Carolina Politics Online

Raleigh – State lawmakers from North Carolina and around the country will consider energy, transportation and other issues facing state governments at a summit starting today in New Orleans.

The conference will provide a forum to discuss drivers license security, global warming, the mortgage meltdown and transportation funding, according to Haire’s office.

Asheville Citizen-Times

In other words, they’ll all sit around brainstorming for new ways to milk the taxpayers out of their money to bail out the irresponsible and to fight invented crises like “global warming.”

A few days ago I wrote about the lawsuit won by Duke Energy and the State of North Carolina over a cap and trade provision in the Clean Air Interstate Rule. I wrote the Carolinas Clean Air Coalition requesting more information on their sources for some of the statistics they cited. I received a response from Kelly Picarsic, the Online Communications Manager with the organization. She directed me to the Clean Air Task Force Web site that has several links to the EPA and other Federal environmental organizations. If you visit some of those sites and read through them there is some interesting information in there.

Highlights key differences with Perdue’s defense of status quo

Asheville, N.C. – Mayor Pat McCrory, the Republican nominee for governor, today presented a ten point comprehensive conservation and energy plan at the North Carolina Press Association candidate forum in Asheville.  Below is a statement from McCrory:  “High energy prices are bruising our state’s manufacturing, farming and tourism industries and are directly impacting North Carolinians’ ability to provide for their families and to get to work and school.  Meanwhile, politicians like Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue defend a failed status quo and close the door ‘100 percent’ on common sense solutions to the problem.

“The average family in our state has already spent more on higher gas prices this year than they received in their tax refund check.  We may as well have taken money out of the U.S. Treasury and sent it to OPEC and Hugo Chavez! We should be investing in jobs and infrastructure here at home rather than relying on foreign energy sources that fund rogue nations. It’s time for us to take a stand, reinvest those billions of dollars into our own back yard and allow North Carolina families and workers to reap the benefits of economic development and energy independence.”

“We need a comprehensive policy that explores environmentally friendly energy sources such as wind, solar power, hydrogen fuel cells, clean coal and nuclear power; invests in research for alternative fuel sources; and explores for more American energy sources. We need policies that include tax credits for families and businesses, conservation land banking, research and development at our state’s universities and beach renourishment.

 “As Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Committee for the Environment, I consider myself a conservationist. I have enjoyed and valued the beautiful natural resources across North Carolina all my life and want to protect them for future generations.  However, we have a clear choice.   We can continue to spend billions of dollars a day on an unstable energy policy or we can end our dependence on foreign sources by encouraging conservation, investing in alternative energy technologies and tapping into American sources of energy.  Our ability to create jobs, encourage technological advancement and provide for America’s national security depends on our willingness to use American resources to provide energy in a responsible and reasonable way.”

The following is McCrory’s ten point plan:

Conservation and Efficiency Plank
1. Promote mass transit (light rail and clean energy buses that use biodiesel, hybrid or fuel cell technology and natural gas)
2. Encourage land use planning that ensures adequate space for future park and ride facilities, HOV lanes, and future mass and traditional transit corridors.  Also encourage revitalization of brown fields to provide more in-fill development and shorter commutes.
3.  Require state-owned fleets to convert to vehicles that use alternative energy sources such as biodiesel, hybrid, electric, fuel cell and natural gas.
4. Require higher energy efficiency in state-owned and leased facilities through retrofitting and green development.
5. Provide tax incentives for private homeowners and businesses to follow similar conservation and efficiency efforts in transportation, industry and buildings.

Supply Plank
6. Permit deep sea exploration and development off the coast of North Carolina.
7. Promote the use of natural gas.  Only 28 percent of primary energy consumption in the U.S. is utilized by the transportation sector.  Natural gas is used for power generation and utilities such as heating and cooking.   The Manteo Prospect that lies 37 miles off of North Carolina’s coast is estimated to contain 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
8. Utilize clean coal technology by upgrading North Carolina’s coal-fired plants through incentives to install smokestack scrubbing technology to remove Carbon Dioxide. Also expand the use of coal-to-liquids technology.
9. Expand alternative energy sources such as wind, solar power, hydrogen fuel cells, clean coal and nuclear power.
10. Increase energy research and development at North Carolina’s colleges, universities and research centers.  That can be funded in part with royalties from deep sea exploration.

