Billy Clarke is a partner at Roberts & Stevens in Asheville. Billy has long been active in the Environment, Energy, & Natural Resources Section and served as chair of the section in 2009-2010. For those who attend the annual section meeting on alternate years in Asheville, you probably know Billy as the host of our Friday evening social at Hickory Nut Gap Farm, his family’s farm near Asheville.
Billy Clarke
Billy was born in Bat Cave, North Carolina and grew up as one of eight children (two girls and six boys; Billy was next to youngest) on his family’s Fairview dairy farm, where they also raised tobacco, apples, chickens and pigs. Billy says raising eight kids and gardening kept his mom busy, and he remembers meat from dairy cows being tough.
Billy’s father, James McClure Clarke, came to the Carolinas in the 1930s after graduating from Princeton in 1939. He ran the Farmer’s Federation, a farm cooperative that was squeezed out of business by larger cooperatives in the 1950s. Jamie Clarke was the editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times for 15 years, served in the North Carolina legislature in the 1970s, and served three terms as a U.S. Congressman in the 1980s. Billy’s sister Annie and her husband live in the “big” house at the family farm, and Annie’s husband is in the North Carolina legislature as one of three representatives from Buncombe County.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00EnvironmentalLawhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngEnvironmentalLaw2021-07-28 09:18:322021-07-28 09:32:08Spotlight: Billy Clarke
Amy Wang is the incoming chair of the Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Section, and she is an attorney at Ward and Smith, P.A., based in their New Bern office. She leads the environmental practice for her firm, where she has worked for 17 years.
Amy was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and moved to Anchorage, Alaska, when her father was drafted by the U.S. Army after graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in U.S. history. Amy’s family moved a lot after her father left the Army to begin his career with Mobil Oil: Kansas to Nebraska, back to Kansas, back and forth between Chicago, Illinois, Virginia and Pennsylvania (six different junior high and high schools). After graduating from high school in Virginia, Amy attended the University of Virginia as an undergraduate and spent fall semester of her junior year at University College London. During summer breaks after her first, second, and third years of undergraduate school and for a year after graduating in 1992, she worked for the Wiley Rein & Fielding law firm in Washington, D.C.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00EnvironmentalLawhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngEnvironmentalLaw2021-07-09 11:25:432021-07-09 11:25:43Spotlight: Amy Wang
“There is a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?”
(Mr. Maguire speaking to Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate)
The Sustainability Committee is thrilled to announce our winners for this year’s NCBA EENR Sustainability Contest. Our topic this year was—you guessed it—plastics, and our contestants did a terrific job of thinking about what that “great future in plastics” looks like now.
Specifically, we asked students to respond to the following prompt:
Emily Sherlock is a partner at Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson and is the Vice Chair of the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section of the NCBA. She will rise to the Chair position on July 1, 2020. Prior to serving on the board, Emily was one of the newsletter editors (back when our section had a newsletter) and served on the Section Council.
Unsubstantiated claims regarding a variety of cleaning and “disinfection” procedures are flooding the market—from a surprising number of sources. Here are a few helpful hints:
CDC Guidance – The CDC has published guidance for cleaning and disinfecting most businesses and public spaces. The guidance recommends a two-step process of cleaning all potentially affected surfaces, followed by applying an EPA-approved disinfectant for that type of surface or a 0.1% solution of bleach in water. Note that cleaning operations must comply with OSHA requirements for hazard communication and blood-borne pathogens.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00EnvironmentalLawhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngEnvironmentalLaw2020-04-21 12:46:512020-04-21 15:06:47Cleaning and Disinfection Protocols for COVID-19 Affected Work Spaces
On Thursday night, the Treasury Department released a direct final rule implementing the Paycheck Protection Program, which authorizes most financial institutions to make federally guaranteed loans that will help small businesses (500 employees or less) to retain employees and meet their payroll obligations during the COVID-19 epidemic. The Small Business Administration intends for these loans to be forgiven if borrowers use the proceeds as the rule allows.
