Enviros Urge Legislature to Address Climate Change

The N.C. General Assembly kicked off its new session this week in Raleigh, and it promises to be an important one for the natural world. Environmental advocates will be lobbying elected leaders to address a slate of critical issues including climate change, forest conservation and water pollution.

The session convened just two days after the International Climate Change Task Force issued a report warning that within a decade global temperatures could rise as much as 3.6 degrees F. from pre-industrial levels. At that point they could reach a tipping point beyond which intense droughts, crop failures and a disastrous rise in sea levels are all but certain.

“Global warming is an incredible challenge for North Carolina,” says Michael Shore, an air-quality specialist with the state chapter of Environmental Defense (ED). And it’s not only a concern for coastal communities: Cimate change will also create problems inland, as warmer summers worsen urban air quality, and intensified weather threatens fragile ecosystems.

ED hopes to change the way lawmakers think about the problem. Shore notes that climate change presents economic opportunities for North Carolina, which could choose to take a leadership role in developing energy-efficient technology and renewable energy sources. Growing interest in a market to trade greenhouse gas emission rights could also be a boon for the state.

“Sectors of North Carolina’s economy, such as agriculture, could be suppliers of credits,” Shore points out.

ED is asking the General Assembly and Gov. Easley to work together to set a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state and to promote energy efficiency, conservation and development of renewable resources. This is especially important when one considers that North Carolinians are expected to increase energy consumption by about 50 percent over the next 20 years.

“That could mean more coal-fired power plants,” says Shore, “or we could make other choices about where that energy will come from.”

Other items on ED’s legislative agenda include protection of coastal resources, addressing stormwater runoff and hog waste pollution, and promoting conservation of private forestland.

The Conservation Council of North Carolina (CCNC) also has a busy agenda this session. It will be working on protections for Jordan Lake and Falls Lake, promoting recycling of electronic waste and ensuring the state budget adequately supports environmental enforcement. CCNC is also calling on lawmakers to appropriate money for the State Energy Office, which will soon run out of funds. But getting lawmakers to increase or even just preserve current levels of spending won’t be easy, as the state faces a $1 billion gap between revenue and spending.

“Given the budget deficit, we have to assume the legislature will focus like a laser beam on financial issues,” says CCNC lobbyist Mike Nelson. “However, there are folks in the new legislature who really care about environmental issues, so we’re hoping we’ll have a good session.”

(In addition to environmental champions from Raleigh such as former city council member and N.C. Sierra Club activist Janet Cowell and attorney Grier Martin, the legislature’s freshman class also includes ED board member and longtime environmental advocate Mary Price Taylor “Pricey” Harrison of Greensboro.)

CCNC and ED, meanwhile, are also supporting the N.C. Public Interest Research Group’s (NCPIRG) clean car initiative. The group is pressing the state to adopt a clean car standard to reduce smog-forming emissions and toxic pollution, to buy more clean cars and to provide tax incentives encouraging the state’s residents to buy clean cars.

But environmental organizations will need the help of ordinary citizens to accomplish their goals.

“Throughout the session, a steady stream of special interest lobbyists will badger legislators, urging them to support one bill or oppose another,” CCNC wrote in a recent e-mail to supporters. “When they vote, legislators decide based on several factors – what they personally think is right; what powerful interests and party leaders are asking them to do; and what their constituents want. In the long run, constituent views are the most important. All state legislators are deeply conscious that, in just two short years, they will be running for reelection. This is your power as an advocate: you can tell your legislators exactly what you hope they’ll support or oppose, and then support or oppose them when they run for reelection. Because of this, most legislators care what you think, and your emails and calls will make all the difference as we work together to pass the good proposals listed above.”

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