I fully support Mayor Mccrory’s plan, vision, and leadership in bringing common sense back to the state of North Carolina. The Democratic party has turned North Carolina into their private kingdom with only 8 or 9 people actually running this state. They do not allow any debate or admendments to go forward on any law and only have passed Jessica’s law after three years of effort by the people of our great state. Yes, North Carolina is one of the last states to pass Jessica’s law. When we elect Pat McCrory as governor, we will take a step forward in removing the vestiages of entrenched corruption.

Paul Terrell III

A federal appeals court – ruling Friday on a challenge from North Carolina and electric utilities including Duke Energy – struck down a high-profile Bush administration rule on interstate air pollution.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disappointed environmental groups, a rare ally of the administration, and likely delayed further action until a new president takes office.

The court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority by instituting the clean-air rule. Citing “more than several fatal flaws,” the court scrapped the entire regulation.

Charlotte Observer

I am not opposed to environmental regulations in general.  We don’t want to become Beijing, but they also need to be reasonable.  I think there are far too many environmental restrictions across this nation that are senseless and based more on environmentally religious folklore than fact.  All of these restrictions, sensible or not, pass on the added costs on energy companies to the consumer, hurting the poorest households the most.  Then the government turns around and doles out tax dollars in the form of welfare to help these people pay their bill, thus taking even more money out of the pocket of the middle class.  It’s a domino effect.

Of course, this suit wasn’t entirely challenging over regulation, but rather a provision in the Clean Air Interstate Rule that allowed a Cap and Trade policy.  The State of North Carolina felt there were too many loopholes, while Duke Energy felt they weren’t receiving their appropriate number of allowances.

“Literally hundreds if not thousands of people in North Carolina could die prematurely unless the government takes swift and decisive action to clean up power plants emissions,” said June Blotnick, executive director of Charlotte’s Carolinas Clean Air Coalition.

The EPA said the rule would have dramatically reduced sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, saving up to $100billion in health benefits. Besides the reduction in premature deaths, the EPA also said the rule would have prevented millions of lost work and school days and tens of thousands of nonfatal heart attacks.

These are some astounding claims that I would like to get more information on.  I have written the  Carolinas Clean Air Coalition requesting some of this information so we’ll see if they respond.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Aaron Groen

July 10, 2008
202-225-2071

Foxx presses Congress to vote on coal-to-liquid bill

Signs ‘discharge petition’ to bring legislation up for debate

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Congresswoman Virginia Foxx today called on Congress to bring coal-to-liquid legislation to the House floor for a vote. She pressed members of the House of Representatives on both sides of the aisle to allow debate on a bipartisan bill (H.R. 2208) that creates incentives for the production of diesel fuel from coal.

“America has a 250 year supply of coal,” Foxx said. “We should be doing all we can to find a way to transform this abundant energy resource into clean burning diesel. This legislation will jumpstart the debate on coal-to-liquid technology and would encourage new investment in a promising source of American-made energy.”

Foxx today joined more than 100 members of the House of Representatives who signed onto a measure
called a discharge petition that would bring the Coal Liquid Fuel Act (H.R. 2208)
up for a vote. The petition needs 218 Congressional signatures in order to get the Coal Liquid Fuel Act onto the House floor for debate.

“Sky-high gas prices mean Congress needs an all of the above approach to our energy problems,” Foxx said. “North Carolina families would benefit from projects like coal to liquid, wind energy, new domestic oil supplies or solar power-anything that can reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil and bring down the cost of gas.”

The Coal Liquid Fuel Act has been stalled in a House committee for more than 14 months. It would sanction government-backed loans for coal to liquid programs and encourage new investment in coal to liquid research and production. Coal to liquid technology turns coal into sulfur-free diesel fuel and promises to help offset the more than 400,000 barrels of diesel fuel imported by the U.S. each day.

