Are Jones St. GOPers giving NC its very own Green New Deal?
That’s what appears to be happening with HB 951, which passed the GOP-controlled House and is sitting in the GOP-controlled Senate. (If you click on the aforementioned link, you’ll see that a number of members of the so-called House Freedom Caucus voted for this mess. Word is that Timmy was running around promising the moon to every member of the GOP caucus in exchange for their votes. *It’s so nice to see the House GOP putting their self-interests and lobbyist cash ahead of what’s best for their constituents and the state.*)
HB 951 is a boon for Duke Energy and a bunch of left-wing groups. (It’s not so great for those of us paying electric bills.)
Legislative Republicans have already given the solar goons ONE BILLION DOLLARS.
There are little to no state solar regulations in place, and the solar industry has not actually HAD to PROVE their product is an actual benefit to consumers / taxpayers.
HB 951 gives the solar goons even more taxpayer-funded goodies, and further waters down what local regulations do exist. The original version of 951 called for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) — a beefing up of nuclear energy resources. The current bill seriously downplays SMRs. The lobbyists and activists who wrote the bill want the expensive windmills and solar panels, not nuclear power facilities. The current bill says money “may be” spent on nuclear, not that it “will be” spent. Talk about weasel words.
It talks about shuttering SIX coal-fired plants. The experts and resources I’ve consulted tell me it’s “technically impossible” to replace a coal plant with just wind and / or solar. Solar does you little good on an overcast day. Wind power is no help on a day without a breeze. These are better supplements than they are primary resources.
A lot of the arguments for the bill are based on saving us from “climate change.” There is little to no evidence, my experts and resources tell me, that wind and solar have any significant effect on “climate change.” (There is actually some chance there of wind and solar making climate change WORSE.)
Siting wind and solar facilities has been, for years, left up to the state’s 100 counties. HB 951 doesn’t really change that much. (An amendment to give counties and their citizens even more say on the siting of these “clean energy” facilities got shot down by legislators.) There is still no plan out there for the safe disposal of solar panels when their useful life ends. And nothing in this 50-plus page bill makes a case for this big switch to solar and wind being a net benefit to the state’s consumers.
Expert analysis predicts North Carolina taxpayers will have to shell out an additional ONE BILLION DOLLARS to prop up these wind and solar facilities.
Folks, the alleged conservative majority is about to slap us with a HUGE, unexpected bill for this stuff. They are getting their pockets stuffed with cash, while our electric bills get bigger. There is no real proof that solar and wind will save consumers money. Based on experiences in Europe, it will bleed all of us dry. Empty our wallets. Especially with solar panels, we are likely to see more environmental problems than constructive solutions. This has been an economic and environmental nightmare EVERYWHERE it has been tried.
These people still have to pass a budget. These people could be working on election reform. 2022 will be here before we know it. But once again, all the solar goon cash wins over our alleged “representatives.”
Our only hope is to get to the Senate. Find your senator and tell him or her to vote this sucker down. Or to at least put a lot more protections for the rest of us in there. HB 951 says it is about “modernization” but it is really about putting more money in the pockets of monied interests.
Watching the GOP in the legislature kowtow to Greta Thunberg, Al Gore, and AOC turns your stomach. This bill stabs electric consumers in the back. It reflects the same leftwing mentality as Germany’s Energy Wende (energy transition) which has left Germany with electric rates three times what ours are in NC and still climbing rapidly and constantly threatened with blackouts when there is high electricity demand and poor conditions for wind and solar production. The massively rising electric rates and increasing danger of blackouts in California also show these policies to be absolutely insane. Tim Moore is worse than Paul Ryan as a whore for the special interests who will screw the average citizen in a heartbeat. The only thing “green” about this HB951 boondoggle is all of the green money being put into the pockets of the solar and wind grifters.
Reaganite is ABSOLUTELY correct. The only thing green is the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!
Self preservation is mankind’s strongest instinct. That obviously is being ignored with regards to “OUR” Nations well being. One could think that those who support this might, just might, be ok with Biden’s first bomb dropped on the Keystone pipe line.. What would be the damn difference??!!!!! Anybody?
If North Carolina really does have a Freedom Caucus it must have only five members.
