(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . North Carolina Open Thread: Wetlands, More nukes, Coal ash cleanup delays, and “Election Integrity” [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-27 NC Newsline, LISA SORG, AUGUST 25, 2023 The water stood nearly still, except for the damsel flies that touched down like seaplanes. It looked as black as Darjeeling tea, stained by tannins in the plants that had been steeping for decades. These are Pocosin wetlands, found in eastern North Carolina, where the soil is acidic and sandy, and full of carbon-rich peat. Wetlands serve as part sponge, part Brita filter, absorbing and cleaning the water. They provide habitats for birds, animals, insects and aquatic life. They store carbon, preventing it from entering the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, a major driver of climate change. But many of these wetlands — 2.5 million acres in North Carolina alone — lost environmental protection earlier this year, the result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision, and subsequently, the state legislature’s passage of the Farm Act. The nation’s high court ruled that “isolated wetlands” don’t meet the legal threshold for regulation under the Clean Water Act. The legislature piled on, ensuring in state law that regulators couldn’t protect an isolated wetland on the sly. Yet these “isolated wetlands” are often not “isolated” at all. Studies conducted by several scientists, including hydrologists from the NC Department of Environmental Quality, showed that “isolated” wetlands actually connect to other waterbodies. Those connections aren’t necessarily visible because they happen underground. These wetlands might be geographically isolated, but behind the scenes, they’re the life of the party. WUNC, Rusty Jacobs, August 23, 2023 Jim Womack insists he is not a conspiracy theorist. "I'm not one of those guys that runs around saying the election was stolen," said Womack, a former Lee County Commissioner. "You can make a case that the election was manipulated." But, he added, "I don't think you can certainly make a case of widespread voter fraud in a coordinated fashion through networks or machines or whatever." Womack is president of the recently formed North Carolina Election Integrity Team, or NCEIT, a grassroots organization whose mission, according to its website, is “to establish a trusted, statewide infrastructure comprising a network of county election integrity task forces with trained, certified, and geographically positioned operators to ensure secure and legitimate election processes.” Womack called the 2020 presidential election a "train wreck." "We should learn from the train wreck and seek to try to avoid those kinds of problems in the future by improving our laws," Womack added. NCEIT is a chapter of the Election Integrity Network, which was launched by N.C.-based attorney Cleta Mitchell. Mitchell participated in the Jan. 2021 phone call Donald Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, urging him to search for nearly 12,000 votes that could turn Trump's 2020 defeat into a victory. (Diarist’s highlight) WFAE, David Boraks, August 25, 2023 Lawmakers in Raleigh are considering a bill that could make it easier to permit new nuclear plants and extend deadlines for Duke Energy to clean up coal ash dumps at its North Carolina plants. Senate Bill 678 was introduced by Sen. Paul Newton, a Cabarrus County Republican and former Duke Energy executive . It would replace the term "renewable energy" in state statutes with "clean energy.” The bill also explicitly adds nuclear energy to the list of clean energy options as regulators decide what new electrical plants to approve. Duke Energy supports the bill and has proposed replacing some North Carolina coal plants with a new generation of small nuclear reactors . Duke is also adding solar, wind and hydroelectric capacity as it tries to reduce fossil fuel use to meet the state's climate goals. “We support modifying legislation to reflect nuclear’s critical importance as a carbon-free resource," Duke Energy spokesman Bill Norton said this week in an email. The bill also increases a current cap on leased solar energy capacity on Duke's system, from 1% to 10%. Meanwhile, the bill also would extend Duke's deadlines in state statute for removing coal ash from unlined pits at its North Carolina plants, to as late as 2038. It's mostly a technicality — bringing those deadlines in line with a 2020 settlement agreement between Duke and environmental groups. The state's 2014 Coal Ash Management Act had earlier deadlines. Thank you for reading and commenting and recommending. Wishing all a safe week. 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