Latest news with #SenateAgriculture
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate Agriculture Committee reviews zoning, excavation, wasterwater bills
(Photo: NC Department of Agriculture 2018 Pesticide Report) The Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee approved one bill and discussed two others during its hearing on Tuesday. Lawmakers voted to pass House Bill 126, titled 'Revise Voluntary Ag. District Laws,' without any discussion or testimony. This measure would require government agencies considering condemning or rezoning property within a voluntary agricultural district to hold a public hearing. There would be 45 days to set up the hearing and 120 days for the local agricultural advisory board to submit its findings and recommendations to the agency. 'At this point, I've heard no opposition to this bill,' primary sponsor Rep. Jimmy Dixon (R-Duplin, Wayne) said. The bill now heads to the Senate Rules Committee. Legislators also reviewed two bills for discussion only: House Bill 247 ('8-1-1 Amendments') and House Bill 694 ('Study Water/Wastewater Regionalization'). Sen. Michael Lazzara (R-Onslow) presented HB 247 to the panel, explaining the language would be replaced with text from Senate Bill 328, which updates the Underground Utility Safety and Damage Prevention Act. 'We just made the corrections to some of the language, but essentially, it's a consensus,' he said. Sen. Tom McInnis (R-Cumberland, Moore) said he appreciated the bill, seeing as he's had a lot of complaints about 8-1-1. That's the number individuals should call prior to excavating to ensure they don't encounter any buried utilities. 'We can't move forward in our state unless we have a cohesive unit of construction,' McInnis said. If this bill passes the panel, it will proceed to the Senate Rules Committee. It's the same case for HB 694, which would direct the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina to study wastewater and water regionalization efforts. Sen. David Craven (R-Anson, Montgomery, Randolph, Richmond, Union) presented the legislation. Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) asked about the Department of Environmental Quality's role in the process of transferring water between basins. 'This starts with a notice, then DEQ works with the water applicant to develop a draft environmental statement that looks at environmental impacts, it looks at alternatives to the water withdrawal, as well as several other things of that nature,' legislative analysis Kyle Evans said.
E&E News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
USDA pick dodges climate talk, pledges to work on resilience
The Trump administration's pick to lead research efforts at the Department of Agriculture said Thursday he'll look to crop and livestock genetics to stave off the damaging effects of climate change. Scott Hutchins, an entomologist who also headed USDA research programs during the first Trump administration, didn't refer specifically to the warming climate, a topic that's off limits with the current Trump team. But he said the department will continue to invest in ways to build resilience to heat, drought and other obvious consequences for food production. 'We need to be able to utilize those tools,' Hutchins told the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee at his nomination hearing for undersecretary for research, education and economics. Advertisement Democrats on the committee homed in on the issue, pressing Hutchins to commit to research that helps farmers build climate resilience. Republicans, in turn, looked for other commitments, including to land-grant universities that work with the USDA, as well as to research facilities in their own states.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
North Carolina factories and mills cool on clean energy transition
When utility Duke Energy backed North Carolina legislation four years ago to spur new investments in natural gas and nuclear power, opposition from pulp and paper mills, furniture factories, and other large industrial customers helped tip the political scales and reshape the measure into what ultimately became a landmark bipartisan climate law. Today, some of the same companies are changing their tune: deriding solar and wind investments, embracing coal and gas, and backing a bill that would unravel the 2021 statute. Testifying before the Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee in March, three major industrial associations spoke positively about Senate Bill 261, which would eliminate a 2030 deadline for Duke Energy to cut its carbon pollution by 70% compared with 2005 levels, but maintain a requirement that it decarbonize by midcentury. The bill would also allow the utility to recover power plant development costs from ratepayers before the facilities are producing electricity — a break from the status quo that would encourage Duke to build conventional nuclear plants, which have high upfront costs and long construction timelines. Kevin Martin, head of the manufacturing and industry trade group Carolina Utility Customers Association, told Canary Media his organization is 'directionally supportive' of SB 261 but also backs the 2021 law's long-term carbon goals. Martin made similar comments to senators in the Republican-run General Assembly. Other stakeholders who testified displayed less support for the clean energy transition. 'The pause in the interim [2030] goal is wonderful,' Susan Vick, a lobbyist representing the Carolina Industrial Group for Fair Utility Rates, said in her testimony. 