-
Major energy bill emerges at NC statehouse
By: Travis Fain, WRAL June 17, 2021 RALEIGH, N.C. — State lawmakers released a long-anticipated energy bill Tuesday, saying it would retire coal-fired power plants faster, cut greenhouse gas emissions and shape North Carolina energy policy for the better part of a decade. The bill came together over months of closed-door negotiations with Duke Energy, other electricity providers, the solar power industry and large electricity users, such as manufacturers and retailers. The 47-page bill is complex, wide-ranging and may morph as it begins the public stage of its legislative journey. Environmental groups and others cut out of the crafting process thus far were digesting the…
Continue reading -
Juneteenth – A Day to Acknowledge & Celebrate
Juneteenth National Independence Day is our nations first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year, Juneteenth will be commemorated on Saturday, June 19th. “Juneteenth being made a Federal Holiday is long overdue. It’s sad that our children weren’t taught Black History in school. Had they been taught they would know all the GREAT things we as Black people contributed to the World in which we live.” – Belinda Joyner, Clean Water for NC Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day, Freedom Day or Freedom Day or Jubilee Day commemorates June 19, 1865, as the day enslaved African Americans in Galveston,…
Continue reading -
NC Senate GOP rejects Cooper’s DEQ appointee
By: Laura Leslie, WRAL June 2, 2021 RALEIGH, N.C. — After an angry debate, a key Senate committee voted on party lines Wednesday to reject Gov. Roy Cooper’s nomination of Dionne Delli-Gatti as secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Quality. Senate Leader Phil Berger is urging Cooper to withdraw Delli-Gatti’s nomination before it goes to the Senate floor for a vote. Senate GOP leaders say they have approved all 15 nominees as agency heads sent to them by the Democratic governor. But in Cooper’s first term, at least one nomination had to be quietly pulled because Senate Republicans threatened to reject it. Sen….
Continue reading -
Help Protect NC Communities from Dirty Biomass Projects
In North Carolina, black, brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), Superfund sites, coal ash facilities, biogas operations, and wood pellet plants. Although NC DEQ is responsible for regulating and monitoring industry operations in a manner that protects natural resources and communities from environmental and health risks, many residents across the state continue to grapple with environmental injustices and the burdens these facilities’ place on their health and quality of life. Enviva is the world’s largest wood pellet manufacturing company, with NC facilities in Ahoskie, Hamlet, Sampson County, and Northampton County….
Continue reading -
Two NC bills have different agendas for permits in environmental projects. Here’s what they would do.
By: Kristen Johnson, The Fayetteville Observer May 13, 2021 Two bills in the North Carolina General Assembly have different agendas for the operation of environmental projects and their impacts on communities living next to them. One would make it easier for corporations to get permits needed to operate solid waste management systems, the other would make it tougher. In the Senate, the NC Farm Act of 2021 calls for a general permit for the installation and operation of biogas digester systems, which is favored by the pork industry but condemned by some community members. In the House, the Environmental Justice…
Continue reading -
Testing Before Real Estate Transfers to Protect Private Well Users!
It is estimated that over 3 million North Carolinians use private wells for their drinking water, and NC has the fourth highest number of private well users in the country. While there is no statewide database tracking the annual number of real estate transfers in NC, it would not be a stretch to state that tens of thousands of properties are bought or leased annually without the buyer or lessee having any information on the quality of their property’s private well. Because North Carolina law only mandates the testing of private wells that were drilled after…
Continue reading -
DEQ denies MVP Southgate water quality permit — again
By: Lisa Sorg, April 29 NC Policy Watch The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has again denied a key water quality permit for the proposed MVP Southgate natural gas pipeline, dealing another setback to the controversial project that would run through Rockingham and Alamance counties. DEQ originally denied the water quality permit application last August. At the time Division of Water Resources Director Danny Smith wrote that because of “uncertainty surrounding the completion of the MVP Mainline project … work on the Southgate extension could lead to unnecessary water quality impacts and disturbance of the environment in North Carolina.” MVP appealed the DEQ’s denial…
Continue reading -
The great methane debate and what it could mean for North Carolina
By: Lisa Sorg, NC Policy Watch April 21, 2021 Environmental advocates want stronger regulation of the potent greenhouse gas, but ag and energy interests are touting biogas More than 2,200 industrialized hog farms and another 200-plus dairy operations in North Carolina are constantly belching untold amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas and driver of climate change, into the air. Yet because of the EPA’s inertia and the livestock industry’s significant political power, these farms have eluded any meaningful regulations of their methane emissions and their contribution to the climate crisis. More than two dozen environmental groups recently petitioned the EPA to regulate industrialized swine…
Continue reading -
Letter from your ED: “Thank You for 22 Years, Hope!”
We have been one blessed organization, enjoying the knowledge, skills, and expertise of Hope Taylor, our former Executive Director for 22 years. Even before Hope took on the ED role in 1999, she was an active participant and volunteer of Clean Water for North Carolina (CWFNC). As your new ED, I have some big shoes to fill and the shoulders of a giant on which to stand. As I stepped into this amazing position, I was honored that Hope offered to stay onboard for several weeks through the transition and to remain an active participant in our incredible non-profit. With…
Continue reading -
At Earth Day climate summit, Biden promises 50% reduction in US greenhouse emissions
By: Dierdre Shesgreen, USA Today April 22, 2021 WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden pledged to cut U.S. greenhouse gas pollution in half by 2030 at a virtual climate summit Thursday, outlining an aggressive target that would require sweeping changes to America’s energy and transportation sectors. “These steps will set America on a path of a net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050,” Biden said as the White House opened the two-day summit, attended by 40 leaders from around the world. “Scientists tell us that this is the decisive decade, this is the decade…
Continue reading