Hackney puts brakes on Yadkin River Trust bill

Here's an interesting development on a Senate-passed bill that has pretty broad bipartisan support in the General Assembly to create a Yadkin River Trust that might one day own and operate the hydroelectric dams for which Alcoa Power Generating Inc. is seeking another 50-year license to operate: House Speaker Joe Hackney, a lawmaker with a strong environmental ethic whom many assumed would back the bill, has applied the brakes.

Rep. Cullie Tarleton, D-Watauga (and a former Charlotte broadcaster who now lives in Blowing Rock) is chairman of the House Water Resources and Infrastructure Committee. His committee has held two hearings allowing proponents and opponents of the Yadkin River Trust bill to have their say. He had planned another committee session next week with a vote on the bill. But Hackney called him and asked him to cancel the meeting, he said. The speaker did not give him a reason why, he said. (Just for the record, when a speaker requests a committee session be cancelled, it's something considerably more than a request, and legislators fully understand what it means. It's more like an order, but more politely put.)

I talked to Hackney last night about why he wanted the session cancelled, and it's still not entirely clear to me. I understood him to say that the bill has passed the Senate and thus still would be eligible next year when the legislature reconvenes. He thought it might be best to wait and see whether Alcoa got relicensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He didn't perceive a need to rush. And a delay would give everyone the opportunity to work out a compromise. BUT, when I repeated my understanding of those words to make sure I followed what he was saying (he was on a cell on his way home, I was on a cell in my truck, and I could not hear perfectly and couldn't take notes) he seemed to say, well, not necessarily.

It was also unclear that Hackney was up to date on everything that had transpired in the water resources committee. When I told him that Deputy Attorney General Faison Hicks had testified in the committee this week that it would help the policy of Gov. Bev Perdue to stop the relicensing of the dams if the legislature were to approve the Yadkin River Trust first, Hackney said he had not known that the attorney general had taken that position. But it was clear that there will be no committee session next week, when Tarleton had told committee members that they would vote on the bill. But Hackney also noted that while there was a lot going on right now, lawmakers would still have time to consider important legislation.

He also told me that he and Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, R-Cabarrus and the prime sponsor of the Senate bill, had talked and that he and Hartsell wanted the same thing. I don’t think that’s correct. Hartsell wants the state to be able to recover the federal license that Alcoa has had for 50 years, and for the state to manage the water quality and quantity. I don’t think Hackney is to that point, yet anyway.

As anyone who has paid attention to the legislature knows, Speaker Hackney defies pigeonholing. While he is inclined to look favorably on environmental protection, he also has to contend with a lot of other issues, including legal and business ramifications of issues as well as the views of his membership, which can run the gamut from other there to over here. Because water quality and water supplies are two issues wrapped up in the Alcoa issue, many might assume that Hackney would go along with the Yadkin River Trust bill. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But it sounds to me like he has not decided.