'We have some of the cleanest coal plants in the country, and we worry about those being retired.' Vick said her group is 'resource agnostic' but has 'serious concerns' about Duke's latest carbon reduction plan, a requirement of the 2021 law. The plan allows for what Vick called 'prolific' investments in solar and wind, resources she said were neither 'least cost' nor reliable. She also noted that her group's member companies had seen rates increase 24% on average since the law was passed. Although the Trump administration has made a sharp U-turn on Biden-era policies meant to spur clean energy, little about the economics of renewables has changed since the start of the decade. As of 2024, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration, large-scale solar fields, land-based wind turbines, and plants fueled by geothermal energy are the cheapest sources of electricity, even without tax incentives. Such realities, alongside booming power demand, have prompted major industries in North Carolina to welcome renewables alongside more traditional electricity sources. Duke Energy's monopoly has also influenced industries' approach to energy policy. Because they can't purchase power anywhere else, large customers have relied on regulators to control prices. Big power users have also sought green tariffs — allowing them to buy renewable energy at a premium with Duke acting as a go-between — to help them meet their own sustainability goals. Those dynamics led major industry groups to join forces with clean energy advocates in 2021 to fight an early draft of a bill that prescribed massive new investments in gas plants and would have charged customers for the utility's forays into new nuclear power. Dozens of mills and factories pushed back on those measures in a 2021 letter, writing that 'ratepayers are still paying hundreds of millions of dollars for similar investments at the Lee site where no power ever has, or ever will be generated,' referencing a nuclear project Duke had abandoned in South Carolina. 'The risk of new nuclear units should be shared between ratepayers and shareholders,' the companies wrote. 'We support the need to transition to clean energy,' Christina Cress, an attorney for the Carolina Industrial Group for Fair Utility Rates and an author of the letter, told Canary Media at the time. 'We have several member companies who have very ambitious carbon reduction goals.' By the fall, the bipartisan version of the bill that was signed into law allowed Duke to seek multiyear rate increases, prompting some of the industrial groups to oppose it and others to remain neutral. But none voiced opposition to a 2030 requirement that the utility cut its carbon pollution by 70%, nor to an incentive that could speed the retirement of the company's coal plants. Fast forward to 2025, and some of these same mills and factories are lining up behind a measure that would roll back the climate benefits of the 2021 law. David Haines, president of the North Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, suggested in his testimony that the state's climate law is causing recent energy price increases. 'We appreciate your concern over escalating utility costs,' Haines said to lawmakers. 'The Manufacturers Alliance shares that concern. However, [Duke's carbon reduction plan] is still out there.' One of SB 261's primary sponsors, Paul Newton, a Republican from Cabarrus County and former Duke Energy executive, resigned in March from his post as a state senator to become vice chancellor and general counsel for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But before leaving, he promoted his measure as an antidote to rising rates, citing a study from the North Carolina Utilities Commission's Public Staff, the state-sanctioned ratepayer advocate. The modeling, obtained by Inside Climate News, shows consumers would save about $13 billion by 2050 if Duke could ignore the 2030 target. But advocates caution that price projections that far into the future are circumspect. They also point to a 2024 analysis by EQ Research showing recent Duke rate increases are tied primarily to the cost of fuel, especially natural gas. In an interview, Martin didn't blame renewable energy for rising rates. Instead, he tied the Carolina Utility Customers Association's 'directional support' for SB 261 to its potential ability to spur a massive buildout of the always-on power sources Duke says it needs. 'We're looking at physical needs and physical limitations,' Martin said. 'If baseload growth is what's occurring, baseload generation is what needs to be put in place to serve that new load.' The provisions in SB 261 that allow Duke to charge ratepayers for plants still under construction lack 'guard rails' to adequately constrain costs, he said. But Martin praised the idea of spurring more nuclear power. 'We need to add more nuclear to the mix,' he said. 'This is a clean technology — carbon-free.' To be sure, not all large electric users align with the industrial groups who've spoken favorably of SB 261. Late last month, eight major employers, including Ikea and brewery Sierra Nevada, wrote to lawmakers opposing the bill in no uncertain terms. 'Companies like ours value a stable environment for energy policy,' the letter says. 