###

This morning was downright cool in the Charlotte region — cool enough to break a record that had stood for more than a century.

The temperature at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport was 56 at about 5:30 a.m., breaking the July 2 record of 58, set in 1885. The normal low for this time of year is 70.

Charlotte Observer

Quick, somebody call Al Gore!  He’s clearly not flying his jet enough!

Beverly Perdue says offshore drilling would not be safe.

In a statement sent to the press this afternoon, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee attacked her rival, Pat McCrory, for supporting oil exploration off the North Carolina coast. 

“North Carolina’s coast is in Hurricane Alley and has been called the Graveyard of the Atlantic for a reason,” she said. “I haven’t seen anything that proves to me that drilling there can be done safely or bring down oil prices.”

Echoing recent attacks, she also accused McCrory of “walking in lock-step” with President Bush, and said the state should focus on encouraging conservation and alternative energy sources.

The statement also cited an Associated Press article that noted this federal report said that it would take decades for offshore oil to reach the market and still might not reduce gas prices.

The N&O

Would Ms. Perdue care to guess how much oil was spilled when Hurricane Katrina roared through the Gulf of Mexico and hit the oil platforms that were there?

Would she also care to tell us just what we’re supposed to do for gas between now and the 20-30 years it’ll take to develop whatever-the-hell these “alternative energy sources” are? Are we just supposed to pay $5, $6, $7 a gallon for gas, Bev?

Host:
Americans for Prosperity - NC
Type:
Causes - Rally
Time and Place
Date:
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Time:
11:30am - 1:00pm
Location:
Halifax Mall (Behind the General Assembly), Raleigh, NC
Street:
Between Wilmington Street, Salisbury Street, and Lane Street
City/Town:
Raleigh, NC

View Google Map
Google
MapQuest
Microsoft
Yahoo
Contact Info
Phone:
9198391011
Email:
info@afpnc.org

Democratic Congressional candidate Larry Kissell pumped up his campaign Sunday by selling gas for $1.22 a gallon, highlighting the energy votes of Republican incumbent Rep. Robin Hayes.

Kissell spent almost three hours selling the cheap gas to a few hundred motorists in downtown Biscoe. He used a similar campaign tactic in his narrow loss to Hayes two years ago.

“The people were very appreciative, very patient and appeared very quickly,” Kissell said.

The Herald-Sun

Kissell gets credit for thinking outside the box and being creative.  However, I still see this as vote buying and any voter who would throw their support to any candidate based on that candidate giving them discounted gasoline is a bonehead.  Kissell’s party has been mostly responsible for the high prices of gasoline in this country by their refusal to allow more domestic drilling and their catering to extremists environmentalist groups which has caused higher energy prices.

There is no one solution to energy costs.  There are several.  Alternative fuels are part of the solution as is nuclear power, but so is increasing today’s current supply of oil.  Unless Kissell is prepared to support these solutions, his recent campaign stunt is nothing more than hypocritical.

Contact: Gary Coats
Phone: 864.641.5591
E-mail: gary@steveparker08.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 4th, 2008

Boiling Springs, SC - The Steve Parker Campaign(State House 37) has learned that DHEC has reviewed their documentation, the mailers sent by Ralph Davenport, and the Conservation Voters of South Carolina (CVSC) and is prepared to inform the media that their allegations attacking Steve Parker are false. More information as the various Media outlets break this story.

Media contact at DHEC : Thom Berry

Images of False Allegation Mailers
Conservation Voters of SC Mailer Front
Conservation Voters of SC Mailer Back
Davenport Mailer Front
Davenport Mailer Back

###

Contact: Gary Coats
Phone: 864.641.5591
E-mail: gary@steveparker08.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 3rd, 2008

Boiling Springs, SC - On Monday, June 2nd, a mailer titled “DUMPED” hit mailboxes in House District 37 making accusations that are totally false. The accusations are based on two anonymous calls to DHEC that were proven to have no validity in 1999.

