Did North Carolinians kick democrats out of office
only to replace them with like-minded republicans? I know I didn’t vote for the status quo. Just because a politician has an “R” behind
his name doesn’t give him a license to continue the corrupt practices that’s
endemic in Raleigh. Republicans were supposed
to put an end to this crap.
Big Solar Energy has once again wormed its way into the
taxpayers’ wallet. So-called free market
conservatives voted to continue government mandates and subsidies for inefficient
and expensive renewable energy schemes.
We can expect no relief from high utility bills.
Who are these scoundrels? The Civitas Institute reported the following:
Rep. John Szoka
(R-Cumberland), perhaps the most outspoken proponent of solar energy this year,
is listed as a sponsor on HB 454 The
Energy Investment Act, a bill that would extend the 35 percent state tax credit
for renewables. He also is a primary sponsor on another bill, HB 245,
Utilities/The Energy Freedom Act, which will allow third-party sales of
electricity from on-site renewable energy facilities.
And don’t forget
these people:
Szoka is not the only
Republican who has turned his back on conservative, free-market principles to
take up the cause of more government mandates, political favoritism and higher
electric bills. In April 2013, Rep. Mike Hager (R-Rutherford) sponsored legislation
to roll back the renewable energy mandates. Six Republicans joined with all the
Democrats in the Public Utilities and Energy Committee and voted against the
legislation, preventing the bill from making it to the House floor for a vote.
The Republicans who voted against the legislation, thus maintaining these solar
mandates, were current Speaker of the House Tim Moore (Cleveland), Jerry
Dockham (Davidson), Ruth Samuelson (Mecklenburg), Nelson Dollar ( Wake),
Charles Jeter (Mecklenburg), and Linda Johnson (Cabarrus).
Of course, where
would we be without lobbyist pushing for these boondoggles. Many will be surprised to find out that Big
Solar has hired republican political consultants and lobbyists to raid the
treasury. Once again, Civitas flushes
out their names:
The environmentalists pushing “clean” energy have fashioned a
new weapon that can best be described as “Big
Solar.” But Big Solar is not a job-growth engine as claimed by
lobbyists, it exists only because of
government. The major solar corporations, however, have hired the right
Republican political consultants and lobbyists in North Carolina to push the
narrative to their clients – GOP legislators.
For example, the “Clean Energy” power
players in North Carolina include the most powerful and well-connected
Republican political consultants.
Paul
Shumaker, Partner,
Strategic Partners Solutions and President of political consulting firm Capital
Communications, Inc. Shumaker boasts as his clients Sen. Richard Burr, Supreme
Court Justices Mark Martin and Bob Edmunds, and Labor Commissioner Cherie
Berry. Shumaker served as campaign director for the North Carolina Republican
Party from 1985-1987 and worked for former Gov. Jim Martin in both of his
successful gubernatorial campaigns.
Dee
Stewart, Partner,
Strategic Partners Solutions, is also CEO and President of the political
consulting firm the Stewart Group, Inc. Stewart was U.S. Congressman
Patrick McHenry’s chief
of staff in 2005 and is currently his chief political advisor. He was the
executive director of the Iowa Republican Party during a presidential primary
year. According to the Strategic Partners Solutions website, Stewart has worked
for dozens of current and former state legislators – all Republicans –
including Senate Leader Phil Berger, Sen. Bill Rabon (Brunswick) and Rep. David
Lewis (Harnett).
Betsy
McCorkle,
political consultant to North Carolina Clean Energy Business Alliance
(NCCEBA). McCorkleis the director of government affairs for the North
Carolina Sustainable Energy Alliance (NCSEA) and was formally the Economic
Development Program Manager for the North Carolina Solar Center at NC
State University.
Kristen
Laster, Managing
Partner, Southern Strategy Group. Laster is
also a registered lobbyist with NCSEAand
is the treasurer for the NCCEBA PAC.
Scott
Laster, Partner, Southern Strategy Group is a registered lobbyist with NCSEA. Laster worked as the house
campaign director for the North
Carolina Republican Party in
2010. In 2012, he was hired as executive director for the NCGOP.
Other clean energy operatives working to
recruit conservatives to Big Solar include:
Mark
Fleming, President
and CEO of Conservatives for Clean Energy.
Formerly, Fleming served as district director for Congressman
Patrick McHenry. According to his bio, he also worked as vice
president of NCFREE and executive director of the Wake Forest Area Chamber of
Commerce.
Ivan
Urlaub, executive
director and registered agent for NCSEA. He was also the registered
agent for theNCCEBA.
These power players, and the misnamed
“conservative” groups, are all connected to environmental groups who get their
funding from some of the most radical and well-funded organizations in the
world. A 2014 United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Minority Staff report, titled “The Chain of Environmental
Command – How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the
Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA,” described an organization
named Sea Change this way:
“Even more unsettling, a dominant
organization in this movement is Sea Change Foundation, a private California
foundation, which relies on funding from a foreign company with undisclosed
donors. In turn, Sea Change funnels tens of millions of dollars to other large
but discreet foundations and prominent environmental activists who strive to
control both policy and politics.”
What do you know? We
have the same flies, just a different pile of manure.
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