Standing Together, Looking To A Sustainable Future
Submitted by Gordon Smith on Sun, 02/25/2007 - 11:07am
{For ScruHoo's background - 1, 2, 3, 4}
{For Mtn. Xpress' background}
{For Mountain Alliance's background}
It's almost pitiable, thinking of the proponents of the Woodfin Diesel Power Plant cowering in the face of so much opposition. Representative Susan Fisher and Representative Bruce Goforth are reportedly livid at the underhanded back room deals that allowed this harmful, unnecessary deal to go down. Republican Representative Charles Thomas called Scrutiny Hooligans to voice his dissatisfaction with the project and his impatience with the sneaky tactics of the County Commissioners who chose to sell our children's health down the road. Congressman Heath Shuler has repeatedly voiced his support for a "Research Triangle for Alternative Energies" in these mountains and is, therefore, a natural opponent of the backwards-thinking project.
Mountain Voices Alliance along with the Canary Coalition and many other groups are quickly organizing the public and working on alternative energy proposals. Moreover, Canary Coalition is pursuing legal action against possible violation of Open Meetings and Public Disclosure Laws.
We're still waiting to hear a lot of people come out publicly against the ridiculous project. If the Democratic Party hasn't united around a single position by April 14th, look for the county convention to be a battle between the Sneaky Diesel Democrats and the Safe Clean Energy Democrats.
You can make your voice heard by contacting our representatives and letting them know where you stand:
Email Susan Fisher (District 114), Bruce Goforth (District 115), Charles C. Thomas (District 116)
Email Tom Apodaca (District 48), Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr. (District 49)
Write a letter to the Asheville Citizen-Times
Write a letter to the Mountain Xpress
Learn more about utility regulations
Trackback URL for this post:
http://bluenc.com/trackback/5485
- Gordon Smith's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Utilities Commission Decision on Cliffside Coal Fired Plants
February 26th was the date the Utilities Commissioners were going to announce their decision about Duke Energy's Coal fired plants.
The wonderful assumption behind these proposals is that stockholders will not lose. Consumers will pay whatever it costs for whatever the energy companies choose to produce. If the Federal or state starts to charge them for their emissions, it will not reduce their income as they pass that on to us.
the Union of Concerned Scientists has a report called: Gambling with Coal. I recommend you go to their website to read it. Here is one excerpt.
....Regulators should protect ratepayers from future CO2 costs by refusing to authorize new coal plants; alternatively, they should clearly place the risk of future CO2 costs on utility shareholders rather than on ratepayers.
Currently, a utility’s environmental compliance costs are routinely passed throughto ratepayers as a cost of providing electricity. In particular, costs of buying pollution allowances (such as the sulfur dioxide allowances coal operators purchase today) are considered operating expenses recoverable through rates. ..."
Good For Heath Shuler for seeing the many ways this is not about good democratic values.