Conservation Insider Bulletin

[for CCNC (Conservation Council of NC)]
Legislative Watch: Maintain the State Energy Office

One of the worst pieces of legislative environmental news this past week involved the State Energy Office, which has been a leading voice for development of energy efficiency and renewable energy resources in North Carolina for years. The N.C. Senate's version of the state's annual budget eliminates funding for the office and breaks up its remaining functions to other agencies.

CCNC President Nina Szlosberg, in a letter sent to newspapers, said, "North Carolina, now more than ever needs an agency whose sole purpose is to provide leadership and direction as we grapple with how to provide safe, affordable, clean and sustainable energy for the future." She expressed hope that House negotiators on the budget would get the Energy Office restored in the final budget.

She also challenged the reasoning that elimination of the office could save the state money, citing successful Energy Office efforts to save millions of state dollars since 2002, "through correcting electric rates and billing errors and providing energy audits to help state facilities and universities reduce consumption." Energy Office director Larry Shirley says that the office's advice has over the past 15 years saved state government $62 million and private business $170 million in avoided energy costs.

CCNC lobbyist Mike Nelson further notes that the Energy Office has more recently educated state agencies and others on how to save energy through creating "green buildings"; completed a state Energy Emergency Plan; and created the North Carolina Industries for the Future Program, "focusing on lowering the energy costs for five energy-intensive industries in the state, increasing their productivity, and creating a forum for development of new technologies."

N.C. House Speaker Joe Hackney observed wryly to a reporter (Associated Press, 5/31/07), "Go figure—it's the energy session, and so far we haven't saved the State Energy Office."

Washington Watch: End of the Road to Nowhere, Just Around the Bend

Freed from the corrupting influence of unwise Congressional pressure on the issue, the National Park Service (NPS) has announced the right decision on the "Road to Nowhere" into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The NPS says it will recommend against building the road, which would have slashed into the environmentally sensitive heart of the park along the north shore of Fontana Lake.

The Park's superintendent said last week that a final environmental impact statement, which will be released in full in September, will call for approval of the cash settlement alternative with Swain County. (The federal government had agreed to build the road over 50 years ago, when the Park was first created, to replace a road flooded by Fontana Lake. The cash settlement was more recently suggested as an alternative means of compensating the county without the serious environmental damage which the road construction would cause to the park and lake.)

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC11) opposes the road and supports the settlement. He has helped put together a bipartisan group of Congressional representatives from North Carolina and Tennessee to call for that resolution. Shuler, who represents the district in which the road would be built, defeated the road's leading proponent, former Rep. Charles Taylor, last November.

Environomics: Sticker Shock on the Cliffside Plant; No Progress on New Harris Nuke

Sticker Shock on the Cliffside Plant: Ouch. Duke Energy's projected cost for the single new coal unit at Cliffside which the Utilities Commission says it can build has gone up again. Now it projects that the one unit will cost $1.8 billion—just a little less than it originally said it would cost to build two. Hey, guys, now are you ready to try the results from energy efficiency efforts first, before building the expensive new coal plant?

No Progress on New Harris Nuke: That is, we note Progress Energy says it's holding off for now on the idea of adding another nuclear reactor unit at its Shearon Harris plant in Wake County. Which actually is progress, from our point of view. The utility says it will delay plans to build a new nuclear unit at the Harris plant, and instead encourage far less costly energy efficiency efforts by its customers. Progress says it will start by developing a program designed to save 2,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, the equivalent of two or more large power plants. CIB says that it's encouraging to hear such positive plans from the company—in fact, it's real Progress.