#ncga: Solar ‘conservatives’ going to work on Senate Republicans to keep cash flowing
We’ve all heard about the new ‘conservative’ group of solar energy fans seeking to continue government subsidies of the solar industry. (Never mind that solar energy is neither cheap nor ‘green.’ Never mind that – at best — solar is a supplement to more traditional methods of power delivery, and is not viable enough to stand on its own without government subsidies.)
The solar lobby had some success in the state House. As you can see in the graphic below, the head of the House Republican campaign effort is a big fan of these particular solar lobbyists.
Campaign ads lobbying the Senate on the solar issue are already making their way through cyberspace.
It appears the drive-bys have been enlisted by the solar mafia to go hardball on anyone who dares to throw a monkey wrench into their plans.
This Republican enthusiasm for solar energy is being driven — according to my sources — by GOP campaign consultants Paul Shumaker and Dee Stewart, a number of their clients currently serving on Jones Street, as well as a number of other alumni of the NCGOP staff and offices of congressman Patrick McHenry. For the average person, solar energy mandates and subsidies have meant little more than higher power bills. For well-connected politicos, they have been a cash cow.
Remember the outrage last year over the solar energy company run by Kay Hagan’s son and husband? Some of the same folks who threw a fit about that are now falling all over themselves to keep this boondoggle alive and well at our expense.
We have the Republican Party — the alleged conservative team — fighting tooth and nail to keep a program alive that does little more than take more money out of our wallets. Rod Serling couldn’t have scripted a better scenario.
This isn’t about saving me and you money. This isn’t about saving the environment. It’s about keeping the cash flowing from connected politicos into the pockets of crooked politicians and consultants.
It’s time to show these folks on Jones Street how well we can generate (and crank up) ‘heat’ — and it won’t cost a dime of taxpayer money.
Renewable energy has become the poker machine / sweepstakes! Cash to politicians to keep the illegal games going. This time stealing from seniors citizens is ok because it’s hidden in their power bill.
When the special interests go after Democrat votes they say its ”for the children” and Democrats eyes glaze over and they don’t consider the issue rationally. Now with Republican legislators, the Pavlov reaction inducing phrase seems to be ”jobs” at which point their eyes glaze over and they stop thinking.
Obama’s claims of ”green jobs” proved to be so bogus they quit even putting out numbers, and some of the testimony on so-called renewable energy jobs showed the numbers claimed by the special interests were just as bogus.
The real impact on jobs, is that the higher electric rates caused by renewable energy are going to cost lots of jobs all through the economy, so the net real impact on jobs is going to be negative from what these moronic legislators are doing.
Tell me again why it was important to get a Republican majority?
Your Republican principles and your Republican platform mean nothing. We in the hard core environmental movement can trump them by buying two progressive Republican consultants, Dee Stewart and Paul Shumaker, and these guys can con lots of your dumb legislators. They call it grass topping – beating the grassroots. So what if those stinkers at Civitas outed them as our rent boys, we are still going to get President Obama’s green energy program through the NC legislature by using Republicans to do it.
And President Obama’s green energy program is not all we will be able to do. Just think about it. Paul Shumaker is RIchard Burr’s consultant, and Dee Stewart is in the process of putting his friend and ally Craig Collins into the NCGOP chairmanship.
Ha Ha. We win.
Who cares about those peon electric customers who electric bills we will send through the ceiling in a few years. The whole point is to make electricity so expensive that it forces people to conserve, thereby helping save Polar Bears. Dee Stewart and Paul Shumaker are hard at work helping us do that.
Why should conservatives contribute to or vote for Dee Stewart Repubilcans? Why should they give to or vote for Paul Schumaker Repubilcans? Why should they vote for or contribute to any Republican who puts the green special interests ahead of their own constituents’ power bills? We need to just say no to these phonies. They are no better than Democrats.
Tell me again why we should not re-register as Unaffiliated in a mass move to nullify those who have turned against those who voted them in? ConservativeGrassRootVoters.org … takes only ten minutes to regain control over your vote.
The main reason is that we have a bunch of liberal big government Republicans that we need to replace in the primaries, and having conservative voters inside the party makes that easier to do. I am sure that Rove and Stewart are happy when conservatives switch to unaffiliated.
This article shows two more phonies who need to go – Tillman and Rabin.
If there were some functioning mechanism to support conservative candidates running unaffiliated, you might have an argument, but the fact is that no such mechanism exists. With the way things stand, we pretty much have to run our conservative candidates in the GOP primaries.
Oil is neither cheap nor green.
