On April 17th The League of Women Voters of Moore County held their monthly luncheon meeting. Their meeting was held at the Little River Country Club at 11:30AM. The program was hosted by the board of the League, the speaker for this luncheon was Senior Attorney of the Southern Environmental Law Center, Mary Maclean Asbill.
Pat Pinkerton, Mary Maclean Asbill, and Peggy Crawford
The Southern Environmental Law Center is known at the Federal, State, and Local levels of their pursuit of environmental change and awareness. They mainly focus on climate change, energy, air quality, water quality, and land usage.
Asbill presented to the League the rising concerns and legal issues that are infringing on the environment on both a local and a national scale.
“North Carolina has a law that says they cannot have any more environmental regulations that are more protective then Federal regulations,” Asbill said. “That used to be hard, but workable.”
“Because of the legislation of the previous office,” she continued, “we had the federal government to protect us, but with the current legislation, they are infringing on the environment left and right so we no longer have the federal safety.”
Throughout the luncheon, women and men in attendance were able to voice their questions and concerns to the speaker. Asbill answered such concerns while communicating that the current office of our nation has not exactly made it easy for her to lobby for the environmental issues she represents.
“Something we have been continually working on is environmental justice, we realize that it is all connected and that the safekeeping of the environment is connected to the people, “ she said. “Part of that safeguarding for all citizens is that we all need to be aware of all the things that are bad for the environment in our communities.”
The League focuses largely on such issues that they see as important to the community and ultimately the good of the nation.
With the environmental issues that awareness is being raised for, the club feels it is important to remain non-partisan but to take an active role in supporting or going against issues that affect all people in our nation.
“We see at least one regulatory reform bill every session of the General Assembly. Which means we see around one regulatory repeal each time,” Asbill said.
Asbill also brought to light the importance of the issues that the government is looking at and the tactics she is continually employing to be effective in getting the attention of lawmakers.
The strategy that Asbill presented that her law office employs is that they pursue communication in these environmental issues throughout all three branches of government, to be able to cover the areas of government that are each a part of the decisions that effect the environment.
“Not everything we do is pursuing lawsuits,” she said. “We submit comments and requests to corporations before we take on the challenge of their actions by pushing a lawsuit for change.”
The League feels quite motivated to voice their concerns affecting the local and state levels of environmental issues that are also impacting the coastal lines and quality of life in North Carolina.
The League is open to men and women and invites visitors to join in their monthly meetings, take part in supporting standing up for their local and state community, and to learn more about the League’s passions.
The League is sponsoring and promoting such community programs as the Ruth Pauley Lecture Series, which was running at the Sandhills Community College this past season. They stand alongside the raising awareness of voter education, environmental fracking, outreach groups, and gun safety.
They host their monthly luncheon meetings on the third Tuesday of each month from 11:30AM to 1:30PM. The speaking topics, board-meeting minutes, and more information about programs of the League of Woman Voters of Moore County can be found on their website at https://www.lwvmc.org.
