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Duke Energy's Cliffside Coal Plant
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Renewable energy is under attack in the Tar Heel State. That’s the word from Greenpeace USA‘s Connor Gibson today in a report that implicates King Coal powerhouse, Duke Energy and the fossil fuel industry at-large.
The vehicle Duke Energy is utilizing for this attack is one whose profile has grown in infamy in recent years: the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
ALEC is described as a “corporate bill mill” by its critics. It’s earned such a description because it passes “model bills” written by corporate lobbyists and to boot, the lobbyists typically do so behind closed doors at ALEC’s annual meetings.
The ALEC-Duke Alernative Energy Attack
Gibson puts it bluntly in his exposé, explaning that North Carolina Republican Rep. Mike Hager “says he is confident that he has the votes needed to weaken or undo his state’s [renewable] energy requirements during his second term.”
Hager is a former Duke employee, where he worked as an engineer. Duke maintains its corporate headquarters in Charlotte, NC.
The model bill Hager appears likely to push is called the “Electricity Freedom Act,” a piece of legislation calling for the nullification of any given state’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards (REPS). Passed in October 2012 by ALEC, the bill was actually co-written with the fossil fuel-funded think tank, the Heartland Institute (of “Heartland Exposed” fame).
“We wrote the model legislation and I presented it. I didn’t have to give that much of a case for it,” James Taylor of Heartland told The Washington Post in a November 2012 investigative report.
Taylor’s claims are backed by economic analyses of a sort.
That is, the sort one would expect from a group heavily funded by the fossil fuel industry (Heartland) teaming up with a group receiving 98 percent of its funding from corporate interests (ALEC). As The Post explained back in November:
As part of its effort to roll back renewable standards, ALEC is citing economic analyses of state policies co-published by Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill Institute and the State Policy Network. Both groups have received donations from foundations funded by the Koch brothers.
Gabe Elsner of the Checks and Balances Project described ALEC’s game plan as a deceptive “one-two punch” against renewable energy to The Post.
“You push the legislation to state legislators and then you fund reports to support the argument and convince state lawmakers and all without any transparency or disclosure about the sources of this funding,” he said back in November.
North Carolina’s GOP (which according to the Center for Media and Democracy‘s (CMD) SourceWatch has 45 ALEC members) appears set to go on the offensive against the state’s existing renewable energy standards.
More to Come?
There’s far more of this to come in the weeks and months ahead in statehouses nationwide.
As Gibson explains, “According to its own documents, ALEC spent the last couple years monitoring states attempting to introduce state-level renewable energy portfolio standards in West Virginia, Vermont and Virginia as well as legislative attacks on REPS laws in New Hampshire and in Ohio.”
Renewable energy is under attack. That is, of course, unless its advocates fight back.
Photo by Rainforest Action under Creative Commons license
9 Comments
After Sandy the climate for discussions about “climate change” seems to have changed. Has it in N.C.? Could the people rise up and get this bill defeated?
Quick, fix it: The ALEC-Duke Al[t]ernative Energy Attack
Let the solar companies pour some money in NC and play the game on equal footing.
Sincere environmentalists need to take a cold, hard look at their leaders, to see which of them act like ALEC doesn’t exist vs. which are educating the public about ALEC.
I did some googling of 350.org, recently, and found that it has about as much on ALEC as RushLimbaugh.com, etc.
See my diary
World Temperature Records in 2012 and the Green Veal Pen and my first comment.
This is more than a minor screw-up, considering that local, anti-fracking efforts have been thwarted due to state-level, ALEC-inspired, laws.
I’ve also heard that, at least as recently as about 6 years ago, there were towns in Florida, where solar was a no-brainer, that basically did not allow solar power. It strains credulity to believe that the mayors and city councils all just happened to wake up simultaneously agree that a solar energy should be made impossible, where, in fact, it makes the most sense.
I’ll bet if investigators went snooping around, they’d find some ALEC type fixing going on, even at the local level.
Not surprising, sadly.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, we’ve fared a bit better, as ALEC’s presence at the Capitol has been much reduced with the loss of many members:
ALEC’s people were lucky that their highest-ranking Minnesota member, Mary Kiffmeyer, was able to win her local House seat.
Yet another insurance-related issue for State Farm Insurance, a leading ALEC financial and executive sponsor. State Farm wants to insure its friends in Big Energy against green competition.
Like a good neighbor, State Farm wants to contribute to the destruction of the planet.
Sorry, I meant my comment in another diary:
http://my.firedoglake.com/metamars/2013/01/13/big-hot-fusion-energy-breakthrough/#comment-1
Bill boards touting the energy policies of China need to be run in NC – bill boards with pictures of pollution with headlines – No EPA in China to halt progress! Get rid of the EPA so we can see, and breath, the economy here in NC – paid for by gas mask industry”
I used to work in China, 12 years ago. I worked in mostly Shangdong Province. The first time I arrived, in winter, you couldn’t see more than a few blocks, due to coal smog. I initially thought that, in that part of China, the inhabitants never get to see a blue sky!
They had very little in the way of emission controls – their motorcycle thingies seemed as clean burning as lawn mowers. However, I read that the city of 6 million that I was headquartered at just recently (12 years ago) passed emission control laws that would regulate the
lawn mowersmotorcycle thingies.China has been undergoing a huge coal power plant building program, so even though I’ll guess that they burn coal more cleanly than when I was there, there’s so much more of it, going on.
They were also introducing a lot of Western style business law. I met a small businessman who told me they much preferred to do business with Western companies, than big Chinese ones. The big Chinese ones would only pay when they felt like it…
The city I HQ’d in was ‘working class’, let’s say. Beijing was much more sparkling, cleaner (including the air), lots of cars, lots of English speakers, even a Haagen-Daz store and an Indian restaurant or two (thank God, can’t go too long without Indian food). If dirty air now affects the lives of Beijing’ers, to the point where they’re advised to stay indoors, that’s probably a good thing for the rest of China. Beijing has clout, it’s citizens money, and they’ll want to pay – and force others to pay – for cleaner air.