Congratulations to the PEOPLE of Woodfin

who, it seems, have stopped the Diesel Power Plant in their town.

Well, well, well. Retreating are we?

According to the ironically-named Citizen-Times today, the Buncombe County Commissioners are having a nice little retreat today.

To plan for how to screw over their employers, the people, for the next couple of years I guess. Or maybe it will be catered by Progress Energy?

How nice.

Retreat? Yeah, that's a start guys. How about some apologizing? Or at least explaining?

Nah, just keep assuming your precious perk-filled seats are safe. That you are entitled to your lordly positions.

That will make it easier to pick you all off, because as of now, you all have to go.

From the news item (I hesitate to call it an article)

Commissioner David Young said items he plans to discuss during the brainstorming session include ways to make county government more efficient, continuing development of greenways along the French Broad River and energy conservation measures.

Energy conservation measures. Hummmm, okay. Oh wait, I have an idea David... call Progress and see what they think.

Yeah, that's it. They should have lots of good ideas.

Idiots.

In honor of Sunshine Week

What?
You did not know it was Sunshine Week? Okay, I did not either. But I am old enough to remember when we fought for, and won, all the laws on the books about open government--laws which are now ignored routinely at all levels of government.
Let us focus on one, right here in Buncombe County, North Carolina, shall we?
It seems our County Commission, or rather, parts of it, decided when they were approached by Progress Energy, we, the people of Buncombe County did not need to know what they were discussing. And even more perverse, they decided to not include other members of the County Commission, either to avoid having to report the meetings, or because they felt those Commissioners would report the secret meetings.
Take your pick.
At any rate, there were a series of discussions about leasing land to Progress Energy over a significant period of time between Progress Energy and several county commissioners.
There was never a report of this made to the public. (If you are pissed now, here is a mechanism to report such actions.)
Now, how do we know this happened? Well, they told us at a meeting. The same meeting when they decided to lease the land to Progress Energy for $1 a year, whether they ever build a power plant there or not.
Clearly this violates the spirit of Sunshine Laws.
Opposition to the proposed diesel power plant has been playing catch-up to this shocking announcement. Mountain Voices is a group working on getting the county's decision overturned.
Of course, all this has been in the paper, on TV, and given a good coverage around town, right?
Wrong.
Mountain Express has had a few articles on it. Nothing in the Citizen-Times. Nothing on Channel 13.
The Asheville Bloggers are all over it, with posts such as this at Scrutiny Hooligans, this at BrainShrub, and others.
So, please, keep the pressure on. The county commission is standing by their decision. Progress Energy has no comment. The NC State Representatives are shocked by the whole thing. Congressman Shuler is reported to be against it.
If you have connections with the local media, let's get them going on this.
And enjoy the sunshine.
While you can.

10% here, 10% there

You know, it seems as if 10% is a magic number in electric power politics. That number seems to come up all the time... 10% of our capacity, 10% increase in usage, 10% shortfall due to contract problems, 10% limit on run-time.

Well now it appears that 10% of our energy needs can be met with renewable resources. Mountain Express has this bit on Representative Susan Fisher's battle against coal, which is a great thing. They are quoting a N&O article which stated, in part,

The article notes that an energy consultant’s report in December concluded that 10 percent of the state’s energy needs could be met by renewable sources and efficiency programs.

I have it on good authority that she, Representative Charles Thomas, and US Representative Heath Shuler are coming down against the 10% Woodfin Diesel plant as well.

I wonder if that is the same 10%, or if there is a different 10% for us greenies? And I wonder if that consultant knew that at the same time their report was issued, the Buncombe County commissioners (well, some of them anyway) were secretly (and illegally?) meeting with Progress Energy 10%ers to sneak a 10% plant on 100% of us?