A provision in a state legislative bill that attempts to counter Stokes County’s moratorium on fracking was both heavy-handed and underhanded. It simply represents the wrong way to legislate.
In the final hours of its session last week, the legislature passed a bill that includes a provision that counters moratia passed by local governments on fracking, the Journal’s Bertrand M. Gutierrez reported Tuesday. It describes as “invalidated and unenforceable” local ordinances that place conditions on fracking that go beyond those restrictions already set by state oil-and-gas regulations.
This counters a unanimous vote by Stokes County commissioners in September to halt oil-and-gas operations for three years — time the commissioners say they need to review land-use rules aimed at boosting environmental protections. And it comes in the midst of other counties considering similar actions.
Some counties in the state will probably welcome fracking and its significant economic potential within their jurisdictions. But those counties who don’t want it should have every right to reject it, just as they should have every right to decide many other issues primarily affecting them.
And measures promoting fracking shouldn’t be thrust through at the last moment.
Rep. Bryan Holloway, R-King, voted for Senate Bill 119, an omnibus bill tweaking many laws, but indicated he regrets his vote. He had gotten word from House leaders that the bill covered merely technical changes, he told the Journal. “Had I known the provision was in there, I wouldn’t have voted for it.”
Too bad those who pushed the bill didn’t afford him — and the rest of the legislature — and the citizens of the state — the opportunity to vet their brand-new idea.
Some have raised questions about the provision’s legal strength. The provision’s effect will initially be up to the state Oil and Gas Commission, which faces its own legal challenge. Rick Morris, the Stokes County manager, told the Journal “our moratorium will remain in effect as passed.”
But unfortunately, as Gutierrez indicated in a follow-up story Thursday, the provision against such moratoriums may well stand.
Mary Kerley, who helped start the grassroots group No Fracking in Stokes, said the bill’s last-minute passage was a “sneaky” act.
Grady McCallie, policy director at the N.C. Conservation Network, told the Journal that “It’s sad to see the legislature enact, and the governor sign, language intended to strip local elected officials of the power to protect their citizens’ health and property. Making it worse, the provision wasn’t in earlier House or Senate versions of the bill — it was added for the first time in conference, literally in the dead of night, on the last night of (the) session.”
Legislative backers of the provision say it’s intended to create a uniform regulatory platform between state and local governments on which oil-and-gas companies may base plans.
That’s cold comfort to everyone who cherishes local decision-making, understanding that not all counties in the state are alike.
