North Carolina is a beautiful place to call home. From the mountains to the coast, our state boasts natural beauty that draws both residents and tourists to our state. We love our state, and we want to protect it for generations to come.
But now, North Carolinians are bearing the harsh impacts of a changing climate — increased hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and extreme temperatures are already affecting our state.
Governor Cooper stole our hearts with his ambitious climate goals. In 2018, Governor Cooper signed Executive Order No. 80, setting ambitious goals to reduce North Carolina’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Tell Governor Cooper that, for the love of our planet, climate rhetoric is not enough — we need real climate action.
In DC, Governor Cooper urged the federal government to preserve forests and act on climate — but meanwhile, the Cooper administration is green-lighting the destruction of forests and carbon-emitting projects in his own backyard.
Governor Cooper’s lip service to climate change and environmental justice has gone on long enough.
Action speaks louder than words and his continued support of wood pellets, pipelines, and other environmental injustices says it all.
The environmental justice issues we face cannot be tackled in a silo. Combating climate change and implementing a just transition requires unity and solidarity. We are united in our opposition to false solutions that put more carbon in the atmosphere, threaten the health and quality of life of surrounding communities, and place the burden of clean up on residents.
Dogwood Alliance has been working with a number of organizations and coalitions, including the NC Climate, Jobs, and Justice Coalition (NCCJJ), under the umbrella of the People’s Climate Movement. The NCCJJ has committed to a joint vision of a just transition to a 100% renewable economy.
North Carolinians have been loud and clear in their demands: no expansion of the wood pellet industry, no more fossil fuel infrastructure, permanent remediation of coal ash contamination to be paid for in full by Duke Energy, and a transition to sustainable and regenerative agriculture.
We love North Carolina, and that’s why we’re fighting for a future where all of us, including our planet, are healthy and safe.
We believe in a future with 100% clean, renewable energy, and beautiful, standing forests — ushered in by a just transition policy that creates quality jobs and and prioritizes the most impacted communities.
Governor Cooper: For the Love of our Planet, Act on our Demands.
Specifically, we call for:
- A permanent moratorium on all new fossil fuel infrastructure, including the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Southgate project, offshore drilling operations and seismic blasting.
- The phasing out of all coal and gas-fired power plants and storage facilities.
- A NC DEQ Clean Energy Plan that includes a timeline and strategy to move North Carolina towards 100% renewable energy and a decarbonized clean energy economy.
- Permanent remediation of coal ash contamination to be paid for in full by Duke Energy, the responsible party, and not at the expense of taxpayers and/or customers through a rate hike.
- A commitment to increase protections for forests, ecosystems and impacted communities and a pledge to halt the massive cutting of N.C. forests to produce wood pellets for export and use in Europe.
- A transition to sustainable and regenerative agriculture that does not employ biogas pipelines and a commitment to reduce pollution from industrial hog and poultry farms.
- A just transition policy that includes a funding mechanism for job training programs and a strategy for creating quality jobs that provide a living wage and prioritize the most impacted and marginalized communities.