Electric Shock

Get ready for more jolts to us consumers. With increasing government mandates and collusion with electric producers, our energy bills will become shockingly higher.

A North Carolina state-sponsored Environmental Management Commission of 19 members plans to require facilities that emit CO2 to report the dastardly deed (presumably we who exhale the vile substance with every breath would be exempt). This unelected gang expects us to pay for their hope to change the climate on earth. How noble! And how arrogantly stupid! There is no science, nor reason, to support the idea that CO2 is an air pollutant. Of course, that won’t stop political activists.

This is the beginning of new government meddling: forcing us to change our behavior to satisfy social zealots who seek redemption at the Church of Environmental Resurrection. Cultishly, they want to drag us all into their dark missionary work—at a huge cost.

In addition to state officials’ misguided adventures into their ethereal world, our new socialist-oriented federal government has a grander “cap-and-trade” scheme ready to implement. The John Locke Foundation reports that these regulations “could have devastating impacts on the economy”—just what we need in an already devastated economy.

Over in Brunswick County, the CEO of Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation (BEMC) reports in a member newsletter a state scam he euphemistically refers to as “environmental stewardship.” Of course, he must comply. This state (and 17 others) has mandated energy efficiency measures and subsidized energy production schemes under the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS) law.

The “Standard” requires that electric cooperatives (nonprofit corporations) must get up to 10 percent of their energy through “green” sources. North Carolina electric co-ops set up another cooperative, GreenCo Solutions, to gather power from solar and wind sources. In a convoluted system of purchasing this energy and “Renewable Energy Credits,” co-op executives hope customers can continue to afford their energy.

The Brunswick CEO put on a smiley face and said, meeting these mandates is a “challenge”—probably not for him, but it will be for his customers.

On April 1, 2009 BEMC energy users will see a “REPS Rider,” otherwise known as a tax, attached to their electric bills to pay for reducing their use of energy and getting more of it from inefficient sources. Commercial customers will pay 5 times more than residential users. At this time the taxes are capped at modest amounts, but these “costs for compliance” will be adjusted annually and “may change in the future.” Count on them going up—with more electric shocks to come for all of us.

To port or not to port

Opponents of the proposed new international port at Southport want to spotlight other potential uses of the 600-acre tract of land. They’re holding a contest to solicit ideas from the general public.

Meanwhile here are the key arguments for and against. For:

The terminal is expected to be built on 600 acres on the Cape Fear River near Southport at a cost of $1 billion or more. Construction is projected to begin in 2014, with the port open for business in 2017, according to the ports authority.

The ports authority’s hired consulting firm estimated the terminal will directly and indirectly support more than 475,000 jobs and result in $1.2 billion in state and local tax revenue. The consultants’ economic feasibility report states between 2017, when the terminal is expected to open, and 2030, when it is expected to reach its design capacity, it will receive six times the market share of the Port of Wilmington.

And against:

No Port Southport disputes that finding. In its own analysis, the group found state ports receive funds from the state and federal government every year and that a new terminal in Southport would have to take business away from larger, more established ports in Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia to make money.

No Port Southport also questioned the number of jobs a new terminal would create in the local area. The group found that the APM terminal in Portsmouth, Va., which is said to be similar to the planned Southport terminal, employs 44 regular employees as well as longshoremen as needed. The group also referred to a study of communities around ports in South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia that found them to be some of the poorest in their respective states.

Advertising our tax discrimination

Wilmington-area film companies want North Carolina to increase its special 15 percent tax break for production expenses. Sen. Julia Boseman has filed a bill to up it to 25 percent.