
{"id":677,"date":"2007-08-02T07:35:07","date_gmt":"2007-08-02T15:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/08\/02\/a-disreputable-process-a-public-groundswell\/"},"modified":"2007-08-02T07:35:07","modified_gmt":"2007-08-02T15:35:07","slug":"a-disreputable-process-a-public-groundswell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/08\/02\/a-disreputable-process-a-public-groundswell\/","title":{"rendered":"A disreputable process, a public groundswell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>\u00c2\u00a0Jim Warren<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>North Carolina has been harmed by a disreputable process that gives powerful corporations even more control over our energy and environmental future \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at the worst possible time for our climate. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deplorable that a $10,000 per legislator investment by the power companies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and far more to their key supporters \u00e2\u20ac\u201c could lead to such an anti-consumer, anti-environment bill.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The bills content<\/strong><br \/>\nProtections for our climate, health and economy have been gutted because the bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clean energy provisions are dwarfed by measures promoting dirty energy, expensive power plants and disincentives for efficiency. An incentive allowing the corporate hog industry to continue polluting our communities and rivers with thousands of feces-and-urine \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lagoons\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is nothing short of shameful.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>A deceptive process<\/strong><br \/>\nThe process was tainted throughout by backroom negotiations. The utilities and allies rigged the bill even before a slanted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stakeholder\u00e2\u20ac\u009d process began, adding sweeteners to gain approval from various business interests. As the bill emerged in the Senate in late June, promoters falsely claimed the environmental community supported S-3, confusing legislators into inaction.<\/p>\n<p>Then, as public-interest attorneys began unraveling the bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complexities and scores of organizations began calling for sufficient time so that legislators could understand the bill,<br \/>\nS-3 promoters and legislative leadership increased their pressure to speed passage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A silver lining<\/strong><br \/>\nA large statewide mobilization in recent weeks proved that citizen groups are uniting for clean energy. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfortunate we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t given a chance to put that voice behind a renewables bill that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t held hostage to massive giveaways to the power companies. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tragic that bill supporters were able to ride the momentum of backroom dealing and distorted information long enough to overcome attempts to ensure that lawmakers and the public could understand the bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ramifications.<\/p>\n<p>Although the bill tied one hand behind our backs, the broad popular reform movement will continue exposing undue corporate influence, building the muscle needed to reinvigorate democratic institutions in North Carolina, and making the shift to clean, safe energy.<\/p>\n<p><em>Jim Warren is the executive director of NC WARN (Waste Awareness and Reduction Network).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00c2\u00a0Jim Warren North Carolina has been harmed by a disreputable process that gives powerful corporations even more control over our energy and environmental future \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at the worst possible time for our climate. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deplorable that a $10,000 per legislator investment by the power companies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and far more to their key supporters \u00e2\u20ac\u201c could&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}