N.C. Senate Passes Global Warming Bill

In a victory for environmental advocates, the North Carolina Senate yesterday passed legislation creating a 30-member state commission to address global climate change. It was a compromise measure: The original version of the bill called on the group to recommend a greenhouse gas pollutant reduction goal while the approved version says only that it "may recommend" such a goal. But the legislation will force North Carolina to begin dealing seriously with climate change, as the commission must issue a report on the problem to state lawmakers before the start of the 2007 legislative session.

Noting global warming's potentially devastating effects on North Carolina's coast, bill sponsor Sen. Charlie Albertson (D-Duplin) said it would be "less than responsible" for the General Assembly to do nothing. But Sen. Andrew Brock (R-Davie) argued that the commission would be a waste of taxpayers' money since North Carolina can't solve the problem alone. Speaking in favor of the measure were Sens. Kay Hagan (D-Guilford), Linda Garrou (D-Forsyth), Larry Shaw (D-Cumberland) and Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight (D-Dare).

The bill passed on second reading with only six nay votes: Sens. Brock, Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), Don East (R-Surry), Eddie Goodall (R-Union), Jim Jacumin (R-Burke) and Hugh Webster (R-Alamance). It also passed third reading on a voice vote and now goes to the House, where companion legislation is being considered by the Environmental and Natural Resources Committee.

"Who would have thought even just a year ago that such an incredible vote and strong signal on the need for global warming action could have been possible in North Carolina," Marjorie Mulhall, climate coordinator for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Environmental Defense, wrote in an e-mail to the N.C. Climate Action and Legislation listserv. "Today's milestone is certainly the product of the collective, numerous efforts by many to elevate global warming awareness across the state."

Dogs Banned From Raleigh’s Schenck Forest

A popular West Raleigh hiking spot will close to dogs beginning June 1.

Schenck Forest, an N.C. State University teaching and research facility on Reedy Creek Road, has become a hotspot for dogs and their owners. However, the presence of a large number of unleashed canines has raised concerns in recent months.

Only 23 percent of dog owners who visited Schenck during the week complied with local leash laws, and that number dropped to 16 percent on weekends, according to a month-long usage survey conducted by the school. Consequently, the College Forest Advisory Committee decided the situation was hazardous to public safety as well as the health of the forest. It specifically cited damage to the root system of the 150-year-old Schenck Memorial Oak.

“We truly regret that it has come to this,” College of Natural Resources Acting Dean J.B. Jett said in a statement announcing the decision. “But Schenck Forest is first and foremost an outdoor teaching and research facility, and we had to act in the best interests of our students and faculty and to preserve our facilities.”

Signs announcing the new policy will be posted, and N.C. State’s Campus Police Department will continue to conduct patrols of the property. First-time offenders will be ticketed for trespassing, and repeat offenders will be subject to arrest.

Public Forum on N.C. Greenhouse Gas Plan Set for Thursday

The N.C. Division of Air Quality (DAQ) will hold a public forum in Raleigh this Thursday, May 19 to gather input for a state report on greenhouse gas reductions. Required by the N.C. Clean Smokestacks Act of 2002, the report will consider ways to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from electric utilities and other sources. The document is due to the state’s Environmental Management Commission and Environmental Review Commission by Sept. 1.

Thursday’s forum will take place from 7 to 10 p.m. in the ground floor hearing room of the Archdale Building at 512 N. Salisbury St. in downtown Raleigh. People who would like to speak must register at the door before the meeting, with registration starting at 6:30 p.m. Presenters should bring hard copies of their statements and limit presentations to three minutes. No PowerPoint exhibits will be allowed.

At a forum on the plan held in Raleigh last month, two paid consultants for an Amarillo, TX-based coal-fired power plant industry group called the Center for Energy & Economic Development (CEED) – economist Anne Smith of Charles River Associates and climatogist Pat Michaels of the University of Virginia – dominated the presentation portion of the meeting with lengthy PowerPoint exhibits in which they argued against taking any state action on greenhouse gas emissions.

