Create a full-time environmental commission?

Dave Insco, executive director of Carteret Economic Development in Morehead City, had some thoughts about a recent column I wrote about the tendency of the N.C. General Assembly to rewrite environmental rules developed over a multi-year period by the N.C. Environmental Management Commission. He got involved in a legislative discussion called a stakeholder process to work out problems with the proposed coastal stormwater rules, and had this to say:

"I don't pretend to know how rules should be made, but I can assure you from my experience, that the way it is being done in North Carolina by the Environmental Management Commission is not working.

"As we went through the rules line by line that the EMC and RRC [Rules Review Commission] had passed, we uncovered numerous errors and "unintended consequences."
More than once, the Division of Water Quality Staff admitted that the rules needed to be corrected or that "that was not the intention" of the rules, even though the consequences were devastating.

"So my conclusion is that the rule making process is broken - severely broken. I don't know how or who will or can take the responsibility to correct it, but as a citizen of North Carolina, I am deeply concerned.


"If what I've seen with my experience dealing with the rule making process is indicative of what goes on in every state agency, I am truly amazed that North Carolina government works as well as it does."

That column mentioned that Gov. Jim Hunt had thought about abolishing the citizen-based Environmental Management Commission and replacing it with a professional commission, with adequate staff, similar to the N.C. Utilities Commission, which regulates public utilities. A few days after that column ran in the Observer and the News & Observer, the legislature approved this provision in H 2431, the Studies Bill, hours before adjourning:

"SECTION 6.4. Consolidation of Environmental Regulatory Programs – The Commission (Environmental Review Commission) may study the desirability of abolishing existing environmental regulatory programs and replacing them with a new, full time Environmental Management Commission modeled on the Utilities Commission in order to improve efficiency, communication, and coordination within State government in the development and implementation of environmental and natural resources policy."

Dave Inscoe sent along a reference to that bill, and added,
"It seems that others recognize that the EMC rule making process is broken. As I pointed out, the Coastal Stormwater Rules are very complex, and an appointed, part-time Commission cannot be expected to understand the many details of complex rules. The rules are written by staff members, many of whom have bias, and as such the rules can easily contain "unintended consequences" and technical errors.

"Hopefully, the legislature will assume their responsibility by abolishing the EMC and establishing a full-time professional commission -and maybe then developers, economic developers, and coastal governments won't have to appeal every rule they make to the legislature."

Will a professional EMC have a chance in the next legislature? I dunno, but legislative staffers reminded me the other day that Jim Hunt was not the only person interested in the possibility. So was Bev Perdue, now the Democratic nominee for governor.