“We need to not let up, we need to continue and we need to get stronger somehow,” said Mayor Bobby Owens as he tried to drive home a point about the difference between today and the first time he fought offshore drilling off the North Carolina coast. Owens was chair of the Dare County Board […] Local News | Full Article
Gov. Roy Cooper late Friday signed a bill making long-sought changes to North Carolina’s shellfish leasing program that was unanimously approved in the General Assembly. The House passed Senate Bill 648, Support Shellfish Aquaculture, on June 12 in a 116-0 vote. In early May, the Senate approved the bill in a 47-0 vote. In a […] Fishing | Full Article
Long-term efforts to expand shellfish leasing in North Carolina waters cleared another legislative hurdle this week, an indication that, unlike last year’s bill, this one is on its way to becoming law. The new bill, hammered out in a yearlong stakeholder process after the failure of last year’s legislation, is drawn in part from a […] Fishing | Full Article
Bills to establish a new shellfish leasing program and extensive changes to the state’s marine fisheries oversight began moving through the Senate this week. Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, introduced both measures Wednesday morning in a review-only session of the Senate’s Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources Committee. Sanderson said Senate Bill 554, Marine Fisheries Reforms, […] Fishing | Full Article
Legislators at the helm of key House and Senate committees said they will try again to reach a broad agreement on the path forward for the state’s mariculture industry. A bill that would have established a new leasing program and new rules to encourage mariculture in state waters failed in the final days of last […] Local News | Full Article
Environmental advocates are warning that a constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall will dramatically shift implementation of environmental policies, allowing for greater direct control by the legislature. Last week, in the closing days of this year’s short session, legislators approved six constitutional amendments for the November ballot, among them a revision to the constitution’s […] Community News | Full Article
By KIRK ROSS COASTAL REVIEW ONLINE Dozens of coastal provisions were approved last week as the North Carolina General Assembly pushed through more than a hundred bills in an attempt to wrap up its 2018 short session by month’s end. The week began with a House override of Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state […] Local News | Full Article
The reception to recommendations for fare increases and cuts in off-season ferry trips ranged from tepid to ice cold at a legislative hearing here last week. Members of the joint House and Senate Program Evaluation Oversight Committee said the proposal from the legislature’s Program Evaluation Division, which would double the fares for some state-operated ferry […] Local News | Full Article
If this seems all too familiar, well … it should. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is working under the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, otherwise known as the 2017-2022 National OCS Program, for offshore oil and gas development, which was approved in 2016. The Obama administration ultimately took Atlantic offshore waters […] Local News | Full Article
The federal government and Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration remain on course for a legal battle over the push to open the East Coast to offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling. After a weekend meeting with Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Cooper said he had reiterated his request for an exemption similar to one […] Local News | Full Article
