Asleep At the Switch

North Carolina's air and water are the victims

I can understand why North Carolina Democrats were caught so off guard in the 2010 elections that swept Republicans into power in the legislature. They were still hung over from 2008, missing long-established leadership, failed to react to the inevitable Obama backlash, etc.

But the state’s environmental activists needn’t have been so drowsy. Here’s distressing evidence that they were sound asleep (from the AP):

In the last few years, GOP lawmakers have scaled back pollution control programs, lifted a moratorium on natural gas exploration using hydraulic fracturing and pushed to remove key scientists and experts from state environmental oversight boards.

In the last week alone, they considered several controversial environmental measures. One would stop the state environmental agency from disclosing complaints and investigations on farms. Critics say that would shield farm operators from public scrutiny and discourage citizens from reporting violations. Another provision tucked in a regulatory reform bill would reduce the number of air quality monitoring stations in communities across the state.

“What this provision would do is say we’re going to get rid of air quality monitors unless the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) specifically requires us to have them,” said Molly Diggins, state director of the Sierra Club. That means communities would have “less protection from harmful air pollution than they have today with no clear benefit to the public.”

All this was going on while lawmakers were debating coal ash legislation that environmentalist say will do little to stop Duke Energy's ash pits from leaking toxic waste into the state's waterways. The bill was introduced just months after a massive coal ash spill at a Duke plant in Eden coated more than 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic sludge.

Environmentalists and others say the GOP-based measures not only threaten the state's air and water quality, but are tarnishing North Carolina's reputation for protecting its natural resources.

“The extremism on the environment was not anticipated,” said Derb Carter, president of the Southern Environmental Law Center's North Carolina office.

It wasn’t? Why the hell not? And what use is the SELC going to be now that the General Assembly has turned the state into a giant buffet for the energy industry?