We, the campaign and supporters of Steve Parker, demand Ralph Davenport to publicly denounce this literature, distance himself from the Conservation Voters of South Carolina (CVSC) and disavow their endorsement.

###

Half the coal burned by Progress Energy’s and Duke Energy’s power plants would become illegal in North Carolina under legislation proposed Tuesday by state Rep. Pricey Harrison.

The Guilford County Democrat wants to outlaw importation of coal that has been extracted by a controversial form of strip mining known as mountaintop removal. The process involves blowing up several hundred feet of mountaintop to expose embedded veins of coal.

The state’s power companies say Harrison’s proposal would force utilities to buy more expensive coal and raise the cost of electricity for consumers. Coal mined from mountaintops is the cheapest coal available to Raleigh-based Progress and Charlotte-based Duke. North Carolina relies on coal for about 60 percent of its electricity.

The News & Observer

Now, where is Duke and Progress Energy Companies going to get the resources they need to provide power to the 9 million people in North Carolina? Paige Sheehan of Duke Energy has an answer for that.

Progress and Duke import nearly all their coal from Appalachian coal mines. About half the coal — about 15 million tons a year — comes from mountaintop removal, while the rest comes from underground coal mines. North Carolina is one of the nation’s top users of mountaintop coal.

But banning mountaintop coal would increase demand for other Appalachian coal and drive up prices for customers, utility officials warned.

“You’d basically cut our market in half where we can get our coal,” said Duke spokeswoman Paige Sheehan. “And you would not stop mountaintop mining because there’s such a global demand for coal.”

So what you would see is an enormous spike in utility bills hitting every income class in the state. Now I have always been told that the Democratic Party is for the little guy, but Pricey Harrison must not buy into that philosophy since her bill would be detrimental to lower and middle income North Carolinians in order to satisfy an extreme environmental lobby.

Harrison said she was prompted to introduce legislation after recently seeing a documentary, “Mountain Top Removal,” released this year by Pittsboro independent filmmaker Michael O’Connell. The documentary tracks two years of the life of a West Virginia family living at the edge of a mountaintop removal site.

So the woman sits down and watches one movie and that’s all she needs to try and make laws that would have a catastrophic financial impact on the people of her district. I guess you get what you vote for.

Harry Taylor, Sue Myrick’s Democratic Congressional opponent has come out criticizing Myrick’s offshore drilling bill as being ineffective.

Taylor, responding to Thursday’s proposal by the GOP congresswoman, said the problem is U.S. consumption. To offset that, he proposed:

A $2,000 tax cut to help “working families” pay for gas or switch to more economical cars.

A $4,000 tax credit for the purchase of hybrid vehicles that get more than 30 miles per gallon.

A requirement that in four years, every car sold in America be a hybrid.

A national pledge to cut gas consumption 10 percent within 30 days.

Charlotte Observer

I’m not opposed to Taylor’s idea of giving tax cuts for buying hybrid cars or for gasoline, but I’d sure like to know who “working families” are. I mean, if you have a job, you’re working, right? A CEO works for a living, doesn’t he?

The rest of his ideas are just a bunch of fluff. You can’t require every car sold four years from now to be a hybrid unless you really want to stick it to the poor and lower income Americans. Hybrid cars are expensive because they are expensive to manufacture. As far as the national pledge he refers to, that will be about as useless and naive as high schools that do the “Prom Promise” to not drink on prom night.

Taylor is in error to say that Myrick’s plan won’t be effective. American consumption of gasoline has already dropped over the past year and gasoline prices have skyrocketed. It’s not just our consumption that is the problem; it’s also the rest of the world, primarily developing nations like China and India that are using more oil. You need to increase the supply to be greater than the demand to bring down the prices and that is what Myrick’s plan helps do.

