North Carolina Sierra Club Blog

The newly formed North Carolina mining and energy commission has just announced their first meeting. It will be September 6, from 1 to 5 pm in the Ground Floor Hearing Room of the Archdale Building, 512 North Salisbury St. in Raleigh. Topics covered will include compliance with open meetings and public records law, state ethics requirements, and the commission’s duties under the 2012 legislation that created the commission. More information about the commission, including its membership, can be found online at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mining-and-energy-commission/home.

Under the “Clean Energy and Economic Security Act”, the State Mining Commission was reconstituted as the North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission. The commission will be responsible for developing a regulatory program to oversee oil and gas drilling, including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The commission is working to develop a new Energy Program that will oversee permitting, inspection, and regulation enforcement of all oil and gas drilling and production in the state. The Energy Program will consist of 3 staff members, a hydrogeologist, an environmental senior specialist, and a program supervisor. Anyone seriously concerned about oil and gas drilling in North Carolina should consider attending this first meeting.