Below is a summary of the eligibility requirements (which are minimal), the process for determining the amount a business may borrow and the permissible uses for these loans.
We are in unprecedented times with COVID-19 (Coronavirus). It is now more important than ever that we help our neighbors and those who are not as fortunate. I am confident that each of you is doing your part.
Even in the best of times, however, over 1.5 Million North Carolinians struggle with hunger—of those, nearly half a million are children. With public schools and many religious and nonprofit organizations that traditionally serve the food insecure in our communities being closed for indefinite periods, and government leaders calling for social distancing to help limit the spread of Coronavirus, that need is never more pressing than now.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00EnvironmentalLawhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngEnvironmentalLaw2020-03-18 12:46:302020-03-18 12:58:08Fight Hunger, Help Others in the COVID-19 Pandemic - Participate in the Legal Feeding Frenzy and Support Your Local Food Bank!
We are pleased to share the winning essays from the 5th Annual Sustainability Contest sponsored by the NCBA’s Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Section. The contest is open to all North Carolina high school students. Students participating in the 2019 contest were asked to respond to the following prompt:
North Carolina relies on nuclear power, coal, natural gas and renewable energy generated by solar, geothermal, biofuel and wind to meet the state’s energy needs. Each of these energy sources have positive and negative attributes in terms of cost, feasibility, transmission, distribution, and managing the waste from energy production. Is the state’s current mix of energy sources sustainable? Why or why not? If not, how would you allocate the percentage of each energy resource the state relies upon and why? Please respond in an essay of 2000 words or fewer, citing all materials (laws, studies, websites, news articles, etc.) that you rely upon in your analysis.
The EENR council was thrilled to receive 44 applications from high school students from across the state! We have included links to the following top three winning essays for your reading pleasure:
The Administrative Law Section is joining forces with the Government & Public Sector, Juvenile Justice & Children’s Rights, and Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Law Sections to bring you a 6.0 credit hour CLE this fall, titled “Riding the Waves of Change: 2019 Legislative Review.”
The CLE will take place at the NC Bar Center in Cary from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8, 2019.
While it will be available by webcast and on-demand, we encourage you to attend live to enjoy the networking that is sure to occur during the breakfast and lunch, both of which will be provided.
The four co-planning Sections will combine their expertise to provide updates and answers regarding the 2019 legislative actions.
Learn what the North Carolina General Assembly has (or has not) changed and the practical effects of those changes. Brush up on your legislative procedure knowledge and skills. Hear about the most debated and followed bills of the current legislative session.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00Administrativehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngAdministrative2019-08-20 11:26:152019-08-21 14:35:48Put It On Your Calendar Now: 'Riding the Waves of Change: 2019 Legislative Review'
This article is the second in a pair of articles related to “green policies” and how to implement them. The first part of this series was previously published here.
As concern over climate change makes almost-daily headlines, “green” policies are becoming increasingly popular. Part 1 of this article noted that — from Fortune 500 company board rooms to the N.C. Governor’s Office — recent policy pronouncements call for reduced energy usage, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and increased numbers of zero emission vehicles. But how — in a state like North Carolina, where direct retail purchases from third-parties are not permitted — do retail utility customers achieve the goals of these “green” policies? Part 1 of this series discussed energy efficiency measures, time-of-use rates, and self-generation. This second part of the series looks specifically at HB 589, passed by the General Assembly in 2017, N.C. Sess. Law 2017-192, and implemented by the N.C. Utilities Commission over the past eighteen months, and examines whether (or not) it may make it “easier . . . to be green” by providing new mechanisms for utility customers to access renewable energy resources.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00EnvironmentalLawhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngEnvironmentalLaw2019-05-13 19:46:062019-05-14 10:36:19It’s Not Easy Being 'Green' . . . Or Is It? (Part 2)
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