Latest Cooper Veto Targets Environmental Bill with GenX Funding | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post was created by the staff for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

    Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed a bill that devotes state funding to address the controversial chemical GenX in the Cape Fear River, setting up a political war of words with legislative leaders.

    "Clean water is critical for our health and our economy, and this legislation fails to appropriate any needed funds to the departments in state government charged with setting standards and enforcing laws to prevent illegal chemical discharges into rivers used for drinking water," Cooper said in a news release. "In addition, it weakens protections from river pollution and landfills and repeals a local plastic bag ban supported by local governments and businesses that was passed to protect the environment."

    The veto of House Bill 56 prompted a response from Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. "Shame on Gov. Cooper for vetoing a local solution, developed by this region's local representatives, to immediately improve water quality for their constituents, neighbors and own families - simply because it did not achieve his preferred objective of growing a bureaucracy that has thus far failed to resolve this crisis," Berger said in a prepared statement. "I encourage my Senate colleagues to swiftly override his veto."

    Berger's office also highlighted reaction from New Hanover County Republican Sen. Michael Lee, one of the chief proponents of the General Assembly's GenX funding plan. "I am troubled that the governor would place politics ahead of public safety, and prioritize bureaucracy over results," Lee said. "He is now on record for rejecting the only proposal that will actually help clean our drinking water in the lower Cape Fear region."

    Lawmakers will have a chance to address Cooper's veto when they return to Raleigh on Oct. 4. Rules require that the House act first on a veto override vote since H.B. 56 started in that chamber.

    Cooper has vetoed 12 bills during his first year in the executive mansion, the second-highest total for a single year in state history. To date, lawmakers have voted to override seven of those vetoed bills.