Damaging North Carolina’s long environmental heritage

Over the past half century, North Carolina has been a leader on the environment through the exemplary work of many dedicated and impassioned people.

Principal among these leaders have been our governors, beginning with Jim Holshouser and his work on the Coastal Area Management Act that has protected our unique and beautiful coastline. Jim Martin was a champion of air quality and achieved the regulation of a long list of air pollutants as a result of his executive order to bring air pollution under control. Jim Hunt gave us the Million Acre Initiative and showed us that conservation matters. Mike Easley and his administration produced the acclaimed Clean Smokestacks Act that is to this day manifesting the benefits of clean air for all North Carolinians.

More recently, Beverly Perdue provided critical leadership during the Great Recession to maintain the state’s environmental mission to sustain clean air and water, protect our land and natural resources, and address climate change. She oversaw approval of the Jordan Lake and Falls Lake Rules to assure clean and safe drinking water. Gov. Perdue also worked with Attorney General Roy Cooper on his lawsuit that resulted in the “EPA/TVA Settlement,” stemming the interstate transport of air pollution out of the Tennessee Valley for years to come.

I was proud to work on these particular initiatives.

Each administration to the next had its successes and saw opportunities unfulfilled for one reason or another, but common among each was the passion and desire to move North Carolina forward for the good of its people. Today, we have seen this proud heritage on the environment, conservation and natural resources regress unimaginably with the actions of the McCrory administration. Instead of continuing leadership on the environment, there is fingerpointing and gnashing of teeth at those who have gone before, assigning blame for perceived deficiencies while long enjoyed environmental protections are rolled back, conservation is starved for resources and natural resources are put at risk.

North Carolina deserves better. A clean environment is essential to the health of our people, and it is an imperative for successful businesses in our state.

Next year our state engages in its time-honored quadrennial right of electing a governor. It is time to change our political dialogue away from churlish rhetoric to the constructive consideration of what course the Tar Heel State should pursue on the environment. The selection of a governor should respect our state’s heritage and look to leadership that brings maturity back to North Carolina’s disposition on the environment and offers common sense in its actions to nurture the land we know as the Old North State.

This story was originally published October 26, 2015 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Damaging North Carolina’s long environmental heritage."