'Rolling back the state's interim target would not only jeopardize the long-term transition to carbon neutrality by 2050 but would also disincentivize future investment and expansion by our business and industry colleagues.' Both businesses and investors value policy certainty, said Mel Mackin, director of state policy at Ceres, the nonprofit advocacy organization that helped draft the letter. What's more, she said, 'clean energy supports their bottom line. The economics of clean energy haven't changed. The resources are more cost competitive and continue to provide greater cost reliability.' While President Donald Trump and his backers have made corporate climate targets decidedly less in vogue, Mackin said Ceres' business members largely remain steadfast. 'We have not seen any signals that these companies are wavering on their clean energy goals or broader decarbonization goals,' she said. Though Newton abruptly resigned soon after moving SB 261 through his chamber, the bill still has powerful proponents in the legislature. Another lead sponsor is Sen. Phil Berger, the Senate's top Republican. Before lawmakers took their Easter break, senators inserted the text of the bill into their version of the budget. That means the bill is now in the hands of the Republican-led House twice over. While the economics of clean energy or corporate climate goals could yet influence the bill's outcome, advocates also emphasize that incentivizing expensive nuclear and gas projects could leave Duke customers, large and small, in the lurch. They point to two examples in the region as red flags. 'When South Carolina had a similar policy in place 10 years ago, ratepayers paid billions of dollars to fund the construction of a nuclear power plant that never produced a single unit of power,' said Claire Williamson, energy policy advocate at the North Carolina Justice Center. In Georgia, Southern Co. finally completed its Vogtle nuclear plant last year but only after significant cost overruns. Lawmakers there later sunsetted a state policy that allowed utilities to charge customers for plants still under construction, Mackin said. 'It is perplexing to me why North Carolina would consider this type of policy now,' she said.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida oil drilling changes backed by senate committee
Amid a battle about a plan for oil and gas drilling in Northwest Florida, a Senate committee approved a bill on Thursday that would set new guidelines for permitting such projects. The Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government Appropriations Committee unanimously backed the proposal (SB 300), filed by Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee. The bill would require the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to use a 'balancing test' when considering proposed drilling permits within one mile of rivers, lakes, and other water bodies. 'This balancing test should assess the potential impact of an accident or a blowout on the natural resources of such bodies of water and shore areas, including ecological functions and any water quality impacts,' the bill says. 'The balancing test must consider the ecological community's current condition, hydrologic connection, uniqueness, location, fish and wildlife use, time lag and the potential costs of restoration.' The bill was filed after the Department of Environmental Protection last year approved a draft permit for a Louisiana-based company to drill an exploratory well in Calhoun County. A challenge to the draft permit is pending at the state Division of Administrative Hearings, as environmentalists argue the project threatens the Apalachicola River and Apalachicola Bay. Simon's district includes the region. A House version (HB 1143), sponsored by Rep. Jason Shoaf, R-Port St. Joe, is ready to go to the full House, though it has some differences from the Senate bill. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arkansas legislature bill to end waterway moratoriums pulled by sponsor
Video: Report on changes to the electric utilities bill and the withdrawal of the moratorium prevention bill LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A bill that would end an Arkansas agency's ability to place a moratorium on issuing permits in watersheds was pulled by its sponsor in committee on Tuesday. Senate Bill 290 would end moratoriums along waterways, such as the one currently in place by the Department of Environmental Quality on issuing permits for confined animal feeding operations along the Buffalo River. The bill was withdrawn by its lead sponsor, Sen. Blake Johnson (R-Corning), after testimony by both supporters and opponents to the Senate Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee. New bill introduced in Arkansas legislature to end Buffalo River, watershed protections After the testimonies, Sen. Jimmy Hickey (R-Texarkana) expressed concern about the bill's potential conflict with the Administrative Procedures Act, telling Johnson he could not support it in its current form. Johnson responded by withdrawing the bill. Other Senators on the committee voiced concern about its structure and terms before Hickey's statement. Sen. Jonathan Dismang (R-Searcy) pointed out that the bill would essentially empower four committee members to have power over moratoriums in the state. Committee members Sen. Ben Gilmore (R-Crossett) and Sen. Jamie Scott (D-North Little Rock) also had questions about the bill, including its ability to contend with a possible emergency. Arkansas reaches deal to shutter hog farm near Buffalo River This is Johnson's second attempt to create a law ending watershed moratoriums. An earlier version of the bill, Senate Bill 84, required approval by the legislative council for a moratorium to be in place. The new version of the bill, Senate Bill 290, mandated approval by the Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
