Tag Archives: governor

NC: Duke Energy Gave $147,000 to Sponsors of SB10 Power Grab

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The North Carolina legislature is taking the unprecedented step of firing 131 officials from several policy and regulatory boards, including the Utilities Commission overseeing Duke Energy, the Environmental Management Commission, and two bodies overseeing policies for the N.C. Coastal Management Program. The bill, SB 10, has already passed in the state Senate and is expected to make its way through the House before winding up on Gov. Pat McCrory’s desk.

Contributions from freshly-merged Duke Energy and Progress Energy to the SB 10 SPONSORS total $147,000:

3 of 3 primary sponsors: $102,500 from Duke Energy and Progress Energy

  • Sen. Tom Apodaca – $35,000 from Duke and $30,500 from Progress (2002-2012)
  • Sen. K. Neal Hunt – $19,000 from Duke and $12,000 from Progress (2004-2012)
  • Sen. Bill Rabon – $3,000 from Duke and $3,000 from Progress (2010-2012)

4 of 9 co-sponsors: $44,500 from Duke Energy and Progress Energy

  • Sen. Andrew C. Brock – $8,500 from Duke and $2,000 from Progress (2002-2012)
  • Sen. Harry Brown – $14,000 from Duke and $11,000 from Progress (2006-2012)
  • Sen. Thom Goolsby – $1,000 from Duke and $2,000 from Progress (2010-2012)
  • Sen. Louis Pate – $3,000 from Duke and $3,000 from Progress (2008-2010)

While Duke Energy recently shut down a couple old coal plants, it also just started operating a new coal boiler at its Cliffside Steam Station in NC. Duke’s coal pollution already contributed to over 400 deaths in North Carolina each year according to the Clean Air Task Force (see also this map). NC Governor Pat McCrory worked for Duke Energy for 28 years, and has already hired several other former Duke executives for his transition team and cabinet.

Groups like NC Warn and AARP of North Carolina were already concerned about incoming Gov. McCrory’s ability to promote industry-friendly regulators to open positions in the NC Utilities Commission. With SB10 well on its way toward McCrory’s desk, the situation is far more grave than good-government advocates realized.

It appears that between Duke Energy, McCrory’s new multimillionaire budget director Art Pope, and shill groups bankrolled by Pope and the billionaire Koch brothers, North Carolina’s government is co-opted and poised to deliver some serious blows to the state’s environment, the global climate, and the health of people affected by pollution and climate-related disasters.

VIDEO: Romney confronted in Ohio, “Do you still think the rising of the seas is funny?”

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At a campaign event today in Etna, Ohio, Governor Romney was asked, “Do you still think the rising of the seas is funny?” Romney responded, “I never imagined such a thing is funny,” despite using rising sea levels as a punchline in his speech to the Republican National Convention.

Woman: “Do you still think the rising of the seas is funny?”

Romney: “I never imagined such a thing is funny.”

Man: “Is climate change still a joke to you?”

Romney: “As a matter of fact, if you’d like to – I know you’re filming – if you’d like to see my view on global warming, I wrote a book, and there’s a chapter on global warming and you’ll see what I think we can do to deal with it.” Continue reading →

ALEC slips Exxon fracking loopholes into new Ohio law

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Wake up and smell the frack fluid! But don’t ask what’s in it, at least not in Ohio, cause it’s still not your right to know.

Ohio is in the final stages of making an Exxon trojan horse on hydrofracking into state law, and it appears that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) connected Exxon’s lawyers with co-sponsors of Ohio Senate Bill 315: at least 33 of the 45 Ohio legislators who co-sponsored SB 315 are ALEC members, and language from portions of the state Senate bill is similar to ALEC’s “Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act.”

…disclosure of fracking fluids? On behalf of ExxonMobil?!

Frack fluids include unknown chemicals that gas drillers mix with sand and large amounts of water. The mixture is pumped underground at high pressure in order to retrieve gas and oil by fracturing shale formations. These are the chemicals that have caused widespread concern among residents near gas fracking operations, concerns echoed by doctors who don’t know how to treat patients harmed by exposure to chemicals that oil companies keep secret. Oil companies like XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the first company lined up to drill in Ohio’s Utica shale. Continue reading →