Mountain Xpress: Heat pumps drive rapid growth in WNC’s peak electricity demand

Did you catch this recent MountainXpress article — “Heat pumps drive rapid growth in WNC’s peak electricity demand”? Virginia Daffron takes a look at some of the strategies that we’ll be advocating for with Duke Energy, the City of Asheville, Buncombe County and all the community partners participating in the Asheville Energy Innovation Task Force.

Through the task force, MountainTrue has joined forces with fellow community leaders and stakeholders to set an ambitious goal for Western North Carolina: to avoid or delay Duke Energy’s plans to build a new power plant to meet our region’s growing electricity demand. Together. we’re developing strategies to reduce our community’s demand through proven energy saving solutions and by fostering innovative partnerships.

We can put WNC on the path to a clean energy future and everyone has an important role to play! Click here or contact our Campaigns Director Joan Walker to learn how to get involved with the Energy Innovation Task Force.

New Riverkeeper Report: Dead in the Water

The North Carolina Riverkeepers have released a new report: Dead in the Water: Environmental Enforcement in North Carolina. This the first comprehensive report that details the work of Riverkeepers across North Carolina.

Our state has a proud history of environmental protection. However, 2016 was a year of vast devastation and increased pollution, from storms, the burgeoning hog and chicken industries, coal ash and other chemicals and abuses. Contributing to the problem were environmental officials who turned a blind eye to the problems and were slow to respond to issues. Combine this with State government that attempted to roll back protections and you have a state where Riverkeepers had to work harder than ever to protect our waters.

Read all about their work by clicking here.

MountainTrue Raleigh Report — January 10, 2017

Happy New Year from Raleigh, where state government is rushing right into 2017

Just after the clock struck midnight on January 1, Roy Cooper took the oath of office and was sworn in as our state’s 75th governor. He has just begun to announce his cabinet, staff and agenda, and we will learn more in the coming weeks.

New DEQ Head Named

One of Cooper’s first announcement was his pick for the new secretary of DEQ – Michael Regan. Regan is a longtime environmental advocate, who is a veteran of both the Environmental Defense Fund and the EPA.

While at EDF, he worked on a legal challenge and eventual settlement with Duke Energy that required the utility to retire its oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants. He also believes that a clean environment and clean energy are drivers for economic development, including in poor and rural areas.

Regan said his first goal as secretary is to get the advice of those who serve in DEQ. He also pledged to improve transparency and work with stakeholders to help solve environmental problems.

Regan is a native of eastern North Carolina and a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University and George Washington University.

Under a new law, Regan’s nomination must be confirmed by the state Senate.

Legislative Outlook

Cooper will soon be joined in Raleigh by members of the 2017 General Assembly. Legislators return on January 11th for what is expected to be a short organizational meeting to officially elect Senate and House leaders.

Lawmakers are expected to recess for two weeks to allow committees to be appointed so that the real work of the 2017 legislature can begin on January 25. Our state does not set constitutional limits on the length of the session, so how long the 2017 General Assembly will be at its work is anyone’s guess. It will certainly continue at least until July 1, the beginning of the state’s fiscal year.

Lawmakers are coming off three December special sessions – one on disaster relief, another to change Cooper and other statewide elected officials’ authority and a third on HB2. While the disaster session went largely as expected, the two other sessions were extremely controversial. The first session passed a wide-ranging elections bill that made appellate court races partisan and merged lobbying, ethics and elections oversight into one agency. In that same session, lawmakers limited Governor Cooper’s ability to hire and fire appointees for his administration and moved a good bit of education policy-making power from the State Board of Education to the new superintendent of public instruction. WRAL has a good summary of what happened in the special session. Pretty much everything that passed during this session is now being challenged in court. A week later, legislators returned to Raleigh, argued, finagled and voted but ultimately couldn’t pass a repeal of HB2, the controversial legislation concerning LGBTQ civil rights.

DEQ Shenanigans

Of course, no MountainTrue Raleigh report would be complete without some news from the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. Shortly before Cooper took office, GOP-appointed DEQ Secretary van der Vaart demoted himself in order to avoid dismissal as a political appointee when Cooper took office. He will return to a position in the air quality division as a section chief, where he worked for 20 years before being promoted by former Governor Pat McCrory.

What’s Next?

It’s hard to imagine that the acrimony and partisanship on display during much of 2016 in Raleigh won’t continue in the new year. Much hinges on what the courts decide on the changes to the Governor’s powers, HB2 and court-mandated redistricting.

Here at MountainTrue, we’ll continue to talk to legislators from both parties about clean water, clean air and making North Carolina’s future a sustainable one. We will keep you posted as issues develop and hope you will join us in our advocacy efforts.

