#ncga Senate opens new front in solar fight
Mr. Apodaca, Mr. Rucho, and Mr. Berger have been toying with things again, and that has all of these alleged “conservatives for clean energy” up in arms. The folks in the upper chamber basically brought Chris Millis’s language to kill the alternative energy mandates back from the dead:
From: Betsy McCorkle [mailto:betsy@energync.org]
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2015 8:12 AM
To: Betsy McCorkle
Subject: House Bill 332 – Concerns from Facebook, Google, and AppleGood Morning Members,
Attached is a letter co-signed by Google, Facebook, and Apple raising concerns about House Bill 332, specifically the provisions to change policies for renewable energy and energy efficiency in North Carolina.
Thank you,
Betsy—
Betsy McCorkle
Director of Government Affairs
4800 Six Forks Rd. | Suite 300 | Raleigh, NC 27609
919-832-7601 ext. 108
770-713-0245 cell
www.energync.org
Ah — Google, Facebook, and Apple. Three cash-starved entities already taking in oodles of freebies from us. Let’s check out their letter:
TechNet is the bipartisan policy and political network of CEOs and senior executives that promotes the innovation economy. As employers and major electricity customers in North Carolina, the undersigned TechNet member companies write today to raise concerns over the energy policy language of H332 (originally found in H760), which we believe would have a significant negative impact on the availability of a clean and diversified energy supply in the state.
As global companies providing services to consumers around the world from our operations in the state, a reliable, sustainable electricity supply is critical, and requires sourcing power from renewable energy. In fact, the right and ability to access power from renewable resources is not merely a goal, but an expectation.
The current policies were put in place after careful consideration and produce significant benefits – something we have seen consistently in states with strong commitments to renewable energy – which include providing sustainable sources of power, diversifying the energy supply, supporting innovation, and providing billions of dollars of in-state economic growth and thousands of jobs throughout the state.
We are concerned the legislation would freeze the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS), which provides a steadily increasing baseline of clean energy for the North Carolina grid over time. We believe the REPS should be maintained because our collective experience shows that programs like the REPS can actually reduce the overall cost of energy to ratepayers.
In addition, this legislation would drastically lower the size threshold at which renewableenergy projects require contracts that are negotiated with the utilities. This proposed change was previously carefully reviewed by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, and rejected. More importantly, by imposing a size limit that is far below the typical size of utility-scale projects, this change would effectively create a barrier to the development of many new projects, and put a chill on investment.
The undersigned companies have chosen to locate in North Carolina in part because the state’s existing energy policies enable us to operate and grow our businesses in furtherance of the goals mentioned above. Any change should therefore consider not just protecting, but expanding these benefits, and any changes should include a comprehensive review of energy policies through established, inclusive stakeholder processes.
We respectfully request that the General Assembly not alter the current carefully developed law and policy structure upon which industry has relied for purposes of investment decisions and which has made North Carolina particularly attractive to our businesses. Alterations risk undermining the state’s almost decade-long commitment to renewable power and energy efficiency. We support a comprehensive review, in which we would like to participate. In the meantime, to avoid creating new risk and uncertainty for our businesses, we urge you to keep in place the existing, well balanced and meticulously examined energy policy.
[…]
My moles tell me this legislation — the revival of the Millis language — has passed Senate Commerce and is now sitting in Senate Finance.
Google, Facebook, and Apple, all good progressive corporations who support progressive policies across the board. They can be counted on for any progressive issue, and that includes saving Polar Bears. Facebook’s CEO was a big time Obama bundler and has spent lots of money supporting amnesty for illegal . . . err, undocumented immigrants. Apple’s CEO is heavily into gay rights. So, yes, these guys will always be on our side.
Buying the House was easy and cheap. It cost four grand from our solar PAC to buy Tim Moore, and Nelson Dollar and Lewis were a bit cheaper. Too bad that Civitas has been following the money trail to the legislators and is shining a spotlight on that. They really can be annoying for progressives who just want to pass some progressive legislation.
Buying the Senate, though is another matter. Those guys stick by their Republican principles much more strongly and are not for sale like the House guys. They just don’t care about Polar Bears.
With our hard core environmentalist movement buying progressive consultants Dee Stewart and Paul Shumaker, we still have a chance. That is what geased the skids in the House. It is now up to whether those Republican Senators will listen to their own grassroots or whether they will listen to those of us who want to save the Polar Bears. We really do need to raise electric rates a lot if we are to save the Polar Bears, and putting lots of solar and wind farms out there is the best way to bring about a big increase in electric rates.
It seems to me that just passing some sensible language killing this incredibly stupid and destructive idea of renewable energy mandates in the Senate will not get the job done. It is going to have to go back through the House and in front of those legislators who are bought and paid for by the Obama forces – Speaker Moore, David Lewis, Nelson Dollar, etc. If you look at the ones who have been vocal in support of the renewable load of manure or have used their power to support it, they are the ones who got big checks from that PAC that Civitas exposed, starting with Moore. Moore wasn’t even Speaker then, or even frontrunner for Speaker, but he got the most money from the PAC supporting the Obama position.
Somebody, like maybe AFP, ought to spend some money explaining to the constituents of some of these Obama Republicans just what it is that their legislators are trying to do to them on their electric bills. Put some radio, TV, and mail out in some selected districts to hammer these guys very very hard about betraying their constituents, and make them feel some real political pain for what they have done. As President Reagan once said ”If you can’t make them see the light, then you can at least make them feel the heat”. These sellouts need to be feeling a lot of that heat.
Who should be the targets? To get the attention of the rest of the caucus most effectively, they need to be in the Raleigh media market, so the other guys can hear the ads and contemplate what might be coming at them in their own district if they keep spouting Obama policy. It should also be someone fairly high up the food chain in the House and someone who took some of that PAC money. The two names that jump immediately to mind are David Lewis and Nelson Dollar.
Oh, and it would be great if scumbag liberal Dee Stewart joins the party with some ads of his own. That will just get more attention to the issue among the voters, and I don’t think there will be any doubt which side most GOP primary voters will be on after hearing both sides, and it is not the Obama side.
Oh! Google, Facebook, and Apple – the usual suspects. The companies run by anti-Christian bigots who are gung-ho to destroy religious liberty. The companies that like to intimidate and threaten and act like bully boy jackasses to try to force one liberal issue after another down our throats. Those scoundrels. The ones who have even jumped the Atlantic to try to intimidate on behalf of liberal causes as they recently did in Ireland.
And of course that little twit Zuckerburg is in the thick of it, as he seems to be on just about every liberal cause that comes down the pike. Suckerburg and his politics are the reason I have never had anything to do with Facebook.
Next, I guess these crony capitalist green energy special interests will get endorsements from North Korea and Iran. Or perhaps Communist China, which makes a lot of the paraphenalia they use in their biz. Yeah, a letter from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party would fit these green energy parasites just about right.
Civitas has done a nice job in exposing the politics behind the three companies in the letter, and they reek:
http://civitasreview.com/budget-taxes/high-tech-cronyism/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Civitas+%28Civitas+Institute%29