Environment & Natural Resources

This landmark agreement between International Paper, The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund is critical to conservation efforts in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast. North Carolinians will now have an additional 77,000 acres of protected land to appreciate and explore.

That's governor Easley describing the purchase of several hundred thousand acres of paper-company forest across the southeast by a conservancy group. Details at the NCDP website.

[UPDATEx2: it ain't over yet. See the comments.]

[UPDATE: this isn't new news. See the comments.]

Word that the proposed sale of national forest land is dead just hit my inbox. Included in the email was this tidbit, which can be summed up as "Charles Taylor was for the sale before he was against it."

“I cosponsored the Secure Rural Schools bill because so many counties in western North Carolina depend on the revenues,” said Taylor. “We can-and we will- reauthorize the program this year, but we will not sell off national forest lands to pay for it.”

I'm at work, so I'll have to leave the fact checking to the BlueNC community. Take it for what it's worth.

If New Hampshire is out to make North Carolina look bad, they're doing a fine job. A few days ago I noted that NC is on its way to a near total abdication of its responsibility to protect citizens, in this case from power plant mercury emissions.

Today I see that there's a mercury fight in New Hampshire as well, but with two important differences: (1) they are arguing over whether to cut mercury emissions by 80% or by 90%; and (2) the 80% bill has already passed one house of the state legislature. Gosh, it's almost as if the government in New Hampshire cares more about citizens' health than about maximizing power company profits.

In addition to his objection of the sale of our national forests, Easley has filed with the USDA for some of our forest to be classified as roadless and thus protected against industrial activity. There is a great post on this issue at the North Carolina Conservation Network.

Update: Check the comments to see where Lance beat me to the story. Also, check out our Take Action! center advertised on the right.

Governor Easley filed a petition with the US Secretary of Agriculture to protect the roadless areas in the National Forests within our borders and to protest the Forest Service's plan to sell off National Forest lands to benefit rural schools out west (story). Consider clicking this link to email the Gov. with a word of thanks.

This from a letter published by the News & Observer:

Debate has boiled down to a simple but vitally important equation: Does North Carolina protect higher profits for electric utilities or does it protect the health of our children?

On March 10, the state Environmental Management Commission proposed its answer, and while industry stockholders should feel safe, those concerned about children's health should be worried.

Read it and wonder how a commmittee—appointed by Democrat Mike Easley, Democrat Marc Basnight, and Democrat Jim Black—can blow it so badly.

When right-wing power companies accuse progressive candidates of political posturing, you have to scratch your head. I guess that's why Freud came up with the idea of projection . . . seeing in others the thing you refuse to see in yourself. In any case, the saga of Roy Cooper taking Tennessee to the woodshed over its polluting ways continues, this time with the Charlotte Business Journal weighing in on the side of the common good for a change. It's a pretty good story, that gets to the crux of the issue.

Whenever one of Art Pope's Puppets interviews a scientist, you can be sure it'll be a doozie. Like this interview with Robert Balling, a shill for the wingnuts who happens to be a professor at Arizona State. Balling's premise is simple: North Carolina can't affect overall climate change, so why bother doing anything at all to alter our oil gluttony. Go read the article yourself, but pay special attention to this typical winger refrain:

“And if the state begins to implement a policy that costs the taxpayer any amount of money, the taxpayers are going to demand to know: ‘What is it I get from this investment?’” Balling said. “I stand up and tell them the answer’s absolutely nothing.”

With two GOP-faithful Senators and seven of thirteen Representatives pledging allegiance to the Leader, it's safe to call North Carolina a red state, at least as far as national politics goes. Me, I'd like to see them all replaced with good progressive fighters, but the one silver lining to this otherwise putrid cloud should be better treatment under a Republican administration. I mean, part of the reason we send these folks to Washington is to bring home the bacon, right? Well, they suck at it.

The [National Forest sale] proposal is skewed against the South,
which has relatively little national forest land, a fast-growing
population and increasing demand for backcountry recreation, yet
would receive disproportionately fewer funds from the sell-off.
For example, both North Carolina, with a total of 1.25 million acres
of national forest, and Oregon, with a total of 15.55 million acres,
have about 10,000 proposed for sale. Yet under the funding formula
currently used, North Carolina would get just $1 million in 2006,
while Oregon would get almost $163 million.

Southern Environmental Law Center

We have been discussing the assault on our national forests on this site for the last week, but there is another attack on the environment of North Carolina being launched in the Federal Legislature. The N&O chronicles the attempts to open the Atlantic Coast to oil drilling for the first time since the 80's:

"I would say that on the East Coast, North Carolina is the most vulnerable state in this equation," said Richard Charter, co-chairman of the National Outer Continental Shelf Coalition, a collection of conservationists, fishing groups and local governments.