MountainTrue Raleigh Report
The MountainTrue Raleigh Report covers environmental politics and policy, with a focus on the issues that affect Western North Carolina. Sign up to get the Raleigh Report delivered to your inbox.
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Special Raleigh Report: GenX and the Safety of NC’s Public Drinking Water
Controversy over the presence of GenX, an emerging contaminant, in North Carolina’s drinking water has focused on the Cape Fear area, but the issue raises serious questions about the safety of drinking water across the state. This special edition of our Raleigh Report explains what’s been found in NC’s drinking water and how we hope to make it safer.
MT Raleigh Report | August 9, 2017
Lawmakers gathered last week for a one-day special session scheduled when they adjourned their regular 2017 session in July. Originally, last week’s session was focused on complying with court orders to revise many of their voting districts. But days before the session, the court overseeing the redistricting case ordered a different calendar for revising the maps.
MountainTrue Raleigh Report | August 1, 2017
The Senate and House reconvene Thursday for a special session they scheduled before adjourning last month. While lawmakers have the flexibility to do just about anything they choose during this week’s session, they are widely expected to limit their work to a handful of unfinished bills left over from the regular session.
MountainTrue Raleigh Report | July 7, 2017
Typically, lawmakers approve the state budget some time in late June or July and sometimes even later. Then it takes a week or two (or more) of long days and nights of committee meetings and debates in the full Senate and House to approve a flurry of bills before they recess for the year. This year, all of that took place, but, instead of ending the session for the year, lawmakers scheduled follow up sessions on August 3 and September 6.
MountainTrue Raleigh Report | June 12, 2017
MountainTrue Raleigh Report | June 12, 2017 Last week, after months of speculation, private meetings and a lot of rumors on Jones Street, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives rolled out and quickly approved a bill to rewrite the laws that shape clean...
MountainTrue Raleigh Report | June 8, 2017 – A Bit of Good News
Late last week, the House approved its version of the state’s budget by a vote of 80-31. The good news is that on state funding for the NC Department of Environmental Quality, the House refused to go along with the Senate, which made staggering cuts to the Department’s ability to protect our air, water and public health. A BIG thanks to all the MountainTrue supporters who called, emailed and wrote lawmakers to oppose these short-sighted cuts.
MT Raleigh Report | May 18, 2017 — Assault on the Environment
In this week’s MountainTrue Raleigh Report: The General Assembly’s assault on the state’s environmental protection agency (and what you can do about it), MountainTrue in Raleigh and the environment grows our economy. Last week at the General Assembly was all about the budget. As you may remember, Governor Cooper released his proposed FY17-18 and FY18-19 budget proposal in March.
MT Raleigh Report | April 18, 2017 — Wait, Then Hurry Up
The General Assembly has picked up speed in recent weeks, following the passage of the recent HB2-related legislation. Last week, Legislators had a short week before heading out of town for a spring break. They return today, April 18th, and will rush headlong towards “crossover”— the deadline for most bills to be passed by at least one chamber in order to be considered for the rest of the session.
MT Raleigh Report | April 4, 2017 – Stream Dangers
In this installment of MTRaleigh – Rumors, deal-making and legislating surrounding the repeal of HB2 sucked up much of the air at the General Assembly this past week. In this edition of MTRaleigh, we’ll look at the danger to streams posed by legislation moving through the legislature and give a quick overview of HB2 drama.
MountainTrue Raleigh Report — January 10, 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.