A war on solar energy pits Big Oil against clean energy and jobs for North Carolina. This week in CIB.
Legislative Watch: War on Solar Energy
A war has been declared on solar and other renewable energy sources. It has nothing to do with saving consumers’ money, creating jobs, or building the economy. In fact, it imposes losses on all those fronts. Instead, the objective of this war is to protect the financial self-interests of the oil and coal industries.
This war on clean energy is financed by various major players within the fossil fuel industries, notably including but extending far beyond the infamous Koch brothers. Its public face is directed by their well-funded ideological marching societies such as “Americans for Prosperity” and the John Locke/Civitas/Art Pope network. From there, the party line reaches fossil fuel’s foot soldiers within legislative bodies around the nation.
For a good overview of how that’s translating into the legislative battles of 2015 in North Carolina, including links to factual myth-busting of the anti-solar attacks, see this article.
Several battles were fought last week within the halls of the NC General Assembly as part of this campaign to repress clean energy. On the House side, they revolved around the primary FY16-17 budget bill. Included in that bill as it came out of House committee was a renewal through 2017 of the state tax credit for solar energy developments, and through 2019 for other renewable energy projects.
After shrieks were heard from fossil fuel lobby (aka. ‘Americans for Prosperity’ and friends), the renewable tax credits were scaled back to all end in 2017, and to drop from a cap of 35% of a property’s cost to 20%. (Associated Press, 5/21/15.)
That compromise still wasn’t enough for hard-core solar opponents, who unsuccessfully sought to strip all renewable tax credits from the legislation. Fortunately, there are Republican as well as Democratic members of the House who recognize the value of solar and other clean energy (environmentally and economically), and the total stripping amendment failed 38-77.
To see how your House member voted on this amendment, click here. If you don’t know your representative’s name,start here.
On the Senate side, the big fight of the week came in the Finance Committee over gutting North Carolina’s critical Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS). Legislation containing provisions freezing REPS, HB 332, advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Sen. Bob Rucho (R-Mecklenburg).
We say “advanced” rather than “was passed” because – according to observers and some Republican and Democratic Senators on the committee – the bill actually failed to receive a committee majority on voice vote. However, in apparent violation of Senate rules, Chair Rucho refused to allow a call for ‘division’ (counting votes by show of hands), and insteaddeclared the bill had passed and adjourned the committee.
This high degree of abuse of power by a currently highly influential legislator caught the attention of Rucho’s hometown paper, the Charlotte Observer, which called his actions “brazen” and arrogant.
Even the former CEO of Duke Energy said in strong terms that the legislature was heading in the wrong direction on renewable energy.
We encourage our readers to let your State Senator know that you favor clean energy. If you wish to review the details of the attack bill first, here’s a useful fact sheet prepared by the NC Sustainable Energy Association.
Then, use this link to let your Senator know that this is no time to freeze clean energy in North Carolina.
Judicial Watch: Fracking Permits on Hold
A Superior Court Judge in Wake County has temporarily barred any approval of permits for fracking operations in North Carolina. The preliminary injunction prevents the Mining and Energy Commission (MEC) from accepting or processing applications for drilling for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for gas.
The injunction places such permitting on hold until the N.C. Supreme Court rules in a separate but relevant lawsuit challenging the makeup of the MEC. Arguments in that case are scheduled before the state Supreme Court in late June. (Associated Press, 5/21/15; Greensboro News & Record, 5/20/15.)
Around the States: Another Coastal Oil Spill
Given the frantic push by the McCrory Administration and other ill-advised officials to authorize oil and gas drilling off the vulnerable and invaluable Carolina coast, it’s well to keep track of the real results of such drilling in other states. Of course, the damages keep adding up from the enormous BP rig blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, there’s a new and haunting reminder of the 1969 oil spill catastrophe off Santa Barbara which helped spark the modern environmental movement.
A leaking oil pipeline fouled nine miles of beaches and coastline of southern California last week. In this spill, a mere 21,000 gallons of oil was estimated to have reached the sea: a literal drop in the bucket compared to the big disasters. (Associated Press, 5/21/15.)
Though small in size, the widespread effects of this latest spill should serve as a chilling warning of the vulnerability of coastal resources to oil spills. Creation of a completely new oil and gas drilling infrastructure in the high-energy, storm-lashed waters off the Outer Banks would bring nearly incalculable new risks to our coastal resources here.
It’s time we learned better. We don’t need whatever limited oil may be found and extracted at high cost and great risk from the mid-Atlantic coast. The time is right to pursue the cleaner alternatives of renewable energy instead.
Education & Resources: Green Tie Awards
NCLCV’s Green Tie event is this week! Join NCLCV friends and honorees this Wednesday evening, May 27, in Raleigh. This year’s featured speaker is State Attorney General Roy Cooper. Honorees include Representative of the Year Joe Sam Queen, and “Rising Stars” Senators Jeff Jackson and Terry Van Duyn and Representatives Graig Meyer and Robert Reives II. Tickets and sponsorships for the Green Tie Awards Reception can be purchased here.
That’s our report for this week.
