A record crowd of concerned citizens turned out at the latest public meeting on plans to authorize drilling off the NC coast. This week in CIB.

Coast Watch: Citizens Say No Offshore Drilling

When the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) last week held its hearing in Kill Devil Hills on the draft plan that would open North Carolina’s offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, they were met by the biggest public hearing crowd in the agency’s history. Of the 670 people who turned out for the chance to be heard on the plan, the overwhelming majority opposed offshore drilling here.

The hearing in Dare County was not on BOEM’s original schedule but was added on the request of North Carolina Congressional Representative Walter Jones and the Dare County Board of Commissioners. It featured opposition statements from the mayors of coastal towns like Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head and Duck, as well as the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce, among others. Opposition to drilling from coastal residents ran across the standard political spectrum.

In addition to helping to organize turnout of concerned citizens at the BOEM meetings, conservationists participated in a well-attended South Atlantic Offshore Drilling Forum on March 12 in Chapel Hill. There will be a further opportunity to hear from those impacted by drilling-related spills in the Gulf of Mexico on March 26. (See the final item in today’s CIB.) Conservationists recognize that stopping the latest ill-conceived proposal to drill for oil and gas off the sensitive and hazardous South Atlantic coast will require sustained and focused public opposition.

If you couldn’t make the BOEM hearings, there’s still time to submit comments in opposition to drilling off the NC coast.Click on this link to get more information and submit comments through NCLCV.

Legislative Watch: Marketing More Solar

Legislation to promote more solar energy development by enabling private sales of solar electricity was introduced last week in the North Carolina General Assembly with strong bipartisan sponsorship. HB 245, the “Energy Freedom Act”, was filed by principle sponsor Rep. John Szoka (R-Cumberland) and 30 co-sponsors (both Republicans and Democrats).

In his news release, Szoka noted that market competition is the cornerstone of the American economy, and that “Allowing North Carolinians to generate electricity on private property and allowing consumers flexible financing options, has immediate and long-term benefits that extend beyond the parties involved in third-party agreements. Legalizing third party sales is an investment in the health of our state’s long-term economic and energy future.”

A group of major state retailers and manufacturers wrote to the NC House Speaker in support of allowing them and others the opportunity to contract for renewable energy sales directly between private producers and consumers.

The bill also won immediate praise from both editorialists and renewable energy advocates. But this is one green initiative on which the mainstream business community is taking the lead for positive change – and rightly so. Using the marketplace to boost renewable energy production makes good business sense, after all.

Environomics: Fracking’s Empty Promise

With a final rush of state legislative corner-cutting, North Carolina regulators last week officially rolled out the red carpet for someone…anyone…to come and frack North Carolina.

The response was underwhelming. As conservationists and objective market analysts had predicted, no one immediately rushed to take advantage of the state’s haste. Long strings of decisions to ignore potential problems, leap over unanswered technical questions, hammer aside residents’ objections, and generally override public concerns appeared not just unwise, but unproductive as well.

This is not to say that state politicians’ rush to frack will ultimately be without cost. Even though North Carolina’s possible shale gas deposits are unknown and believed to be small, someone will eventually seek to take advantage of accommodating rules and attitudes by regulators. If North Carolina’s rules retain their present gaping holes, and state politicians hold onto polluter-friendly attitudes, then we’ll see the real costs of the rush to frack begin.

Education & Resources: Pointers from the Gulf

Who better to explain the hazards of offshore drilling than those who have lived through the disastrous consequences of drilling-related spills and pollution off the Gulf coast?

This Thursday, March 26, from 7 to 8:30pm, NCLCV will co-sponsor with the Gulf Future Coalition a call-in “coast-to-coast, community to community conversation” with a panel of Gulf resident leaders on the realities of offshore drilling and its consequences. For more information and to register, visit here.

That’s our report for this week.