Governor Beverly Perdue is about as shameless as her counterpart in the Oval Office. She has been caught bullying North Carolina’s three major energy companies into signing long-term contracts with a wind farm company. The three are resisting this pressure due to the fact that these farms are inefficient, and cost more than conventional sources of energy. That cost would be passed onto the consumer. But that is unimportant to the Governor, what is at stake is a $200 million federal government grant; and Bev just loves that “free money”.Documents obtained by the Civitas Institute suggest Gov. Bev Perdue is attempting to strong-arm North Carolina’s three major utility companies into supplying more expensive energy to their customers in the northeastern part of the state. In a political power-play to reward big business reminiscent of the handling of the Solyndra debacle that embarrassed the Obama administration, Perdue is urging for special treatment that would secure a $200 million federal government subsidy for a multi-billion dollar Spanish company.
Perdue recently sent a letter to the heads of Duke, Dominion, and Progress Energy stressing the importance of the proposed Desert Wind Power Project in Elizabeth City to be built by Iberdrola Renewables (to see copies of the letters, click the links below). The Project involves the development of a 300 megawatt wind energy farm. In her letter, Perdue stated: “I urge you to give serious consideration to partnering with Iberdrola Renewables to make the Project a reality.” Perdue also added that it is urgent that a major utility provider agree to purchase power from the wind farm in order for it to be a “long-term success.”
Small problem: North Carolina’s major utility companies already said no to purchasing electricity from the wind power project because the rates Iberdrola were demanding are so much more expensive than the conventional energy currently being used by the utilities. As quoted in a recent Raleigh News & Observer article, Duke spokeswoman Betsy Alley Conway said, “What we are looking for is wind energy at a price that is cost-effective for the company and our customers. If we receive a proposal from developers that is a good value for our customers and our company, we would execute the contract.”
USA Today reported the following household energy cost:
Households paid a record $1,419 on average for electricity in 2010, the fifth consecutive yearly increase above the inflation rate, a USA TODAY analysis of government data found. The jump has added about $300 a year to what households pay for electricity. That's the largest sustained increase since a run-up in electricity prices during the 1970s.
Electricty is consuming a greater share of Americans' after-tax income than at any time since 1996 — about $1.50 of every $100 in income at a time when income growth has stagnated, a USA TODAY analysis of Bureau of Economic Analysis data found.
Even though Obama wasn’t able to pass cap and trade, his bureaucratic machine has found ways to punish us all. And it sure as hell doesn’t help, when our state politicians pile on with unnecessary, inefficient sources of energy that isn’t cost effective.
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