In Congress, there is a tiny glimmer of hope on the horizon. Representative Sue Myrick-R, NC, 9th District has introduced legislation called the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act, or DOER Act, which aims to lift the federal ban on offshore drilling on the states, and put the decision in each individual states’ hands. However, any profits produced will have to be shared with bordering states if the drilling site is within a certain distance of the neighboring state. Another contingency protects the first 50 miles of offshore area from drilling (to appease environmentalists) should the individual states choose to do so. This would ultimately leave the decision to drill for oil, with the allure of producing profits and helping the struggling economy or the side effect of “destroying” the natural environment to the states, as it should be per the Constitution.

Political Lore

That last part about the Constitution is key.  Drilling anywhere should be a state decision, not the Federal Government.  There is no reason why Alaskans should not be able to drill in ANWR on their own accord, nor any reason for North or South Carolina to not be able to drill off our own shores.

With the price of gas skyrocketing I think the push from Republicans in Congress to start drilling domestically is going to being gaining momentum unlike in the past.  With $4 per gallon gas, the angry cries of the American people will begin to overshadow the hold environmental extremists have on many of the D.C. politicians.

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley joined a few other “green” South Carolina mayors today to push support for a controversial energy bill with a cap-and-trade for carbon emissions. The bill is due to come up for vote in the U.S. Senate next week.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is the reason for the push. He’s considered a key swing vote in a bill roundly expected to die to a filibuster on the Senate floor, at least until next year, said Katrina Managan, National Wildlife Federation legislative representative.

The Post and Courier

Apparently Joe Riley wants the standard of living for the residents of Charleston to be severely crippled in the coming years because that is exactly what the Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill will do if it is passed.  It will be an economic disaster for the entire country, a knee jerk reaction to satisfy the Chicken Little climate change alarmists.

I don’t suspect that Graham will vote for this bill with his reelection vote coming in less than two weeks.  It could actually cost him the election.  If he votes for it Witherspoon will absolutely seize on that and blast the state with last minute ads nailing him for it.  Conservatives will have a fit and he’ll lose the primary election.  Of course, maybe I shouldn’t be saying any of this.  After all, I want Graham to lose.

The Club for Growth wants to scuttle a bill by Sens. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and John Warner, R-Va., that the Senate is scheduled to begin debating in June. Even without the ad campaign, the bill seems to lack the votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

With $250,000 in radio and television spots, the Club for Growth is targeting Republican Sens. Dole and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, and Max Baucus and Jon Tester of Montana. Dole, a co-sponsor of the bill, faces re-election this year, as do Alexander, Baucus and Rockefeller.

The News & Observer

Toomey explains further down the precise problem with this bill:

Club for Growth President Pat Toomey, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, called the legislation a “massive redistribution of wealth.”

“This would be extremely destructive to economic growth,” he said. “If it dies here in June, we will be very alert to any prospects of its revival.”

Republicans are jumping on this bill simply to placate environmental alarmists in an election year. For all the hype over global warming, we have seen revelations over the past few months that the planet might actually be cooling now. In fact, you’ll notice the global warming crowd doesn’t refer to it as global warming anymore, the term is now “climate change.” It’s kind of hard to get people to swallow your argument when reality is showing otherwise.

Regardless of what is happening, the jury is still out on whether or not the human race has anything to do it. I think the idea that we puny humans can have the kind of effect these people claim is absurd, personally. The planet has gone through warming and cooling trends throughout its existence, but that is completely irrelevant to these people. The bottom line is that the whole global warming spiel is nothing but a method to fool people into engaging in global Marxism. Let it be known, that is the ultimate goal. Elizabeth Dole shouldn’t allow herself to get caught up in this. It will be economically destructive to the people she is supposed to be representing.

The Heritage Foundation has done a state by state analysis on how this bill will effect the American people.

Table 1: Estimated Economic Impact of S. 2191 in North Carolina

Table 2: Changes in Household Energy Prices in North Carolina Due to S. 2191

Charles Jeter is an environmental engineer from Greer who is running against Congressman Bob Inglis for the Republican nomination for this year’s election. I am not a real big admirer of Inglis so I wouldn’t mind seeing a change. Jeter has an impressive resume, including a five year stint in the Reagan Administration serving as the EPA’s Region IV Administrator. On the issues, I’m about 50/50 with him.

