NC Senators trying to stop environmental regulations

There are a number of members of the NC Senate who don’t like environmental regulation, and will try to stop all regulations.

First, there was Sen. David Hoyle’s bill, SB 866. That bill would prevent any agency from adopting rules that “results in additional costs of persons subject to the rule…” except for certain exceptions, such as those required by state or federal law or court orders. Since all regulations have some costs, even minor amounts of time for businesses to notify employees, this bill would have the effect of eliminating all regulation not required by law or court order. That bill passed the Senate by a vote of 38 to 10. Fortunately, the bill appears to be stalled in the House.

Now, because of opposition to a proposed rule requiring more monitoring of hog farms’ waste operations, some senators want to require a moratorium on regulations from the Environmental Management Commission. Under the rules it is not possible to introduce a new bill this late in the session. First, SB 106, a bill considered to be dead, was amended to turn it into the EMC moratorium bill. Later, HB 1335 was amended to be used for the EMC moratorium.

This bill would apply only to regulations adopted by the Environmental Management Commission and it would prevent the EMC from adopting any permanent rule until July 1, 2011. Rules adopted by the EMC and other agencies must be reviewed and approved by the Rules Review Commission and then delayed until the General Assembly has a chance to disapprove or modify the rule. Therefore, if the bill is approved EMC rules will be blocked until the summer of 2012.

The current language of the bill will apply to all EMC rules. It is expected that the bill will be modified to narrow its scope to apply only to rules concerning hog farms. However, it will still be a very bad bill.