3609 Hwy 24 (Ocean) | Newport, North Carolina 28570

Published January 13, 2002

Setting the Stage for A Witch Hunt:
Enviromental Rules Committee A Bad Idea

By TODD MILLER and PHILIP BLUMENTHAL
Special to The Observer

     On the last day of the longest legislative session in state history, the General Assembly passed a provision that could have a chilling effect on environmental protection in North Carolina. Buried deep in the annual legislative studies bill, a proposal for a new House Select Committee on Various Environmental Rules can be found. The proposal, which appeared for the first time on the final day of the legislative session, could discourage the development of new measures and hinder existing efforts to protect public heath and the environment.
     The new House Select Committee on Various Environmental Rules duplicates existing committees and commissions charged with reviewing environmental rules. Between the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee, the Senate Agriculture, the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, the Environmental Review Commission and the legislatively appointed Regulatory Review Commission, there are more than enough opportunities for legislators to watchdog state environmental rulemaking.
     But according to Rep. Nurham Warwick (D- Sampson), who sponsored the new select committee, yet another layer is needed to help local governments and landowners wrestle with environmental rules under consideration by the Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) and the Environmental Management Commission (EMC). Is it of no consequence that the 45-member Coastal Resources Advisory Council includes local governments and landowners in CRC deliberations and that the legislature appoints nearly one-third of the EMC members?
     The hidden agenda of the select committee is all too transparent. The legislative language explicitly targets all buffer rules, erosion and sedimentation rules, and air permits, but the new select committee could also embark on a witch hunt to thwart any environmental rules it so desires. Equally troubling, this committee – unlike most others – is designed as a standing committee that can convene at the "drop of a hat" to review environmental rules without public notice or input.
     Lawmakers already possess veto power over rules they don't like through the state Administrative Procedure Act. A select committee would bring about an added intimidation factor, giving disgruntled special interests yet another forum for undoing environmental safeguards that are otherwise in the public interest.