How a Disaster-Relief Package Constrains N.C.’s New Governor

When Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina in late September, it caused nearly $60 billion in damage and killed more than 100 people, according to the state’s final damage assessment. 

State lawmakers late last year passed legislation containing a third round of disaster-relief measures—and they also stuck in a slew of unrelated provisions aimed at chipping away at the governor’s power and reshaping the judiciary.

Then-Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, but the General Assembly overrode his veto. He and now-Gov. Josh Stein have since filed suit against Republican legislative leaders over the 132-page package, which allocates $252 million for hurricane recovery, in addition to stripping a number of executive authorities.

Their lawsuit focuses on the law’s changes to the State Highway Patrol. The legislation removes the highway patrol from the N.C. Public Safety Department and makes it a stand-alone entity no longer under the governor’s oversight. The law keeps the current highway patrol commander in the job until 2030 “in the absence of vacancy resulting from death, resignation, or physical or mental incapacity.” Cooper and Stein said in the lawsuit that it “threatens the safety of North Carolinians by eliminating the Governor’s powers of supervision and removal over the Commander.”

There’s a lot more in the legislation, including changes to how the state crafts energy policies and who oversees elections in North Carolina (which Stein and Cooper also have tried to block in court). Here’s a look at what else is in Senate Bill 382.

Judgment Day

The legislation limits the governor’s authority to fill vacated appellate court seats, eliminates the Superior Court seats of two judges who previously ruled against the Republican-led legislature, and creates two new, special seats on that court that lawmakers, not voters, will fill.

The legislation also:

• Abolishes the North Carolina Courts Commission, a group of lawmakers, judges, and others who discuss a wide range of justice-related issues and make recommendations to the judicial branch.
• Gives the state Supreme Court chief justice (currently Republican Paul Newby) the authority to appoint the chief resident Superior Court judges in each judicial district, a post that comes with a higher salary and administrative duties. Previously, the law said that if there were multiple judges in a district, the post would go to the one who had served longest, and if they were equal in seniority, it would go to the oldest judge.
• Prohibits the state attorney general from taking positions in court that do not align with those of the legislature.

Environmental Surprises

SB 382 abolishes the state’s Energy Policy Council, an independent council composed of 10 energy policy experts—as well as the secretary of environmental quality, secretary of commerce, and the lieutenant governor—who advised elected officials on energy policy and legislation. The council was in charge of developing plans to deal with energy shortages and transition the state to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In its latest report, the council advised lawmakers to boost offshore wind production, retire old coal plants, and increase electric vehicle infrastructure.

Now, the council’s responsibilities will be shifted to the N.C. Utilities Commission, the state’s energy regulator, which oversees utility rates. It is also responsible for upholding the Duke Energy Carbon Plan, which outlines how North Carolina’s largest utility company will wean off fossil fuels. NCUC has been under fire from clean energy advocates because it allowed the company last year to push back its timeline for meeting carbon emissions-reduction goals.

SB 382 also stops Stein’s ability to appoint the majority of members to the NCUC by giving the power to name one appointee to the state treasurer, a position Republican Brad Briner recently won, and eliminating the seats of two members previously appointed by the governor. Now, the governor will appoint two commissioners, the legislature will appoint two commissioners, and the treasurer will appoint one. This paves the way for a Republican majority on the commission when three of Cooper’s appointees’ terms expire in June 2025. The bill also removes the governor’s ability to appoint the commission’s chair and gives it to the commission members.

Cooper described the NCUC appointment change as “unconstitutional” at a recent event at the new Kempower EV factory in Durham.

“The governor should have a majority of the members of the Utilities Commission,” Cooper said. “They need to make these decisions about following the law and moving forward with renewable energy that is fair to consumers and keeps rates low.”

The legislation’s other climate policy changes: 

• Encourage swine waste-to-energy facilities in Tier 1 counties by offering renewable energy credits to hog farmers that harness the methane from pig waste into biofuel. The practice has been criticized by environmental justice groups for polluting nearby communities while still releasing carbon emissions.
• Prohibit the attorney general from representing state agencies and commissions seeking to implement environmental regulations and protections.
• Provide funding for legal aid for the Rules Review Commission, which has historically blocked environmental protection laws. In the past three years, the commission has removed 30 coastal protection policies used for decades by the state’s Coastal Resources Commission (16 of which have been temporarily reinstated) and blocked the state’s Environmental Management Commission from regulating the toxic chemical 1,4 dioxane.

A recent study from the World Weather Attribution Group found that Hurricane Helene was exacerbated by climate change, and the rainfall was about 10% heavier because of it. Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and duration of storms like Helene in the coming years.

“We hope we’ll never have another month like September 2024 again, but as the odds of these extreme, impactful storms continue to increase, we also hope our state will rebuild smarter, stronger, and safer in anticipation of whatever comes next,” Assistant State Climatologist Corey Davis said in the state climate blog.

Election Oversight

To the auditor go the … elections?

Twelve of the bill’s pages—the same number dedicated to hurricane relief—deal with electoral changes, among them moving the power to appoint new State Board of Elections members from the governor to the state auditor, a position Republican Dave Boliek won in November.

The legislation also gives the auditor authority to direct and supervise the board’s budgeting. The state board’s other statutory powers will remain independent of the auditor.

The State Board of Elections is an independent agency with five board members, no more than three of whom can be from the same political party. The measure will make North Carolina the only state where the auditor has power over elections and the ability to direct the agency’s budget. Boliek has said as auditor he will leave his party label at the door but retain his conservative and Christian principles.

The legislation ends all of the current board members’ terms on April 30, so the 3-2 Democratic majority is almost guaranteed to switch to Republicans when the new four-year terms begin on May 1. The new board will pick a director two weeks later, and Democrat Karen Brinson Bell, who Boliek has criticized, could be out of a job.

Board members will still be picked from a small list recommended by the chair of each of the state’s two largest political parties, and any seats that are vacated in the middle of a term will be filled by a member of the same party.

The changes will have ripple effects on county boards of election, where four of the five members are appointed by the state board, evenly split between members of the two largest parties, and the fifth will be appointed by the auditor, a power previously held by the governor. 

The legislation also tweaks language on when the board members take office to “the year following the election of the President of the United States.” (This year previously was specified in statute or described as the year after the election of the Council of State.)

Evey Weisblat is a reporter at CityView. She has previously worked at papers in central North Carolina, including The Pilot and the Chatham News + Record. Her central beat is government accountability reporting.

Ren Larson is a staff reporter at The Assembly. She previously worked for The Texas Tribune and ProPublica’s investigative team, and as a data reporter with The Arizona Republic. She holds a master’s of public policy and an M.A. in international and area studies from the University of California, Berkeley.