
had every opportunity, including two public hearings, to object
to this increase, but did not. Instead they introduced
legislation (S1862) this year to reduce the fee back to $11 and
send the state back to the drawing board to study (again) what
the fee should be, and recommend legislation to set a new fee.
We will be monitoring the process during the 2007 session and
will let you know how things unfold.

~~~~Bad Bills You Helped Stop~~~~

In the final half of the session, several damaging bills
emerged, leaving advocates scrambling, but grassroots pressure
from folks like you succeeded in stopping three of the five bad
bills! The first, H1778/S1132, Risk-Based Environmental
Remediation, would have lowered groundwater cleanup standards
and enabled polluters to walk away from future liability by
paying a small fee. Several groups actively worked against this
bill, along with DENR, the Governor's office, and legislative
champions. In a tenacious effort to pass this legislation, the
bill sponsor pulled out the stops with legislative maneuvers. At
the last minute, thanks to grassroots pressure, industry backed
down. However, they will undoubtedly return with this bill in
2007.

H2162, Land Disturbing Activities Near Trout Waters would have
weakened protections for trout waters. It was stopped from
coming to a House Environment committee vote thanks largely to
grassroots pressure from your emails.

And finally, a provision sponsored by the billboard industry was
defeated. The provision, added as an amendment to another bill
(H1827), would have doubled the area of tree clearing in front
of billboards and made the public foot the bill. Happily this
bad provision was removed before the bill was passed.

While some of these bad bills are likely to come back next year,
the fact that three of the five bad bills were stopped is a
notable success!

Even though the 2006 session has ended, our work continues. As a
community we will continue to hold our elected officials
accountable for protecting public health, our environment, and
existing environmental laws. If you have a moment, please write
a letter to the editor of your local newspaper either thanking
the NC General Assembly for their good work or challenging them
on the work to come! Click here for tips on writing and
submitting a letter to the editor:
http://ncconservationnetwork1.org/ct/P1AH1zY1RXWs/. To find
out how your legislators voted during the 2006 session, please
visit the NC General Assembly website at
http://ncconservationnetwork1.org/ct/Q7AH1zY1RXWB/.

It has been a busy couple of months and we have been emailing
you a lot lately. We will try to give you a break from our
emails for a couple of weeks-unless there is a pressing issue
that just can't wait.

Thank you again for all of your emails, calls, visits to
legislators, and your continued support of the NC Conservation
Network. We look forward to working together as we continue to
advocate for a cleaner and healthier North Carolina.

Onwards!

Veronica Butcher, Organizer
NC Conservation Network

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