Catch up here with the NC Sierra Club's latest news and blog posts. If you want to read more on a given topic, click the keywords at the bottom of any post.
NC Senate goes home without even discussing House bill to address water contamination
January 10, 2018
The state House unanimously passed a bill that offers direction and critically needed funds to state agencies to take steps to address chemical contamination of drinking water in Wilmington and statewide. But the Senate had already adjourned and...
Trump’s offshore lease plan defies coastal NC residents’ concerns
January 4, 2018
Despite the opposition of communities across North Carolina and the region, the Trump administration today issued a proposed five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing that would vastly expand offshore drilling in the Atlantic and other oceans...
NC-SC applauds DEQ move to pull Chemours wastewater permit
November 16, 2017
State officials are pulling the wastewater discharge permit for Chemours, the company whose chemical GenX has raised concerns about tainted drinking water in the Cape Fear River. "People who are personally affected by the GenX crisis will be...
Legislature makes magic with 'conservation' commission appointments
October 6, 2017
State lawmakers used a bit of legislative sleight-of-hand to get two fracking boosters named to the Oil & Gas Commission, taking seats intended for conservation organization representatives. Cassie Gavin explains how the environment took a...
Lawmakers name pro-fracking Oil & Gas commissioners to conservation seats
October 6, 2017
NC legislative leaders named two fracking supporters to the state Oil and Gas Commission late Thursday, after the General Assembly lowered the bar by changing the requirements for these seats with respect to conservationist credentials.Jim Womack...
Legislature overrides Cooper’s veto of H 56, repeals OBX plastic ban ban
October 4, 2017
The Legislature today voted to override Governor Cooper's veto of an omnibus environmental bill that repeals the popular ban on plastic bags in the Outer Banks and takes away local waste management authority by giving it to private waste haulers....
Get ready for the next session of the 2017 session
October 3, 2017
The Legislature returns this week for yet another mini-session, and may try to override Governor Cooper's vetoes of bad environmental bills. Cassie Gavin explains how safe drinking water, endangered sea turtles, and the air around landfills could be...
NC Sierra Club applauds Cooper’s veto of OBX plastic bag ban repeal
September 21, 2017
The bill contained a small amount of funding to address GenX contamination of the Cape Fear River, falling far short of a request Cooper made to the Legislature to state agency work to investigate not only GenX, but drinking water contaminants...
Cooper joins states' climate group in national leadership vacuum
September 20, 2017
Governor Cooper announced today that North Carolina will join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of states that have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.The Climate Alliance...
GenX gets a little money, bag ban bagged in catch-all environmental bill
August 31, 2017
In yet another last-minute move, the Legislature tossed a collection of environmental provisions into one bill that heads to Governor Cooper's desk as lawmakers head out of Raleigh until October. Cassie Gavin explains the problems with a measure...