Friday follies: The growing credibility problem for legislative leaders

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, March 13, 2015.

Permits for fracking can be issued in North Carolina beginning next week. Supporters of the practice have always assured people worried about the potential environmental consequences of the controversial horizontal drilling for natural gas that tough regulations will be in place to protect the water, land and air from the pollutants involved with fracking.

One of the safeguards was a mandate that the Environment Management Commission would develop tough rules to protect air quality. But now, just days before permits can be issued, legislative leaders have rushed through a bill that eliminates that requirement.

Supporters of removing the mandate for developing specific air quality regulations for fracking claim that it’s no big deal, that there are already enough laws and regulations on the books.

That’s simply not true when it comes to fracking—it’s never been done before in North Carolina—and it misses an important point.

Fracking proponents were the ones who assured everybody that the new tough rules were needed and would be in place. The legislation they wrote and passed included the mandate that EMC develop the new air quality rules.

That means they either agreed that the new rules were needed or just included the mandate in the fracking legislation to win votes, knowing the whole time that they could simply eliminate it when the time to issue permits approached.

Either way, the folks running the House and Senate lost more credibility this week. They promised that our air quality would be protected before fracking began and this week they broke that promise. And it’s worth remembering the next time they make a commitment to do something. You can’t count on it.

- See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/03/13/the-follies-225/#sthash.u4pFN8em.dpuf