By Lisa Hazirjian
Legislative & Political Director, NC Chapter
From an environmental perspective, it’s not all bad.
That’s the best we can say about the state’s long-awaited $34 billion budget bill, which House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger released early last week and quickly brought to a floor vote in their respective chambers. They allowed neither the time for rank-and-file members to digest the thousand-plus page bill nor the opportunity for any lawmakers to introduce any amendments. Governor Josh Stein signed it into law on Tuesday.
Let’s start with the good. The new budget includes over $700 million for disaster recovery, mostly earmarked for Helene recovery projects, along with $10.7 million for the Chantal Infrastructure Assistance Fund. The bill also allocates $5.35 million for grants and staffing for the Flood Resiliency Blueprint program, which helps communities in flood-prone areas develop plans to mitigate future disasters. And though the bill cut $2 million from the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, it provided funding for other conservation projects, including $28 million in grants to local governments and nonprofits for trails, and $3.5 million directly to the Nature Conservancy for land acquisition to conserve natural areas, longleaf pine forest, and open space in Pender County.
Yet, on the whole, this budget bill – like the legislative session writ large – fell far short of delivering what North Carolinians want and deserve: affordable energy, safe water, and polluter accountability.
Early in the 2026 short session, we saw a flurry of bills introduced that could have provided consumers with real relief from rapidly rising energy costs, had they been passed as stand alone bills or incorporated into the budget. Bills like S844, Affordable Energy Omnibus, S957, Portable Scale Solar Energy Devices, and H1063, Ratepayer and Resource Protection Act, offered smart policy solutions to the energy affordability crisis, such as:
- Prohibiting the disconnection of residential customers during periods of extreme heat or cold;
- Allowing electric utility customers to install and operate portable solar energy generation devices (sometimes referred to as “balcony solar”);
- Establishing large-load tariffs to mitigate the impact of rising demand on electric rates for residential consumers;
- Setting requirements for on-site clean energy generation for data centers;
- Excluding data centers from economic development incentives; and
- Repealing all sales tax exemptions for data centers.
What did we get from this budget? Repeal of a single data center tax exemption, applying only to electricity used on site – not to business property. Put differently, budget writers included just enough to be able to tell voters that they’re responding to our concerns about data centers – but not enough to stop the significant environmental and economic burdens created by this environmental resource-sucking industry.
We’re also disappointed by the budgetary provisions related to water safety. The bill cut an estimated $100 million annually from the Department of Environmental Quality’s budget for water infrastructure projects, monies used to provide safe drinking water and shore up water systems so they can better withstand disasters. And while the budget contains several earmarks that bear a remarkable resemblance to some of the provisions in S1043, Water Safety Act, many of those funds will go to pay for studies that will be kept confidential rather than be available to the public. Further, the budget bill fails to incorporate the major policy provisions proposed by the water safety bill – drinking water and discharge standards for PFAS – the sorts of policies we need to hold industry accountable for keeping “forever chemicals” out of our water.
N.C. Sierra Club Deputy Director Erin Carey, who lives in a region heavily impacted by industrial irresponsibility in use and disposal of PFAS pollutants, expressed the frustration felt by many in the Cape Fear region: “This budget marks yet another year of legislative neglect on the issue of PFAS.
"North Carolinians need clean water, they need protection from industry toxins, and they need remediation for the damage that's already been done. Instead, we get studies. The only way to get dangerous chemicals out of our drinking water is to not allow industry to discharge them in the first place. The only meaningful action that can be taken now is to regulate PFAS out of our drinking water. Instead, we get studies. It's a disgrace, and the people of our state deserve better.”
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