Environment

Neighbors Burlington, Graham and Mebane have hired a law firm to fight the "Jordan Lake Rules" that the NC Division of Water Quality presented to the Environmental Management Commission. At issue is the unacceptable levels of nitrogen and phosphorous put into the Haw River, and thus Lake Jordan from upstream waste water and storm water runoff. Not very neighborly of them to want to keep dumping excess nutrients downstream, but as with all things the fight is really over the money that it would cost to retrofit existing infrastructure.

http://tinyurl.com/4hse63

http://tinyurl.com/4eyabw

I know as a long time observer of campaign finance issues, it is rare that a major corporate political action committee gives to an incumbent’s opponent in a primary. So I noted with interest that Duke Energy’s PAC gave Senator Ellie Kinnaird’s opponent $2000 in this primary. Ellie was the only state senator to vote against Senate Bill 3 which, although sold as renewable energy bill, was hijacked by the utilities so that it shifted most of the financial risk for building new coal and nuclear plants to the ratepayers.

Ellie saw this bill clearly for what it was, spoke out strongly against it, and clearly incurred the wrath of Duke Energy. As Democracy NC found in its research, in the four years ending in 2006, Duke Energy and Progress Energy averaged investments of $10,000 per North Carolina legislator in campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures.

It doesn’t work with our good senator. She represents us instead. Let’s keep it that way.