Michaels is a leader among global warming skeptics, having written several books critical of mainstream science on the phenomenon. He also has close financial ties to the fossil-fuel industry and is an environmental fellow at the Cato Institute, which has received at least $75,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998 and which was co-founded by Charles Koch, owner of Koch Industries, the largest privately held oil company in the United States.

Incidentally, while Michaels was in town for the DAQ meeting, he taped a radio show for Raleigh’s John Locke Foundation, a conservative (but not conservation-minded) policy group that has been an outspoken skeptic of global warming while taking money from fossil-fuel interests including CEED, as I report in the May 11 issue of the Independent. Though no one from the JLF spoke at last month’s DAQ meeting, the group distributed its policy paper calling for North Carolina to do nothing on climate change.

The DAQ will hold another meeting to discuss the carbon dioxide emissions report on Friday, May 20, from 9 a.m. to noon in the DAQ Training Room of the Parker-Lincoln Building at 2728 Capital Blvd. in Raleigh. The Friday event is a working session that will focus more in-depth on specific topics including industrial and motor efficiency, power generation, energy savings and green power, transportation, and agriculture and forestry.

"North Carolina has a lot at stake with regard to climate change due, in part, to the large of amounts of coastal lands that could be subject to flooding from rising sea levels and more severe storms associated with global warming," the DAQ notes in the meeting announcement. "A Duke University study of potential flooding from rising sea levels estimated that a 1-foot rise in sea level would flood 1,170 square miles of coastal land and a 3.5-foot rise would flood 2,920 square miles in North Carolina."

Duke Energy Fiddles While Earth BurnsMeanwhile, N.C. treasurer suggests strategic divestment from greenhouse gas polluters

A movement to address global climate change is growing in North Carolina, as I report in this week's Independent. But sustainability advocates face a hard fight against powerful corporate interests – a point demonstrated again today when Duke Energy, the 13th worst investor-owned carbon dioxide emitter in the U.S. power industry, announced intentions to build three new fossil fuel-burning plants in the state.

The company's Duke Power subsidiary has filed plans with the N.C. Utilities Commission to spend $3 billion constructing a new coal-fired unit at the Cliffside Steam Station facility in Rutherford and Cleveland counties west of Charlotte as soon as 2010, with a possible second coal unit to follow there, as well as a natural gas and oil-fueled unit at the Buck Steam Station in Rowan County northeast of Charlotte.

"Our customers' demand for energy is growing," said corporate spokesperson Ellen Ruff. "The preliminary plans for Cliffside and Buck, along with efforts to secure the option to license a new nuclear plant, build on Duke Power's tradition of operating a highly efficient and diverse fleet of power plants."

The company's announcement of plans to increase carbon emissions comes little more than a month after Duke Energy CEO Paul Anderson surprised the business community when during a breakfast gathering of Charlotte civic leaders he acknowledged the reality of global warming and called for an across-the-board federal tax on carbon emissions. The company today also gave lip service to sustainability, with Ruff saying Duke Power "will be evaluating" conservation measures and renewable energy options.

"Ensuring the environment is protected is at the forefront of our minds," she said.

But North Carolina sustainability advocates want more than good environmental thoughts. They want action.

“For the amount of money Duke Energy will spend to build more coal-fired units, we could make tremendous strides in energy efficiency and conservation in North Carolina,” Michael Shore with the North Carolina office of Environmental Defense told Raleigh Eco News. “North Carolina needs more conventional coal-fired power plants like a recovering smoker needs a carton of cigarettes.”

Interestingly, Duke Power's announcement came the day after N.C. Treasurer Richard Moore told a United Nations' gathering of state treasurers, comptrollers and other large institutional investors considering the financial risks of climate change that it was time for aggressive action – as in divestment of stock.

"We should pick four or five companies that could make the most difference and give them a reasonable timetable," Moore told the Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk, according to an Associated Press report that has not yet appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer. "We should tell them, 'If you don't do this we will not own your stock.' We will be successful if we all stick together."