News-Record.com

The first day of session Wednesday brought the first few bill filings of the year. Among them:

• * SB 12- Ban Mobile Phone Use While Driving. This is an oldie but goodie that has been tried the past couple of sessions. It usually gets talked to death in some committee before it whimpers away.

  Objections center around two arguments. First, opponents say there are far more distracting things people do in their automobiles (eating, applying make-up, shaving, etc. ...) and singling out one behavior doesn’t make sense. Two, there’s an exception for hands-free devices, which allows you to continue talking while driving. Studies show that it’s the fact someone has their brain engaged in conversation rather than focused on the road - not the mere fact they’re handling a phone - that is the problem.

• * HB 2 - Prohibit Smoking in Public & Work Places. This is the Big Kahuna smoking ban bill and would basically ban smoking in restaurants, bus stations, office buildings or pretty much anywhere you can think of that isn't a private residence. There are a few exceptions for things like tobacco shops.

  The smoking bill died on a House vote last year, but Rep. Hugh Holliman is more confident of passing it this go-round.

  There's a news conference Thursday at which Holliman will pitch his bill again.

• * HB 3 - Disapprove Jordan Lake Rules. This has to do with the ongoing saga on cleaning up Jordan Lake by imposing runoff rules and other regulations on communities in the Triad.

  This is the brief I wrote for Thursday's paper on it:

  RALEIGH — Rep. Cary Allred, an Alamance County Republican, filed a bill that would derail environmental rules meant to protect Jordan Lake by curbing the runoff of certain chemicals.

  Local governments in the Piedmont Triad, including Greensboro and towns in Rockingham County, say the rules would force them to spend hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading sewer plants and other public utilities, while at the same time making development more difficult and costly.
  Under some scenarios, cities could be forced to condemn land in older communities in order to build rainwater runoff control features.

  “If we allow those Jordan Lake rules to go into effect, it will cause the loss of jobs in Alamance, Rockingham and Guilford counties,” Allred said.

  Rule opponents also questioned whether they would have the desired effect.

  Although the Department of Environment and Natural Resources wrote the new regulations in response to state and federal laws, opponents have appealed to the General Assembly to stop them from going into effect.

  “I do think I’ll be the only legislator in the watershed who won’t be a co-sponsor of the bill,” said Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat.

  Backers of the rules such as Harrison say they are needed to prevent the lake from being overrun by chemicals that cause certain types of undesirable plant life to flourish. Those outbreaks make it hard to use the lake for recreation or draw from it for drinking water.

  More background here.