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The next leg of the 2025 legislative session begins in Raleigh this week, though no votes are expected as the state House and Senate continue trying to hammer out a budget deal. But advocates are still watching the statehouse to see what other legislation might emerge.
This session has so far been unproductive and regressive from the point of view of North Carolina environmental advocates.
“To me, the scariest bill that passed this session was House Bill 402,” said Brooks Rainey, a lobbyist for the Southern Environmental Law Center, or SELC. “It makes it very difficult for agency boards and commissions to pass rules.”
That includes the state Environmental Management Commission, which regulates PFAS pollution.
The General Assembly also eliminated the state’s interim carbon pollution reduction target, which would have required Duke Energy to reduce its emissions to 70% of 2005 levels by 2030.
But there may be good news on the horizon for environmentalists in the form of parking lot reform, PFAS pollution regulation and funding for conservation and resiliency efforts.
Eliminating off-street parking minimums
House Bill 369, the Parking Lot Reform and Modernization Act, would eliminate mandatory parking lot minimums to reduce the amount of impermeable surfaces in towns and cities. Those surfaces, including large parking lots, create more runoff into nearby waterways.
“Parking lots lead to runoff, and runoff is the No. 1 source of pollution in our state, not just our basin,” said Ryan Carter, policy director for the Catawba Riverkeeper.
The bill awaits a vote in the Senate, though it lost a provision that would have banned pavement sealants with high concentrations of fossil fuel byproducts.
“It’s an important piece of this legislation,” said CleanAIRE NC’s Andrew Whelan. These chemicals may cause a range of health impacts, including liver damage and cancer from long exposures, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. “[These pollutants] are creating hazardous runoff for communities.”
Several municipalities in Mecklenburg County, including Charlotte, have already passed similar local bans.
Repealing the state solar energy tax break
One bill that didn’t survive the N.C. House still has clean energy advocates on the defensive.
“The bill itself removes the current property tax abatement that is available for utility-scale solar in North Carolina,” said Matt Abele, executive director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. House Bill 369, or The Farmland Protection Act, would have phased out the 80% tax abatement for solar projects, fully repealing the tax break after four years. The bill did not make it out of the House, but solar energy advocates will be watching for similar language in future filings.
Proponents of the bill said the current legislation subsidizes solar energy development at the expense of $5.9 billion in county tax revenue, Adam Wagner of NC Newsroom reported in April. However, a June report from the NC SEA noted that county tax revenue increased over $17 million on property that now houses utility-scale solar installations.
“The taxes paid on those parcels of land are significantly higher than what was being paid there prior,” Abele said.
In general, the state grants tax abatements to projects, organizations, or property that promote economic or community development. In North Carolina, charter schools, pollution control measures and some fraternal organizations receive tax abatements through the existing legislation.
“Solar is a great way for farmers to find new revenue,” said Drew Ball, Southeast campaigns director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Agrovoltaics is a type of agriculture where a solar farm occupies the same land that farmers use for crops, livestock or pollinator habitat. For example, a farmer might graze sheep on the same land where they generate and sell energy back to the grid. “It also allowed for North Carolina to become one of the top states for solar in the country.”
In 2024, the Solar Energy Industries Association ranked North Carolina No. 4 in the nation for utility-scale solar capacity.
Battle for the budget
The SELC is monitoring the ongoing budget wrangling to see if legislators further cut funding for the state Department of Environmental Quality. The state’s "mini budget," which Gov. Stein signed into law earlier this month, eliminated about $5 million in vacant positions at the agency.
These cuts dovetail with a category-by-category “shot clock” that Republicans and some Democrats have imposed on environmental permitting. If the agency doesn’t process a completed application within a set time, the permit is granted by default. In the 2023 Regulatory Reform Act, state legislators put a 60- to 90-day limit on dredging and energy project applications.
In June, House Bill 768 placed a 10- to 15-day limit on state regulators approving nationwide or regional permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers once an application is completed.
Mecklenburg County Democrats Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed joined Rep. Shelly Willingham in cross party lines to vote in favor of both sets of regulations.
The Natural Resources Defense Council is pushing legislators to include funds for PFAS research and innovation projects, farmland preservation, floodplain buyouts and Poe Hall renovations at N.C. State University in this year’s budget.
“They were claiming that solar is one of the leading causes of loss of farmland,” Ball said, referring to the Republican-led push to end the solar tax abatement. “But what we really see is that it’s sprawl.”
Recent drafts of the budget limit funding for energy-efficient infrastructure certifications, such as LEED certifications. These certifications indicate that a building uses less energy, minimizes waste, reduces water consumption and meets other sustainability criteria.
The current budget prohibits capital improvement project funds from going toward a similar certification unless the certification pays for itself within 10 years. It would also prohibit funding to certify public school buildings.
Other bills
House Bill 907, the NC Recovery and Resiliency Act sponsored by House Majority Leader John Bell, would create a Disaster Readiness and Response Fund.
“This is an extremely important protection to set in place at a time [when] federal agencies such as FEMA are seeing their budgets reduced,” Whelan said.
House Bill 171 would prevent state agencies from referencing environmental justice reports when regulating polluters. As of Monday, the bill was on Gov. Stein’s desk.
“There are some communities in North Carolina — Sanford comes to mind, or Robeson County — where certain neighborhoods are just overburdened with polluting industries,” Rainey said. Environmental justice studies can help state regulators prevent further pollution in communities where polluters are already located.
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