Field Associate Margaret Hartzell campaigns to save North Carolina's open spaces.

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Lawmakers convened on Jones Street on Jan. 24 for their 2007 session, which is expected to last through the summer. Until lawmakers adjourn, Environment North Carolina staff will be there, advocating on behalf of clean air, clean water and open spaces. Here are some of our top priorities:

Open spaces
North Carolina’s forests, farmlands, and other critical natural areas are disappearing at almost three times the rate of the state’s population growth. This development threatens some of the state’s best-loved green spaces, and degrades water quality and wildlife habitat. Environment North Carolina is advocating recommendations made by the state’s Land and Water Conservation study commission to dedicate an additional $1 billion to protecting our parks and open spaces.

Clean, efficient energy
North Carolina has enormous potential to produce the electricity that powers our homes and businesses from homegrown, renewable sources. Environment North Carolina is promoting a renewable energy and efficiency standard that requires utilities to cut their production by 10 percent through efficiency measures, and to derive 10 percent of their energy from clean, renewable, homegrown sources like wind, solar, and agricultural byproducts.

Cutting oil dependence
With volatile gas prices, health-threatening air pollution, and the growing threat of global warming, North Carolina needs to take steps to reduce oil dependence. Environment North Carolina is promoting policies to encourage alternative bio-fuels, promote hybrid-electric vehicles, and provide more transportation alternatives.

Global warming solutions
North Carolina faces serious consequences if it doesn’t act quickly and decisively to cut global warming pollution. Scientists predict our vibrant tourist and agricultural economies could be severely affected by rising temperatures. Environment North Carolina is calling on the General Assembly’s Global Warming Commission to adopt a goal of reducing the state’s global warming pollution 10 percent by 2020.

Healthy communities
An estimated 4,700 toxic waste sites across the state threaten public health. The soil and water contamination at these sites include some of the most toxic chemicals possible, including DDT, lead, and arsenic. Polluters are actively cleaning up only 1,700 sites. Environment North Carolina is working to ensure that the state’s cleanup standards are maintained to protect public health, and that all of the state’s polluters are abiding by the law.

Clean air
Smog and soot pollution triggers asthma attacks, causes missed school days, and cuts lives short. North Carolina has acted to clean up its coal-fired power plants, but utility companies are working to build more. Environment North Carolina is urging lawmakers to adopt policies that would require utilities to use clean energy and efficiency rather than build new polluting coal plants.

Safe drinking water
Two million North Carolinians get their drinking water from private, underground wells. Last summer, lawmakers established standards to ensure that those wells provide safe drinking water to citizens. They also established an Emergency Drinking Water Fund for one year to test water and provide alternative water sources for those using contaminated wells. This year, Environment North Carolina is working to make the Emergency Drinking Water Fund permanent, and to clean up known sources of contamination.