Conservation Insider Bulletin, April 25

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

April 25, 2008

CCNC announces its Primary 2008 legislative endorsements, plus we provide an early look at key topics for the legislative short session, this week in CIB:

--Campaign Watch: CCNC Announces Legislative Endorsements
--Legislative Watch: Four Items for the "Common Agenda"
--Movement News: PestEd Becomes ToxicFreeNC

Campaign Watch: CCNC Announces Legislative Endorsements

CCNC has finalized primary endorsements in six State Senate and two State House contests for 2008.

Here are the endorsements, listed by chamber/district, party, and counties included (in whole or in part):

S5 (Democrat) (Green, Pitt, Wayne), Don Davis
S16 (Democrat) (Wake), Josh Stein
S23 (Democrat) (Orange, Person), Sen. Ellie Kinnaird
S28 (Democrat) (Guilford), Sen. Katie Dorsett
S36 (Republican) (Cabarrus, Iredell), Sen. Fletcher Hartsell
S42 (Republican) (Catawba, Iredell), Sen. Austin Allran
H7 (Democrat) (Halifax, Nash), Rep. Angela Bryant
H119 (Democrat) (Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain), Rep. Phil Haire

S5 and S16 are open seats created by the retirement of Sen. John Kerr (D-Wayne) and the decision by Sen. Janet Cowell (D-Wake) to run for State Treasurer. The other six contests are incumbents facing primary challengers. CCNC legislative endorsements are based on questionnaire responses, incumbents' voting records, and candidates' other environmental/community work records related to the environment.

CCNC previously announced statewide office endorsements in two contests: Dan Besse for Lieutenant Governor and Janet Cowell for State Treasurer (both in the Democratic primary).

Legislative Watch: Four Items for the "Common Agenda"

In its legislative efforts, CCNC whenever possible joins with other active environmental citizen groups to support a "Common Agenda". For the 2008 legislative "short session" beginning in May, the cooperating groups have identified four key issues: clean cars, water resources, coastal stormwater rules, and beach hardening.

First, CCNC will support "clean cars" legislation to require new vehicles sold in our state to meet the tighter emissions standards used in California. About a dozen states nationwide have adopted similar standards. This issue is currently tied up in federal court, but clean air advocates expect that roadblock to be cleared up once the Bush Administration comes to an end. All three remaining major presidential candidates say that they will allow states which so choose to implement the tighter standards. These will be a particular boost for efforts to control global warming.

CCNC will also support water resources management legislation to improve our state's drought management and planning in this critical resource area. Draft language is still under preparation by the governor's office and the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Stormwater rules for the coastal region continue to be a hot topic. Stronger stormwater management rules for the coast were adopted by the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) and approved by the Rules Review Commission (RRC), but are on hold until August 2009 pending legislative review. Negotiations with the usual objecting entities, lobbying groups representing the state development industry, are underway at the General Assembly.

Finally, CCNC will work to block bad legislation which would undercut North Carolina's long-standing policy against new beach hardening structures—groins, seawalls, and the like. A particularly bad proposal to permit groin "pilot projects" (the usual ploy for starting a string of exceptions) has passed the Senate and is pending in the House.

Movement News: PestEd Becomes ToxicFreeNC

The Agricultural Resources Center & Pesticide Education Project (PestEd) has changed its name to Toxic Free NC. Details are available on the website under the new name: www.toxicfreenc.org.