Air and water pollution? Republicans just don’t care

Jun 29

Human activities modify our environment in many ways, sometimes suddenly and catastrophically, like the Dan River coal ash spill in 2014, other times slowly and gradually, like the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere due to burning fossil fuels. Almost always, the general population endure the dire consequences of such human-made disasters, while the economic beneficiaries shield themselves with their money and privilege. Republicans in North Carolina have used their majorities, now super-majorities, in the General Assembly to block action that would ameliorate or halt practices known to degrade our environment. Sometimes, they even do this in ways that evade any sort of review or change, by inserting pieces of anti-environmental legislation in the biennial budget bills. Here are three environmental problems Republicans have made worse or failed to help.

Climate: Global Effects, Local Action

The climate crisis threatens the whole world with rapid increases in temperatures, sea level, and sometimes dramatic changes in typical weather. The world has already warmed over 1 degree C since the beginning of the industrial era, and the year just completed averaged around 1.5 degrees C of warming. We need to stop burning fossil fuels over the next couple of decades to simply cap global warming at less than disastrous levels. Local actions, like changing building codes to eliminate natural gas in new construction, can help with this. The fossil fuel industry, however, deploys its powerful lobby to block bans on using natural gas in new construction.

Not surprisingly, the Republican-controlled General Assembly made it illegal for cities and towns to ban new gas hookups; HB-130, ratified June 14, 2023, became law without the Governor's signature. Using a bogus argument about “freedom to choose” (note how Republicans use that selectively!), Republicans help their business clients in the oil and gas industry, despite the harm to everyone caused by global warming.

North Carolina adopted a bipartisan law in 2021 (HB-951/SL 2021-165) that requires the Utilities Commission to create a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 70% from 2005 levels by 2030, and zero them out by 2050. This plan is subject to public review every two years. The original plan was based essentially on a plan supplied by Duke Energy and relies primarily on building a number of new gas-fired generating plants and minimizes the potential role of solar and wind with battery storage. Duke Energy’s current revised plan is currently undergoing review, and is being widely criticized for shortchanging renewables and for trying to delay the 2030 target to 2035.

Duke Energy’s revised plan appears to run afoul of the new Biden Administration rule to reduce carbon emissions by new power plants. Conventional power generation, fired by fossil fuels, is not only a significant source of CO2 emissions (in 2022, the US electric power industry accounted for about 33% of total U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions), it is also a significant source of air, water, and land pollution that affects our communities.

PFAS and Water Quality

PFAS is a large class of chemicals, sometimes called “Forever Chemicals” that have been used since the 1940s. They are found in many places: drinking water, fire extinguishing foam, food packaging, and household products, and they are troubling because they break down very slowly and can build up in people and the environment over time. At least some of these chemicals are likely to cause illness or functional deficits. PFAS comprise a particularly important environmental issue in North Carolina because of the recent release of a PFAS chemical known as GenX from the Chemours plant. That plant in White Oak, Bladen County North Carolina has polluted the drinking water of more than 800,000 people.

In April, the US EPA issued the first-ever national drinking water standard for PFAS. Soon after, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality proposed new rules to limit PFAS in the surface and groundwaters that are the sources of that drinking water; HOWEVER, those rules have been blocked by the opposition of Republican members of the Environmental Management Commission on the urging of the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce.

Plastics

“I just want to say one word to you. Just one word … Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics.” Mr. McGuire (Walter Brooke), in The Graduate, 1967. Since Mr. McGuire gave his advice to Benjamin, the plastics industry has grown until plastics pervade virtually all material aspects of our lives. And, it turns out, little pieces of plastic now pervade us, as we inhale and swallow them and they make their way into our blood and organs. It turns out, the plastics in our lives do not break down; they fragment into increasingly small pieces. Plastic pollution may take as long as a thousand years to decompose. In the meantime, it presents both environmental and potential human health problems. While there are no solid links between plastic exposure and particular diseases, there are some reports of adverse effects on human health.

Communities throughout the nation are beginning to react to this concern about plastic by enacting bans on some plastic products like grocery bags, straws, and single-use plastic utensils. Such efforts to protect our communities are, in North Carolina, illegal! Last year, the Republican-dominated General Assembly inserted language into the annual appropriation bill (state budget bill) that prohibits any North Carolina city or county from regulating retail packaging, including banning Styrofoam food containers.

As long as Republicans—with their blind faith in the virtue of business and markets and fatal skepticism about what science tells us about the world around us and how we are affecting it—dominate the General Assembly and North Carolina politics in general, little will be done to ameliorate the growing environmental problems we face. Republican legislators tip the scales to protect profits over our health and environment. They do this through legislative trickery. It is past time for North Carolinians to stand up and demand their representatives do the right thing and protect the environment on which we all depend.