Oil is a supplement to other methods of power delivery and is not viable enough to stand on its own without government subsidies.
Yet oil gets the subsidies, as it has for decades.
The oil industry is just fighting a competitor through articles such as the one above.
Renewable energy ”green”? I don’t think the many thousands of birds and bats killed by wind and solar would likely think so. And this article from a major British newspaper explains while renewable energy is actually quite polluting:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1350811/In-China-true-cost-Britains-clean-green-wind-power-experiment-Pollution-disastrous-scale.html
Please show me in the NC Budget where these legislators are subsidizing any form of electricity other than wind and solar. Also please show me where the NC legislature forces utilities to buy any type of electricity other than renewable. The truth is that NC is not giving corporate welfare to any form of electric production than the uneconomical and unreliable renewable energy. special interest, These corrupt special interest provisions need to be repealed.
First, I did not call renewable energy “green”.
Second, I was not referring to NC State specific subsidies of oil and gas but more generally as a country.
Nonetheless, in answer to your question; from:
http://www.southernstudies.org/2014/06/nc-passes-fracking-law-seeks-taxpayer-subsidies-fo.html
“North Carolina’s plans to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize the oil and gas industry fall in line with historical efforts to spend public dollars to support politically powerful dirty-energy interests.”
This mostly refers to the recent rules on fracking.
That extreme left – almost Marxist – group you linked to references three small (two under a million) budget PROPOSALS, not anything actually passed by the legislature, and they were for preliminary tests, not ongoing subsidies.
Of course, there is always the men and women we send overseas to die for our oil habit. The most costly subsidy of all.
When they maintain these solar farms, do they use lawn mowers powered by solar? Or is the Roundup certified as made by solar only chemical plants? Solar farms are a waste of money and would never be a ‘money maker’ without federal funds.
Off grid, boats, RVs, remote telecom cabinets–various applications exist for solar . It will never be pervasive due to reliability. There are multiple things wrong here, but perhaps the worst is that government is once again, skewing the free market. What will result is less innovation, more expense, more regulation, and higher costs. This is but another case where government needs to sit down and shut up. If it is viable, it will carry the day. If not, it wasn’t meant to be.
This is one of those issues where we expect Republican elected officials to have party loyalty to the positions of the party as set out in the NCGOP platform, which calls for repeal of the renewable energy mandate. Some of them, however, are thumbing their noses at the party position, which is also the conservative position, and instead voting for the liberal Obama / Gore position. That is party disloyalty by elected officials, and justifies Republican voters withholding their votes from such disloyal Republicans in both primaries and general elections. Party loyalty is a two way street, and we have Republican elected officials betraying Republican voters on this issue which directly impacts our electric bills. Any Republican who votes liberal on this issue for the renewable energy special interests, needs to be removed from office.
You conservatives don’t like this? Then show up as delegates to the State Convention and return the favor. There are at least two MAJOR CHANGES to the NCGOP POO being pushed for adoption….changes which are desired by the RNC…..and changes which further centralize power at the State level at the expense of County and local groups. Its a rare opportunity to make State leadership pay for their games.
There is an even better way to hit back against this at the state convention.
One of the corrupt liberal consultants behind this solar scam is Dee Stewart, and Dee Stewart is also the man behind the curtain pushing Craig Collins for NCGOP chairman.
Go show your disgust at Stewart’s solar scam by voting against Stewart’s candidate for NCGOP chairman.
I bring greetings from Tom Steyer and George Soros. Most of you rightwingers know them as some of the heaviest of the progressive political heavy hitters, but you might not know them as major players in the renewable energy gambit. In fact, that is Tom’s main gig these days. They both are appreciative for the work of Dee Stewart and Paul Shumaker for the progressive cause on renewable energy and for the ”green” that brings to their personal pocketbooks.
What really has me LMAO is watching some of the very same GOP legislators that ole Tom spent megabucks attacking in the very last legislative campaigns now turning around and voting to advance his personal financial interests. Do they think that will make ole Tom leave ’em alone next time? Fat chance. You see, we progressives would rather have progressive Democrats in those seats than progressive Republicans, and those seats are targeted based on being swing districts held by Republicans, not for anything the legislator did or did not do.
Maybe some of these guys really think they can buy ole Tom off by their votes, but if they think that, you rightwingers need to realize with your legislators that sometimes you just can’t cure stupid.
So, you see, President Obama, George Soros, Tom Steyer, myself, and all the Polar Bears really do appreciate the work that Dee Stewart and Paul Shumaker, and every Republican legislator that they can con, are doing for the progressive cause on renewable energy.