Despite pushback from environmentalists, some Democrats, Cooper signs farm bill into law
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed several bills into law Friday, most notably, the state’s annual Farm Act, which has stirred controversy due to a provision relating to the collection of methane gas that some have said could harm the environment.
The North Carolina Farm Act of 2021, which quickly moved through the state House and Senate over the last two weeks, makes changes to a series of agricultural and forestry laws.
It includes a number of agricultural reforms that top legislative Republicans have heralded as changes that will help farmers. Those reforms include a provision that bolsters the authority of local governments to establish and oversee voluntary agricultural districts, which help preserve and protect farmlands and provide farmers with public recognition of their land.
Lawmakers appeared to support much of the bill in recent weeks, with the exception of one section that makes it easier for the state’s hog farmers to collect and sell methane gas from hog waste lagoons.
Hog farmers would be granted a general permit to operate biogas extraction projects by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, instead of obtaining an individual permit. Biogas extraction projects allow farmers to cover waste ponds with biogas digesters, or large containers that capture the escaping methane that is later refined for sale as natural gas.
Democrats were split during debate over the bill on the House floor late last month, with some House Democrats like Rep. William Richardson joining Republicans in calling the creation of a general permit “a step in the right direction.” But others blasted the provisions as harmful for the environment and the low-income communities, many of them communities of color, that live near the farms from which methane would be piped to gas production plants.
“We are establishing a general permit that doesn’t allow for site-specific reviews; it actually doesn’t allow for water quality considerations or air quality considerations,” said Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Guilford Democrat who spoke in opposition to creating a general permit, according to video of her remarks. “This proposal will concentrate the toxins and contaminants that are in hog waste.”
Environmental groups also opposed granting hog farms a general permit to collect methane.
“Capturing methane from lagoons doesn’t solve the persistent problem of hog farms spraying liquid waste and leaking it into groundwater. Black communities are being poisoned with nitrates from these farms,” said the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters in a tweet urging Cooper to veto the bill.
The bill ultimately passed both chambers with Democrats accounting for all the no votes in both the House and the Senate, but with a handful of Democrats in each chamber voting in favor of the bill.
Cooper signs bills into law
Other significant bills signed by Cooper on Friday include the following:
▪ Senate Bill 668, which authorizes another payment option for North Carolina’s retirement benefit cap for teachers and government employees at the local and state levels. The bill was introduced to address the issue of pension spiking, which occurs when employees retire with pension benefits that exceed what they contributed over the course of their career.
Spiked pensions, which are usually the result of significant bumps in salary or late-career promotions, can potentially end up costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
▪ House Bill 272, which lowers the legal standard for the amount of lead in drinking water that constitutes a “lead poisoning hazard” from 15 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion.
▪ House Bill 238, which aims to crack down on the illegal practice of skimming, or when fraudsters are able to steal credit card information by installing skimming devices on credit card readers at gas stations or ATMs. The bill goes further than current law by making it a Class I felony to possess, sell, or deliver a skimming device.
Cooper vetoes unemployment benefits bill
Friday, Cooper also vetoed Senate Bill 116, legislation touted by top North Carolina Republicans that would have ended the state’s participation in weekly $300 supplemental unemployment benefits that are currently being provided by the federal government.
“Prematurely stopping these benefits hurts our state by sending back money that could be injected into our economy with people using it for things like food and rent,” Cooper said of his opposition to the bill in a release.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published July 2, 2021 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Despite pushback from environmentalists, some Democrats, Cooper signs farm bill into law."
