Environmental News to Use

Conservation Insider Bulletin
Published weekly for the Conservation Council of North Carolina
Conservation News to Peruse & Use
Editor: Dan Besse, earthvote@ccnccpac.org

May 4, 2007

Few new environmental bombshells dropped this week in policy debates being monitored by CIB, but there was noteworthy forward movement on some important fronts:
--Legislative Watch: Tax Relief for Wildlife Conservation
--Around the Globe: Climate Change Report Advances
--Washington Watch: Energy Legislation Moves Forward
--Movement Politics: Mund Moves to SELC

Legislative Watch: Tax Relief for Wildlife Conservation

CCNC lobbyist Mike Nelson made proposals to use tax law for conservation ends the focus topic of his legislative report "Hot List" this week. In particular, he pitches for SB 1203, "Present Use Value Changes", as an important tool for wildlife conservation. (SB 1203's principal sponsor is Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe.)

The problem, as explained by Nelson and remedied by SB 1203, is that land in North Carolina is normally taxed at its potential market sales value, not its actual use value. This tends to pressure many landowners into selling for development land that they would be just as happy otherwise to retain in some lower-impact use.

There are limited exceptions under present law, especially for land actively used for the commercial production of agricultural or forestry products. Private land which is deliberately managed for non-commercial wildlife habitat or water quality protection does not receive similar treatment. SB 1203 would fix that problem, by establishing a new "present use value" taxation category for lands managed for wildlife conservation. To be eligible for the property tax break, owners would have to get a management plant approved by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

Yes, we know that the details of tax relief excite few folk beyond the ranks of accountants and tax lawyers, but the impacts of these changes could make for big green mojo. North Carolina is losing 100,000 acres of forests every year under current law. We need incentives to cut that rate of loss. This is one. Nelson encourages CCNC members and volunteers to contact their legislators in support of SB 1203.

Around the Globe: Climate Change Report Advances

Back in early February, CIB reported on the new conclusions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its international panel of hundreds of climate scientists. The science panel's unanimous conclusions found that global warming is already taking place, and that human impacts are responsible for pushing its pace. The IPCC was created by the United Nations in 1988, and has come to involve 113 governments (including the United States). Its reports, updated about every five years, have become increasingly insistent about the reality of climate change, its human origins, its potential for disastrous impacts, and the urgent necessity for action to address it.

Since the IPCC's scientists reached their consensus conclusions on what's happening and why, the participating governments have been wrangling over the language of the IPCC's final 2007 report, on how we should respond. This latest report addresses technologies and policies that could help to mitigate climate change and its damages. Most participating governments want strong language and aggressive recommendations. Some, including China and (shamefully) the U.S., have tried to water down the suggestions.

As of the news reports from early today, the advocates for aggressive suggestions and goals are said to have largely prevailed. CIB certainly hopes that is the case. We look forward to seeing strong IPCC recommendations used in Congressional and state-level policy debates around the nation.

Washington Watch: Energy Legislation Moves Forward

Legislation under consideration by Congress nearly always moves with the lightning speed of thick molasses on a Mount Mitchell winter morning, and a major energy bill under development this year is no exception. The good news this week, however, is that the process has now passed at least one important milestone.

The U.S. Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday approved, on a 20 to 3 vote, legislation that would set a goal of cutting gasoline consumption nearly in half by 2030. The bill would accomplish this goal through a combination of increased biofuels (including cellulosic ethanol), production of more gas-electric hybrids, and other fuel-saving approaches. The bill also includes requirements for more efficient appliances and lighting.

The committee rejected on a 12-11 vote a proposal to require the use of liquefied coal as an alternative motor fuel. (Creeping crunch! Burning less oil by burning more coal? There's noting remotely environmentally friendly about that. It would have pleased the financial backers of certain coal-producing states' senators, though. The committee was right to reject that non-biodegradable additive to the bill's recipe.)

National energy legislation has long rows yet to hoe this year, but we commend the Senate committee for one step in the right direction.

Movement Politics: Mund Moves to SELC

Former CCNC lobbyist Nat Mund will soon wear a new hat in Washington. Mund has been hired to start the Southern Environmental Law Center's (SELC) new Washington office as its first national Legislative Director. Since his five years (1996-2001) as CCNC's Director of Governmental Relations, Mund has been the green man in demand in D.C. He's worked for the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, and now SELC. (The remarkable thing is that everybody he's worked for still likes Nat and wishes him the best! His experience puts him in a great spot to assist with inter-organizational cooperation.) He officially starts his new post in mid-June.