Taxes - He wants to keep the Bush tax cuts permanent and emphasizes lowering the Corporate Income Tax rate to 25%. I am glad he mentions that because this is very important. The U.S. has the second highest CIT in the world and it is making us uncompetitive in a now global economy. Even the Socialists in Europe have figured this out.

Iraq - On Iraq he acknowledges the mistake of the invasion, but also understands that simply picking up and pulling out when the country is not stable enough to keep out the terrorist elements is losing situation for both us and them. This is a reasonable position, but someone needs to define precisely what victory entails.

Immigration - He supports the border fence. I think the fence is a waste of money. If we crack down on employers knowingly hiring illegal labor and make certain that social services are cut off to these people then they’ll leave on their own.

Social Security - His position is as stated from his Web site:

Supports continuing current benefits for those already receiving benefits. Supports a bipartisan approach to ensure that the Social Security program remains healthy.

I fundamentally disagree with this. Social Security cannot remain healthy and be sustained without massive tax hikes. It needs to be eliminated entirely. We do not have the same demographics that once existed in 1935. It’s a different America today and the plan has now turned into a Ponzi Scheme. We need politicians that aren’t going to be afraid to tell people the ugly reality of this program.

Health Care - On health care he maintains that we have the best system in the world and that it should be available to all, but he doesn’t say how to do that. He just states he is opposed to a government run system.

Domestic Issues - Is prolife but supports abortion in extreme circumstances. He supports the Second Amendment and background checks and is a proponent of the death penalty.

Energy Independence - Supports moving to nuclear energy over the long haul.

Climate Change - He does not buy into the global warming hysteria. The planet has had warming and cooling periods throughout its history and we are currently in a modest warming period.

Six-term Democratic state Rep. Fletcher Smith is facing a rare and spirited renomination challenge from Greenville City Council member Chandra Dillard in House District 23.

Smith is a Greenville attorney who hasn’t had primary or general election opposition since 2000 when he defeated Republican Lawrence Acker by a more than two-to-one margin in the solidly Democratic district.

The winner of the June 10 Smith-Dillard primary will face Republican Justin Alexander in the Nov. 4 general election.

The Greenville News

I like Fletcher Smith.  He seems to be a rare politician in that he exercises common sense in his decisions and doesn’t get caught up in the emotional appeal.  I am a big supporter of his bill to lower the drinking age to 18 for members of our armed forces.  I also like the way he didn’t give in to the extreme environmental lobby and instead stood up for the private property rights of his constituents.

Smith said he didn’t mind not getting the conservationists’ endorsement.

“I told them a long time ago that I’m not for radical environmentalism, that when they come in and try to devalue the property of black and poor white landowners in rural areas by keeping them from selling their property at fair market values, I’m against that. As a result, I supported a strong property rights bill and I’m a member of a group of environmentalists that believe in not only protecting the environment but protecting our small businesses from the radical environmentalists,” Smith said.

State Sen. Catherine Ceips and the Conservation Voters of South Carolina make for odd bedfellows. The nonpartisan conservation group endorsed Ceips this week, about 12 months after it endorsed her opponent in the hard-fought special election that landed her in the Senate.

Read more at the Beaufort Gazette…

Perdue, who is a Democratic candidate for governor this year, said she is concerned about water levels in North Carolina.

“We have had the worst drought in North Carolina’s history this past year, and some of our municipalities are still struggling on what to do next,” she said. “I believe that it is going to take the whole state, the whole country and actually the whole world (to save water).”

Conservation standards and tax incentives for the preservation of water are just some of the ideas Perdue said she wants to implement in the state.

“We have got to do something, and we have got to do it quickly,” she said.

Jacksonville Daily News

Tax incentives are dandy and all, but really the free market can take care of this issue in much the same way as it has with gasoline.  As water consumption rises closer to an unsustainable level the price of water should increase.  As water bills begin to get more costly people will choose to be conservative in their water usage in order to save money.

Now, one thing the government could do that wouldn’t be a bad idea is build some additional reservoirs for extreme drought situations like we have dealt with this past year.