Bipartisan attack against SEPA under way ... updated

Submitted by scharrison on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 3:48pm

What in the hell is going on in Raleigh?

The House voted 78-29 today to approve the second reading of a bill that could help development projects receiving public incentives to bypass portions of a required state environmental review.

The bill is a direct response to a May ruling by a Wake Superior Court that Titan America, an international company offered state and local incentives to build a cement plant in New Hanover County, had to supply a full environmental review. Titan and the state argued that the review was not required.

One step forward, two steps back. The Democratic Party leadership in the GA and the party itself will be held accountable for this, I promise.

Rep. Phil Haire, a Democrat from Sylva, said the bill had only one purpose: to let big development projects off the hook when it comes to protecting the environment. If the bill is approved, he said, Titan could withdraw its pending permit application in the state, which has been stalled by opposition from environmental groups, and just simply reapply under the new rules.

"I see this as selling our environmental soul for a bag of gold," Haire said during the debate on the House floor Friday. "This is an issue of expediency versus the environment."

It's worse than that, Phil. We're actually handing over a bag of gold along with our soul.

And just so you Senate Democrats are aware, getting lame-duck, already-soiled-reputation R.C. Soles to be the primary (and only) sponsor of this horrible piece of legislation (which you all voted for):

AN ACT to provide that an environmental document under the state environmental policy act is not required in connection with projects that receive public monies in the form of certain economic incentives payments.

No environmental document shall be required in connection with:

(5) A project for which public monies are expended if the expenditure is solely for the payment of incentives pursuant to an agreement that makes the incentive payments contingent on prior completion of the project or activity, or completion on a specified timetable, and a specified level of job creation or new capital investment."

is not going to shield you from the criticism and contempt you so richly deserve for this.

UPDATED with email comment from Speaker Hackney in response to an inquiry from James:

Just so you have your facts right:

Titan is still covered and has to comply with SEPA

SEPA remains in place

Works the same as it did before the Titan decision

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Democrats death wish

Submitted by James on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 4:21pm.

If this keeps up, I'll gladly sacrifice control of the General Assembly to Republicans this fall. I don't care if redistricting is at stake or not. I've already closed my checkbook.

This doesn't just demoralize the base, this pisses off the base. Not good.

I may not be the base,

Submitted by scharrison on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 10:55pm.

but I'm damned sure pissed off right now. That being said, we've got 29 members of the House who deserve recognition for opposing this bill. As soon as the vote is posted I intend to do that.

Titan Cement issue

Submitted by Scalawag on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 7:18pm.

Both parties are whores to the politics of incentives. Clean 'em all out - democrats and republicans who are so lacking in backbone that they'll buckle to the siren call of "jobs". We need to find anti-incentive candidates in all political parties to challenge those who go along with this insanity.

I guess I'll be contributing more to the

Submitted by James on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 7:55pm.

Southern Environmental Law Center in hopes that they'll find some legal or constitutional basis for fighting this egregious violation of responsible stewardship. It's bad enough that the Perdue gang wants to give taxpayer dollars to toxic polluters like Titan, but now she wants to make taxpayers complicit in their dirty work.

Accountable to who?

Submitted by TrueMeckDem on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 8:04pm.

People have been screaming this for years but how many incumbents have been beaten over the last 20 years?

Accountable to big business, of course

Submitted by James on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 8:10pm.

And as to regular people? Fuck 'em. The General Assembly is happy to let people die of mercury poisoning ... along with the Cape Fear River.

I am new to this sight and new to the fight.

Submitted by tdeese50 on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 9:08pm.

Forget party...vote out anyone who would sacrific our environment for gain. Get business our of our politicians pockets. As a lifelong Republican, I can say that I am ashamed of the all politicians. I vote for people, not parties. It's time for a new party.

Just wait...on day these same people will be voting to allow Hydrolic Fracture Drilling in NC. I just hope that day never comes.

I've tried to find the vote

Submitted by Stan on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 9:18pm.

and who voted yea or nay and can't find it. Looked at the NC legislature site. Any suggestion?

Stan Bozarth

I can't find it either

Submitted by scharrison on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 10:47pm.

Although it does usually take at least a few days for votes to be added to the GA's website.

But what's really strange: when I looked this bill (S778) up earlier today, the previous (Senate) vote was listed. That's why I mentioned above that everybody had voted for it. It was 47-0, if I recall.

But that vote is no longer there.

Click

Submitted by gregflynn on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 12:07pm.

There's a sneaky little link at "View All Votes" which expands the vote history to more than 2 votes.

Democrats have been doing this stuff for years

Submitted by teepack on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 9:33pm.

Because they always get voted back into office. They are not held accountable. It's a shame the Republicans can't offer some better alternatives.

Laura Leslie

Submitted by DrFrankLives on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 10:58pm.

tweeted that it won't apply to Titan. Correct?

