RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — As state House committee members were wrapping up up their work on legislation to guide North Carolina’s position on climate change, a handful of protesters showed up Tuesday to say the state must not hide from scientific evidence on rising sea levels.
Republican Rep. Pat McElraft of Carteret County said a committee has almost finished reworking the bill that was unanimously rejected last week. She said it could be up for a vote Wednesday and that committee members are “pretty much in agreement” on how to move forward.
The new version calls for more study on how much the sea level is expected to rise by 2100 — but it does so carefully. McElraft, sponsor of the bill, said the new version will not include a projection by a state-sponsored science panel that the increase could be 3 feet. It also will not limit the state to using only historical data in calculating future trends. The additional studies will take three-to-four years, she said, and in the meantime a moratorium would be placed on using the 3-foot figure.
The bill could determine how much development is allowed and affect insurance rates on the coast.
“We are asking for more science, we are asking for legitimate science, science that didn’t just use one model out of hundreds of models out there,” McElraft said.
The sea-level discussion started after the state-appointed science panel warned sea levels could rise by more than 3 feet by 2100 and threaten more than 2,000 square miles of coastal land. The Senate rewrote HB 819, put forth by McElraft in 2011, to legislate against those scientific recommendations.
About a half dozen protesters and about as many news reporters, congregated Tuesday outside the legislative building in Raleigh. The demonstrators held signs proclaiming “You can’t hide the truth” and “Don’t put short-term profit before the safety of our coastal communities.” Duke graduate student Ethan Case brought a meter-long sign to physically represent scientists’ warnings.
“There are members of the older generation that are essentially creating debt for younger people that we’re going to have to pay later,” Case said. “They’re pushing an anti-youth agenda that passes the cost of this poor coastal planning onto young people and future North Carolinian taxpayers.”
Organized by www.350.org, a climate change nonprofit, the protesters spoke out against rejecting the science panel’s warning of rising sea levels. Protesters hand delivered to McElraft the signatures of more than 3,000 people who want lawmakers to use the scientists’ estimates. Copies were also sent to House Speaker Thom Tillis.
“I’ve personally already witnessed all of the disasters that come from flooding on the coast,” said Cristina Benavides, political science senior at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. “Last year, when I was walking to class at UNC Wilmington I had to walk through water on campus that reached up to my knees. If these are already the effects we see now, we can’t ignore the disastrous implications of not incorporating climate change science.”
McElraft fielded all the questions the group had for her and assured the group she wanted to ensure the best science is used.
“I’m not a scientist,” McElraft said. “I’m not ignoring anything. I’m a policy maker and you can’t make policy on something that is not scientific.”
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Allen Reed can be reached on Twitter at: —http://twitter.com/Allen_Reed