Creation Care Alliance of WNC Kicks off ‘100 Days of Creation Care Actions’ on Inauguration Day

Asheville — The Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina (CCAWNC), a program of MountainTrue, will mark the beginning of the first 100 days of President Donald J. Trump’s administration with a gathering of music, ritual, commitments and refreshments on January 20 from 5-7 p.m. at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Asheville.

What: Creation Care Alliance of WNC’s “100 Days of Creation Care Actions” Kick-off Event
When: Friday, January 20th from 5-7 pm
Where: Lenoir-Rhyne University, 36 Montford Ave, Asheville

Attendees will observe the sunset together and contemplate our hopes and fears as our nation changes direction under a new administration with its own set of priorities. This event is the kickoff of CCAWNC’s “100 Days of Creation,” during which local people and communities of faith will take part in 100 experiences, events, prayers, advocacy actions in support of God’s creation from January 20 to April 29.

The Creation Care Alliance and MountainTrue are offering many volunteer and social opportunities during this time, and we will promote the events and efforts of other organizations. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to submit experiences, events, prayers, advocacy letters/calls, and actions through our online form. People can can also share events and stories publicly on the 100 Days of Creation Facebook group page here.

January 12: Hendersonville Green Drinks: 2017 Clean Energy Preview

Hendersonville, N.C. — On Thursday, January 12, Hendersonville Green Drinks welcomes featured speaker Ned Ryan Doyle, long time solar and sustainable community advocate, former coordinator of the Southern Energy & Environment Expo and host of ‘Our Southern Community’ radio, to speak on upcoming trends relating to solar and clean energy for WNC. Ned is currently the co-chair of the Technology Working Group of the WNC Energy Innovation Task Force.

Ned will discuss: What’s on the solar and clean energy horizon for WNC in 2017? Will changes in NC leadership offset developments on the federal level? How are things progressing with community engagement in WNC regarding Duke Energy’s Modernization Plan and the Energy Innovation Task Force, formed in 2016?

What: Hendersonville Green Drinks: 2017 Clean Energy Preview
Who: Ned Ryan Doyle, host of ‘Our Southern Community’ radio and co-chair of the Technology Working Group of the WNC Energy Innovation Task Force.
Where: Black Bear Coffee Co. 318 N. Main St. Hendersonville, NC
When: Thursday, January 12, networking at 5:30 p.m. , presentation at 6:00 p.m.

About Hendersonville Green Drinks
Hendersonville Green Drinks is presented by MountainTrue and the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy. Come to Green Drinks to learn more about current environmental issues, have relevant discussions, and meet with like-minded people. This is a monthly event and everyone is welcome. You don’t have to drink at Green Drinks, just come and listen. Black Bear Coffee offers beer, wine, coffee drinks and sodas. A limited food menu will be available.

MountainTrue to Hold Annual Holiday Recycling Event at Jackson Park

MountainTrue Annual Holiday Recycling Event Rescheduled to Saturday, Jan. 14

Give Your Christmas Trees, Lights & Holiday Cards a Second Life!

Because of last weekend’s snowstorms, MountainTrue’s annual Holiday Recycling Event at Jackson Park has been rescheduled to Saturday, January 14 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Area residents are invited to bring their Christmas trees, broken string lights and used greeting cards to be mulched and recycled.

When: Saturday, January 14 | 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Jackson Park, Ball Field #6, Hendersonville
Who: MountainTrue, City of Hendersonville, Henderson County, Henderson County Coop Extension Service of the 4-H Project, King Hardware & Rental.

Trees can be dropped off on or before January 14; lights and greeting cards should be brought on the day of January 14.

The mulcher has been provided by King Hardware & Rental and Hendersonville and Henderson County personnel will be on site to mulch the trees. Lights will be recycled by the Henderson County Coop Extension Service of the 4-H Project.

MountainTrue volunteers will be on hand to help and serve free cookies and hot apple cider.

Don’t throw your tree away! Recycle it and turn it into nutritious mulch for your garden, plants and veggies.

After The Wildfires: Climate Mitigation and Adapting to the New Normal, at the Collider

On Monday, December 19, MountainTrue’s Public Lands Field Biologist Josh Kelly and Jim Fox of the National Environmental and Modeling Analysis Center at UNC Asheville presented on the topics of climate change, drought and strategies for wildfire management at the collider. MountainTrue is working in collaboration with the Forest Service and other stakeholders to support better forest management so that future fires are less hard to control and damaging to human development.

Read the feature in the Hendersonville Times-News

Read Josh Kelly’s Op-ed in the Asheville Citizen-Times

It’s time to clean up CTS!

