Cooper rendered impotent once again

RALEIGH – Gov. Roy Cooper has found himself on the receiving end of yet another veto override at the hands of the Republican super-majorities in the General Assembly.

House Bill 56, amending environmental laws and allocating funds to the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority to clean up water contaminated with chemical GenX by Dupont subsidiary Chemours, was passed along mostly party lines in August. At the time, Democrat lawmakers complained that such a direct initial solution to the Cape Fear region’s contamination problem undercut their apparent desires to grow the bureaucracy at the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality using taxpayer money.

Alas, after passage of the bill, Cooper vetoed the legislation that provided for critical first steps to be taken to remove GenX from suspect water supplies.

“Providing immediate resources for water treatment facilities and researchers in Southeastern North Carolina was an important step to protect the people of the Cape Fear region,” said House Speaker Tim Moore after the N.C. House overrode the gubernatorial veto.

“We will continue to hold hearings in the House Select Committee on North Carolina River Quality to investigate the GenX contamination and develop solutions that ensure administrative accountability and clean drinking water for our citizens.”

In response to the override, Cooper released a statement intimating that Republicans chose politics over clean drinking water…by funding efforts to clean contaminated water.

Governor Cooper issued the following response to the legislature’s vote to override the veto of HB 56: pic.twitter.com/fXnED1jyVs

— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) October 4, 2017

In other words, Cooper thinks the only real solutions to this, and other, challenges is to grow government at your expense. Cooper and Democrats would have you believe that legislative proposals contrary to this philosophy make you a fan of dirty air and water and likely to throw granny off a cliff for good measure.

Luckily, voters have repeatedly upheld Republican super-majorities since 2010, district lines notwithstanding, that render Democrats’ bigger government policies dead on arrival. Despite his bully pulpit, with half a dozen vetoes overridden in his first year Cooper’s power over such issues is muted.