NC, Repeal Dirty Provision That Invalidates Community Bans on Fracking
- by: Susan V
- recipient: NC Legislature
Just days after Stokes County voted to ban fracking for at least three years, the Republican-led NC Legislature passed a bill with a tacked-on provision to invalidate such local moratoria.
According to a report by WRAL, the provision was inserted at the last minute into a “technical corrections” bill, in the middle of the night, and declared “all local ordinances that regulate oil and gas exploration invalid and “unenforceable."
Southern Environmental Law Center's Mary Maclean Asbill told WRAL that the legislation ”extremely hamstrings local governments from being able to protect their citizens from the harmful impacts of fracking,"
Nevertheless, Stokes County manager Rick Morris told the Winston-Salem Journal that his county’s moratorium would “remain in effect as passed,” and Chatham County commissioner Jim Crawford said he’d be glad to take the issue to court if necessary.
Creating even more controversy over this dirty legislation, Stokes County Representative Bryan Holloway told the Winston-Salem Journal he was tricked into voting for the provision by Republican leaders. And this is not the first time the NC Legislature has pulled a “sneaky” trick to promote fracking. Controversy still surrounds another "mistaken" vote that ended the statewide moratorium on fracking in the first place.
Sign this petition to demand a repeal of the provision in Senate Bill 119 that threatens the health and well-being of NC residents and attempts to invalidate county moratoria on fracking.
To Representatives and Senators of the North Carolina General Assembly:
We, the undersigned, find this new provision that attempts to invalidate local bans on fracking in violation of citizen’s rights to protect their environment and their health. We also strongly oppose the "sneaky" way this provision was added on to Bill 119 at the last minute and in the middle of the night.
It was "well past midnight," noted the Winston-Salem Journal, when "The provision in Senate Bill 119 was disclosed to the full House and Senate — and the public."
Grady McCallie, at N.C Conservation Network told the Journal that “It’s sad to see the legislature enact, and the governor sign, language intended to strip local elected officials of the power to protect their citizens’ health and property," adding that "the provision wasn’t in earlier House or Senate versions of the bill — it was added for the first time in conference, literally in the dead of night, on the last night of (the) session. The first time it saw the light of day was when copies of the conference report were distributed, between 3 and 4 a.m., shortly before the final vote."
Add to these dirty tactics concerns the Republican Representative from Stokes County expressed about his being misled by his own party regarding the provision. Bryan Holloway reportedly told the press he was “upset” and “angry” over how the bill was passed. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, "He had gotten word from House leaders that the bill covered merely technical changes," and added: “Had I known the provision was in there, I wouldn’t have voted for it.”
Although it appears that the Senator representing Stokes County, Shirley Randleman, is happy with the outcome of the vote, the question arises as to how many others, beside Holloway, might have voted differently had the provision not been added last minute and had been clearly understood.
Furthermore, Duke Law School professor Ryke Longest told the Journal there are other problems with "the way the bill was passed." He said "Senate Bill 119 was supposed to carry technical corrections, but the changes are substantive." This substansive change in language violates the rules on how the legislature is supposed to handle legislation, added Longest, because it "was never introduced in any bill during the session, was not germane to the technical corrections bill, was introduced after the crossover deadline, was never heard in an appropriate committee and was never analyzed for the fiscal burdens it placed on local governments by a fiscal note."
For these reasons and the more pressing need to protect public health and local citizens' rights we demand the NC Legislature Repeal this and any provision attempting to invalidate a county's moratorium on fracking.
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