Conservation Insider Bulletin from Dan Besse, Dec. 14

Conservation Insider Bulletin
Published weekly for the Conservation Council of North Carolina
Conservation News to Peruse & Use

Editor: Dan Besse, earthvote@ccnccpac.org

December 14, 2007


The CCNC community this week mourns the passing of two of its early champions. That and more news, in this week's CIB:

--Movement Leaders: Early Presidents Pass On

--Around the State: CCNC Draws Big "Town Hall" Turnout in Asheville

--Campaign Watch: No Taylor to Kick Around This Time; More Hats in the Kerr Ring

--South of the Border: Duke Wants Cash Now for Nuke Later, Somewhere, Maybe


Movement Leaders: Early Presidents Pass On


Like Adams and Jefferson, two of our first presidents passed on at virtually the same time over the past week. CCNC's first president, Bob Conner, and its late-'70's president Dave Martin, both passed on after long illnesses.

Conner was the first president of both CCNC and what has since become the CCNC Foundation. An architect by profession, he helped to found the Friends of State Parks and the Piedmont Environmental Center. He served as president of the Catesby Bird Club and the Piedmont Appalachian Trail Hikers, as well as a member of the Guilford County Advisory Board for Environmental Quality (for 15 years) and the North West Preservation Committee. Conner was a moving force within North Carolina's environmental movement for three decades of his 93 years.

Martin was both an artist and a physicist during his 85 years. As president of CCNC during the 1970's, he led the organization in its fight against the expansion of commercial nuclear power plants. Afterwards, he also served as a leader of the South River Association, and dedicated time and effort toward fighting against stream channelization and the destruction of wildlife habitat.

Both men were smiling, bearded, brilliant individuals with a strong sense of humor and a passionate dedication to protection of the earth. Either could well have served as an artist's archetype for "citizen conservationist".

Bob and Dave are survived by spouses Lib Conner and Betty Martin, both of whom have also served for decades as leaders within the North Carolina citizen environmental movement. The Conner and Martin families have suggested that memorial gifts may be made to groups supported by the two leaders, including the Conservation Council of North Carolina.

Around the State: CCNC Draws Big "Town Hall" Turnout in AshevilleCCNC Political Director Brownie Newman brings us this report on a successful forum held December 13 in Asheville:

"The Conservation Council hosted a town hall meeting on Creating a Clean Energy Future for North Carolina last night in Asheville. I expected to have about 25- 30 participants in the event. To my surprise, we had about 90 people show up and pack themselves into the community room at the Unitarian Church where we held the event!

I received very positive feedback from participants about the event and think it can be a good model for other such town hall forums we may want to hold in other communities around the state in the coming year. I want to express Big Thanks to Robin Smith and her husband Wayne for showing up early with me to help set up and for helping clean up afterwards.

The forum featured a panel that included environmentalists, citizen activists, elected officials from the local and state level and a representative from Congressman Shuler's office. The forum began with a presentation by John Wilson from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, who previewed their upcoming proposal for a carbon reduction strategy for the state of North Carolina. Their report outlines a series of strategies that would allow North Carolina to reduce our carbon pollution by 40% by the year 2030. Their proposal is based on an aggressive use of existing technologies rather than presuming significant new technological breakthroughs to get there. It is visionary but also believable.

Following John, Robin Cape (a member of Asheville City Council) and Margie Meares (a member of the Sustainable Advisory Committee for Energy and the Environment) reflected on the clean energy policy initiatives that have been put in place in Asheville over the past two years. They also outlined their ideas for continuing these efforts in the coming year.

Next, Rep. Charles Thomas (R-Buncombe) and Rep. Susan Fisher (D-Buncombe) talked about the energy issues that have been addressed in the Legislature in the past session, primarily focusing on the pros and cons of Senate Bill 3. They also shared their ideas about how to move these issues forward in the coming year. Both legislators are on our side. Charles Thomas brings one of the most forward looking, policy-oriented perspectives about the energy issues of any member of the Legislature. These issues are a top priority for him and he understands that we need to be thinking about transforming our energy economy, not just tweaking our current approach.

Finally, Tom Jones, a representative for Congressman Heath Shuler, talked about the energy issues being debated and voted on in Congress. Shuler is doing a good job supporting the right energy/ CAFE standard bills in Congress.

Then we opened the forum up for an interactive dialogue with the citizens attending the forum. The forum lasted from 7- 9 PM. There was roughly equal time given to presentations and the Q&A section. All the presenters did a good job articulating the issues as well as how people could get involved in working on them.

The WNC Alliance, Wenoca Chapter of the Sierra Club and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy were co-sponsors of the forum. The event was videotaped and will be rebroadcast on the local public access television station here in Asheville, which has a fairly large audience. We will be sending out a letter to all the people who signed in to invite them to become members of the Conservation Council and we'll add them to our list to receive the Conservation Insider.

It's heartening to see the growing public interest in clean, renewable energy. I think this format could be a good model for holding additional town hall type meetings in other cities across the state in early 2008, in preparation for the Short Session of the Legislature and the 2008 elections."


Campaign Watch: No Taylor to Kick Around This Time; More Hats in the Kerr Ring

No Taylor to Kick Around This Time: After months of coy non-announcement, defeated former U.S. Representative Charles Taylor publicly announced this week that he would definitely not seek to re-acquire his old seat from its current holder, U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC11)—at least not next year.

More Hats in the Kerr Ring: The District 5 Senate seat held for the past 20 years by John Kerr (D-Wayne) continues to draw bids to a race looking to be crowded with contenders. In addition to the candidates already noted in last week's CIB (Don Davis, Kathy Taft, Marvin Blount, and possibly Don Parrott), two more noted their intentions this week: Edward H. Wilson, Jr., the retired president of Wayne Community College; and possibly former state senator Tony Moore, who switched from Democrat to Republican to run unsuccessfully against Kerr in a consolidated district in 2004, but switched back to a Democratic registration earlier this year.

South of the Border: Duke Wants Cash Now for Nuke Later, Somewhere, Maybe

The Greenville (SC) News reported this week that Duke Energy has asked the S.C. Public Service Commission to approve Duke's decision to spend as much as $230 million in development of its proposed new nuclear plant in that state—even though Duke declined to provide even an indication of when the final decision on whether to build the plant will be made. Oh, and Duke also says that it isn't ready to say where it will build the maybe-nuke, although it confides that it's leaning toward near Gaffney. Thanks for sharing that teaser, friends. Here, take our checkbook and do whatever you think is right.


That's our report for this week.