GOP Leg. Plans To Strip NC Environmental Agency Of Authority Over Forests, Water; Job Cuts Likely

[hatrack]

RALEIGH There is a move in the Republican-controlled legislature to downsize and make more business-friendly the state's leading environmental agency, a move that has set off alarms among environmentalists.

A measure moving through the Senate would strip the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources of several of its functions. And Senate budget writers are considering further downsizing measures.

Lawmakers have also begun holding hearings across the state to review the state's rules and regulations, with environmental regulations a particular area of interest. "I'd like to see DENR downsized," said Sen. Don East, a Republican from Pilot Mountain and co-chairman of the budget committee that controls DENR's purse strings. "I'd like to see them be a kinder, gentler agency. I'd like to see DENR be a help, not a hindrance to business and industry."

EDIT

The Senate is considering two bills that would move divisions of DENR - forestry and soil and water conservation - to the state Department of Agriculture. That agency is controlled by Republican Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. East said both divisions fit well with the mission of the agriculture department, reducing duplication. He said the idea of moving the forestry division to agriculture was first proposed by the N.C. Forestry Association, the trade group that represents the state's timber industry, professional foresters, landowners and others.

EDIT

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/03/24/2167032/denr-faces-downsizing.html

[Iterate]

1. One begins to suspect they have Haiti in mind as a model economy and ecology.

[freshwest]

2. All those GOP governor meetings over the years led to this crap.

[blm]

3. GOP LEGISLATURE to be specific. The Governor of NC is a Democrat. 2010 turned over control

of legislature to GOP, and they are attacking the Dem governor and undermining every good program that benefits the regular citizen.