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." -Voltaire

That was also mentioned

Submitted by scharrison on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 11:17pm.

in an e-mail I received from NC Conservation Network: that it wouldn't impact the Titan issue, only later stuff. But if you read the article I linked to (above the fold), one of the (House) opponents claims Titan would merely have to withdraw their original permit application and reapply to take advantage of this.

The magic 8-ball reads, "Ask again later".

the tweet says a House fix fixed that

Submitted by DrFrankLives on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 11:18pm.

that's what Laura says.

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." -Voltaire

I just saw that

Submitted by scharrison on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 11:28pm.

She says the fix was included in H1099, but we'll have to wait until the new text is posted to see if there are still loopholes.

I hope she's right (she usually is).

We'll see. It's not in there yet.

Submitted by James on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 7:42am.

And even if it is, the idea that government-subsidized business could get an early pass on regulatory oversight is despicable at ever level of analysis.

Here's the ratified text:

Submitted by scharrison on Tue, 07/13/2010 - 4:45pm.

SECTION 1. If Senate Bill 778 becomes law, then Section 2 of the bill is rewritten to read:

"SECTION 2. This act becomes effective June 1, 2010, but does not apply to any project that was the subject of pending litigation or orders issued by a court of competent jurisdiction prior to that date concerning the application of the State Environmental Policy Act to projects receiving economic incentives."

SECTION 2. This act is effective when it becomes law.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 10th day of July, 2010.

The key word in there appears to be "project", as opposed to "permit application", so it looks pretty sound. If Titan does try to reapply for its permits, DENR should immediately refuse. We'll see.

Seems pretty squishy to me

Submitted by James on Tue, 07/13/2010 - 5:00pm.

"project" can mean almost anything.

Message from Speaker Hackney

Submitted by James on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 7:45am.

In response to an email inquiry:

Just so you have your facts right:

Titan is still covered and has to comply with SEPA

SEPA remains in place

Works the same as it did before the Titan decision

I trust Joe Hackney completely, but I have to say, this is baffling. If it "works the same as it did before the Titan decision," what's the point of the new legislation?

I'm baffled, too

Submitted by scharrison on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 9:06am.

SEPA has wording that specifies which projects are to be evaluated (public monies). If some of them are exempted, that amounts to a "change" in my book.

Here's the vote.

Submitted by sethmorris91 on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 9:52am.

http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/voteHistory/RollCallVoteTranscriptP.pl?sS...

Thanks, Seth

Submitted by scharrison on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 10:06am.

Speaking of leadership, I'm wondering why Joe Hackney decided not to cast a vote on this.

Speaker doesn't usually vote

Submitted by gregflynn on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 12:04pm.

...except to break a tie.

House Rules

RULE 25. Voting by Speaker. – In all elections the Speaker may vote. In all other instances the Speaker may vote or may reserve this right until there is a tie in which event the Speaker may vote; but in no instance may the Speaker vote twice on the same question.

Final language

Submitted by James on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 10:01am.

A project for which public monies are expended if the expenditure is solely for the payment of incentives pursuant to an agreement that makes the incentive payments contingent on prior completion of the project or activity, or completion on a specified timetable, and a specified level of job creation or new capital investment

Public monies were not expended on Titan, but they were promised. And they were promised contingent on prior completion of the project.

And just what the heck does "activity" mean?

This laws seems to make North Carolina's toxic approach to incentives even worse.

Corruption in Wilmington, Supported by Raleigh

Submitted by James Joyce on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 7:22pm.

There are a series of corrupt, unethical and just plain pathetic "story lines" going on in Wilmington as Fall 2010 approaches. They involve most of the formal, informal and secretive leaders of the town. At the top of the list, we had Rusty Carter running a multi-year criminal syndicate making illegal campaign contributions to a large number of local, state and federal politicians. Someone should INVESTIGATE the DA Office here for how swiftly and painlessly (to Rusty) the case was handled (he was "guilty", but they let him plead that absurd Alford Plea because his money flowed so freely to The DA's own political sponsors. Lots of details were therefore kept from public view. Then, our Local ABC Board is proven to be unethical and guilty of breaking laws, although nobody has charged them, or the "retired" (forced) ABC local honcho Billy Williams, who now has the 5th highest pension in the entire state of NC!! Billy was an overpaid, glorified tax collector, who stocked shelves with the legal poison/drug washed down the throats of tourists, college kids, and Southern and Yankee booze hounds alike. Pricing for the poison(wholesale and retail) was all set by the State ABC Board. Even a high school graduate can handle this simple job!! They were so awash in bad behavior, taxpayers spent over $100,000 to pay the seemingly demented, blow-hard attorney and self-proclaimed "historical figure" George Rountree to represent the ABC Board and Mr Williams, who also had at least two more attorneys on the County payroll assigned to protect them. And months later, and still no charges coming from the DA on this fiasco? What about the County Manager who oversaw the nonsense and defended it, then led the local investigation after the gang all "resigned" in disgrace....how objective could he be? And no discipline for anyone?! I could go on, we have more stories to share, but they will come later....stay tuned!

James Joyce
Kure Beach NC