
Coastal Provisions Amid End-Of-Session Bills
Along with coronavirus response measures, the North Carolina General Assembly passed bills with numerous environmental and coastal provisions before adjourning last week.
Along with coronavirus response measures, the North Carolina General Assembly passed bills with numerous environmental and coastal provisions before adjourning last week.
During a session that stretched into the early morning hours Friday, state lawmakers approved a number of bills with coastal, environmental and funding provisions before adjourning with plans to come back in September.
A bill advancing this week in Raleigh directs the state Department of Transportation to use $1.1 million in contingency money from last year to restart the passenger ferry service between Hatteras and Ocracoke.
State Climatologist Kathie Dello says that since taking the job in 2019 she has found residents of North Carolina are ready and willing to talk about climate change, and that the state can be a leader.
Democrats in the N.C. House have introduced a trio of bills they say are intended to demonstrate the range of steps the state could take in regulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Uncertainty over federal coronavirus relief and the state’s financial challenges loom large as the legislature resumes its 2020 short session next week with plans to take up another round of pandemic response measures.
Recently filed bills in the North Carolina General Assembly include measures to carry out planned changes at state ports and the Department of Environmental Quality, along with COVID-19 relief.
New laws in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were signed into law Monday, clearing the way for more than $1.5 billion in aid and shaping an all out response to the virus and its damage to the economy.
State lawmakers return Tuesday for what is expected to be a brief session to focus on response to the coronavirus and its ongoing damage to the state’s economy, including in tourism-dependent communities.
An apparent error in a bill that became law in 2019 revoked local government authority for a special type of bond financing that’s been used for beach renourishment projects and other types of municipal projects.