Action Expired

For years MountainTrue has worked in partnership with our community to achieve clean up of toxic pollution at the CTS of Asheville site. Now, EPA has finally developed a clean-up plan for the site, and we need your help to make sure it gets implemented as thoroughly and quickly as possible.
Join us in supporting this long-awaited plan to clean up CTS’s pollution, which has threatened the health and wellbeing of neighbors for decades!

MountainTrue Raleigh Report – Roy Cooper is Governor

MountainTrue Raleigh Report – December 7, 2016

In this installment of MTRaleigh: We have a new Governor — what does that mean for clean air and water in North Carolina? And the General Assembly comes back next week for a quick session on disaster recovery.

Roy Cooper is Governor.

This week, Pat McCrory conceded that Roy Cooper narrowly defeated him in the general election.

Cooper will have his work cut out for him when he takes office next month. North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature has been hostile to even the most reasonable environmental protections. Veto-proof majorities in both the state House and Senate will likely make most of what Cooper might want Dead On Arrival – unless Cooper can use his bully pulpit to bring the legislature to a place of agreement. Cooper’s difficulties with the General Assembly will be in place at least through the 2017 legislative session. It’s looking increasingly likely that the legislature will hold special elections in November 2017 for the 28 state House and Senate districts a federal court found to be racially gerrymandered. Depending on how those elections go, Cooper could end up with more leverage with the legislature. But for now, he will have very little room to operate.

At the administrative level, Cooper will face the challenge of rebuilding the agency that protects our air and water. Under McCrory, the Department of Environmental Quality established a reputation for combativeness with environmental groups, defensiveness with the media and coziness with permittees (what they called their “customers”). Lowlights of the last fours years at DEQ include promotion of fracking and offshore drilling, nuclear fuels, and removal or lack of enforcement of rules to protect water quality and enforce the clean-up of Duke Energy’s coal ash pits. We’d also note a 53% reduction in the number of DEQ water quality enforcement actions since 2009.

Whomever Cooper picks to lead DEQ, the new Secretary will face a daunting list of internal and external challenges. Those include rebuilding the agency’s credibility, separating the ideologues hired during the McCrory years from the professionals within the DEQ ranks, restoring agency morale, navigating changes in environmental rules at the federal level and continuing to fend off a hostile legislature.

Special Session on Disaster Recovery

Next week, the legislature is scheduled to meet briefly – for one or two days at the most – to approve funding from the state’s so-called Rainy Day Fund to help the state recover from its recent spate of disasters, including the wildfires that occurred in our region earlier last month. Look for legislators to try to keep their recovery legislation focused on state matching funds for federal FEMA assistance for agricultural losses, housing and infrastructure such as damaged roads and highways.

During the last few weeks, MountainTrue staff has talked to several legislators about including some preventive measures in the disaster package that are specifically targeted at WNC. These included funding to map potential landslides and money to evaluate and clean-up the most high-risk animal waste ponds in our region – there are more than 40 – before the next big storm pushes that waste into our rivers and streams.

The bad news is that legislators are reluctant to add anything to next week’s disaster bill that isn’t directly related to Hurricane Matthew or the fires. They fear that doing so will open the bill up to dozens of funding suggestions and bring the entire process to a grinding halt.

The good news is that there seems to be some momentum for disaster-prevention initiatives during the regular 2017 session – so look for MountainTrue to advocate for these ideas and others when legislators return to work in Raleigh in January.

That’s it for now. We’ll send you another MTRaleigh update after the New Year, as we preview Cooper’s new executive appointments, the new legislature and the General Assembly’s first day, January 11.

(PS – MountainTrue is the only western NC environmental organization with a year-round lobbyist in Raleigh looking out for our mountains. Won’t you please consider making an end-of-the-year donation to support our state advocacy work? Click here to help – and Thanks!)

No lame duck forest protection roll backs!

Action Expired

Wildfires are on our minds as over 50,000 acres of forest have burned in Western North Carolina. This is a reminder that fire management is an essential function of the U.S. Forest Service, which will have to spend increasingly more of its budget to fight larger, more dangerous fires due to a warming and drying climate. Congressional action is needed to fix to the Forest Service budget, ensuring dedicated firefighting budget. Unfortunately, efforts underway to provide such funding in the Western United States may come with damaging—and unnecessary—strings attached: the dismantling of key environmental protections for all national forests, including our Southeastern forests. Bills that would remove important protections for Southeastern forests are primed to be added into unrelated legislation when Congress returns, post-election, for its lame duck session.

Tell your representatives that any wildfire bill should be a clean funding fix, focusing solely on wildfire suppression and prevention where needed, not broadly dismantling forest protections.