CleanAIRE NC names SELC Partner of the Year

In early November, CleanAIRE NC presented SELC with the Partner of the Year Award. This 2021 Blue Sky award follows SELC’s partnership with CleanAIRE NC in challenging an air pollution permit for a biogas processing plant in Sampson County and groundbreaking rulemaking work to reduce heat-trapping carbon pollution from North Carolina power plants.

Attorney Nick Jimenez, who is part of the SELC team that represents CleanAIRE NC and the North Carolina Coastal Federation in the rulemaking petition, accepted the award during a virtual presentation. 

“This is truly an honor for SELC,” Jimenez said. “We’re grateful to Joel Porter, Daisha Williams, and June Blotnick for their leadership. We hope our work together spurs North Carolina to take the urgent action needed to address climate change.”

Earlier this year, SELC worked with CleanAIRE NC to strike an agreement with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Align RNG to increase transparency and protections against air pollution at a hog waste to gas production site in rural eastern North Carolina. 

SELC and CleanAIRE NC also successfully petitioned the state Environmental Management Commission for North Carolina to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI (pronounced like Reggie), is a cooperative effort with 11 participating states working to reduce the carbon emissions that cause climate change, which is harming communities across the state. Conservation groups are urging North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper to move quickly in implementing this action given the urgency of cutting heat-trapping emissions and the need to reach goals laid out in his executive order three years ago.