From what I hear, some House conservatives think that conservatives in the Senate can make a silk purse out of this sow’s ear, but I am quite skeptical on that prospect. This bill not only smacks of the very worst of crony capitalism, but its economic foundation sits on classical fascist economics, with government and big business dividing the spoils. Even worse, all of that is designed to pay homage to a far left ideological objective “decarbonization” at the expense of the average citizen, who will have to bear the cost in taxes, higher electric rates, and unreliable electricity
If this bill is not substantially rewritten to totally change its orientation when it goes through the Senate, then House conservatives will have the power to drive a stake through its heart, if they have the backbone to do it, when it comes back to them.. Almost all Democrats are voting against it due to the provisions smacking down Cooper’s executive orders, so if conservatives act together in the final House vote to defeat it, they can give it the coup de grace. We will all be watching that closely. This is a dreadfully awful piece of legislation.
I agree this is awful legislation. It seems like some House conservatives are trying to sell all this as some sort of strategic masterstroke. I’m skeptical to say the least.
Like a lot of us I also just assumed the five House Republicans voting against HB 951 were members of the House Freedom Caucus. Turns out I was wrong. All five are Republicans, but I’ve been told that of the five only Mark Brody and Larry Pittman are members of the Freedom Caucus. The other sixteen Freedom Caucus members voted with the thirty nine non Freedom Caucus Republicans in favor of HB 951.
Bottom line, this special interest lobbyist concoction (HB 951) is not the finest hour of the House Freedom Caucus or the NC House Republicans in general. Let’s hope the NC Senate Republicans do better.
Like Clint Eastwood in “For A Few Dollars More” – Thought I was having trouble with my adding. It’s alright now.
Hats off to Representatives Brody, Pittman, Sauls, Strickland, and Torbett. These lone five House members were the sole GOP opponents to H951, correctly referred to as North Carolina’s “Green New Deal.” Citizens who want a more reasoned energy modernization strategy for this state – one that properly balances environmental and economic concerns – certainly should contact their state senators and vehemently oppose the bill’s passage. This 49-page monstrosity obviously was written by Duke Energy lobbyists with the intent of making the company self-regulating. (If you doubt me on this, just read the new stipulations about performance-based regulation, beginning on page 30 of the bill. Not one member of the General Assembly – other than perhaps former Duke Energy executive Paul Newton – could begin to explain that jargon,)
It’s crap like this that will eventually hand control of the NC State House and NC State Senate back to the democrats. Why should legitimate Republicans even bother to vote for “conservatives” or “republicans” who introduce or support this garbage? It’s tragic that, at such a critical time for our state and our nation, our party’s so-called “leadership” in the General Assembly is so woefully inept. And as always, the performance of the entire “team” reflects the strength, character, and integrity of the “captain.” Don’t you agree, Mr. Berger and Mr. Moore?
Larry Holmquist
To make matters worse, the GOP leadership seems to be acting as useful idiots or worse for the Red Chinese. Even the liberal New York Times came out with a recent article that said that the ChiComs were the big winners in the “transition” to solar. The big money flows to manufacturing solar panels in China while the “green jobs” created in the US by solar and wind are “grueling low wage jobs”. Many of the jobs lost in building and operating traditional power plants, on the other hand, are good paying jobs.
Red China manufactures 80% of the solar panels produced in the world today compared to the US in the low single digits. Some of them are even produced by Uyghur slave labor. China is also dominant in producing wind turbines. But that is all for export. What do they use for themselves? Cheap and reliable coal fired electricity, of course. China presently has hundreds of new coal fired power plants under development and is increasing its importation of coal. There are currently over 600 new coal fired power plants under development in Asia and the majority of them are in China.
China has many ways of worming its way into political influence, from the pocketbook, like their setting up Mitch McConnell’s wife and her family in the shipping business (ships, crews, and cargoes all provided by the ChiCom regime), to the bedroom, like providing a beautiful Chinese spy named Fang Fang as mistress to Democrat Congressman Eric Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee. Why are some of our RINO leaders here in NC serving China’s interests and betraying those of North Carolina on HB951?.
Democrats voted nearly all against this I heard
There is a very simple reason for that. The Democrats want to do a Green New Deal by Cooper executive order, and this legislation would prevent that. Their opposition is not so much about policy. They and the RINOs are both green new dealers. It is all about who gets to virtue signal to the climate alarmists and pocket the political contributions of the solar and wind grifters.. It is sad that nobody is standing up for the ratepayers and the taxpayers, who are the ones who would take this horrible policy on the chin. A race to the left like this is never good for the taxpayer.