This week at the N.C. General Assembly:
The 2025 N.C. General Assembly kicked off in earnest this week. Lawmakers made a brief stop in Raleigh at the beginning of the month to be sworn in for the biennium and choose their chamber leadership, but the real work got under way this Wednesday with a focus on hurricane recovery.
As usual at the start of the session, House and Senate members filed a plethora of bills that we're reviewing now to gauge the relevance and potential impact – not always obvious – to healthy air, land and water; clean energy development; wetlands and wildlife protection; and all the issues that our members and supporters value most.
The Letter from Jones Street will appear in subscribers' in-boxes and on our website every Friday that the legislature is in session. Stay tuned for news and actions you can take to influence the General Assembly and our state agencies for the good of our environment and all who live in it.
In the meantime, let's review! Our lobbyist, Laura DeVivo, took a look at the environmental implications of the 2024 "short session," which stretched into early December. Her recap is posted here.
Saying goodbye to one of our champions
The N.C. Sierra Club is sad to hear of the passing of N.C. Rep. Joe John, a longtime public servant in all three branches of government. His electoral bids to represent Wake County in the legislature earned our Chapter's endorsement multiple times – including 2024, as he sought to continue his work even as his health failed. Rep. John's passion, service and dedication will be an inspiration to us as we continue to "explore, enjoy and protect" North Carolina's environment and its people.
Take action:
We're going to need your help this session. The Sierra Club's North Carolina Chapter was founded 55 years ago, and its first paid staff member was our lobbyist. That's how important our presence in Raleigh was and continues to be to this day.
Since 1970, the Chapter's staff and volunteers have been speaking up for legislation and policies that protect our air, land and water, and the people and wildlife that can thrive only when their environment is healthy. We're grateful to our members and supporters for their advocacy all these years, and in the days to come.
The N.C. Sierra Club and our environmental allies are working now to identify our priority issues and create strategies to advocate for them. If you don't already, please subscribe to this update - and invite your friends to do the same - so that we can rally a strong contingent of citizen lobbyists in what promises to be another challenging year.