Government Under The Influence. When private monopoly and government combine.

[mmonk]

Many are now familiar with Senate Bill 10 and the purges of boards and commissions in North Carolina which cover energy and environment as well as public health. Many are also aware that Governor McCrory worked for Duke Energy for 28 years. But how many in the general population are actually aware how deep Duke Energy’s and its subsidiary, Progress Energy’s power runs through North Carolina’s government besides the watchdog groups NC WARN and Progress North Carolina?

Let’s first take a look at the McCrory administration. The chronicles of Duke money and the rise of this administration are well documented in Progress North Carolina’s report, “Price of Power: Cost of a McCrory Cabinet Post“. And just who from Duke Energy is in the administration besides Pat McCrory? Well there is Sharon Decker who is Secretary of Commerce. She worked at Duke from 1980 to 1997, most recently as Vice President. She also has been a board member of utility conglomerate Scana Corp (NYSE-SCG). Then there is Neal Alexander, the person picked to lead the Office of State Personnel. He was at Duke nearly 44 years. He was vice president of human resources for franchised electric and gas utilities before retiring. And there was Tony Almeida, a member of McCrory’s transition team who was once McCrory’s supervisor in Duke’s economic development department. In addition to Duke’s influence and money connected to the McCrory administration is the money related to hydraulic fracturing mitigation which includes George Howard who is a Restoration Environmental Mitigation Banker, John Preyer who is COO of Natural Resource Restoration and Conservation, and John Skvarla who is CEO of Restoration Systems and the newly appointed anti-science head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (climate science denier with strange ideas on the origins of fossil fuels). But for Duke and its allies in dirty energy to have complete control of North Carolina’s energy and environmental policies, they have to have allies in North Carolina’s General Assembly. And allies they have.

In the legislature, oil and natural gas is represented such as Daughtridge Energy, Daughtridge Gas & Oil, and Oil Petroleum Retail all connected to Rep. Bill Daughtridge. Besides many conflicts of interest such as this, there is also Rep. Mike Hager, a former Duke engineer. He is notable for his new bill which is an assault on North Carolina’s clean and renewable energy industry. This bill is called the Affordable and Reliable Energy Act which repeals sections of Senate Bill 3 dealing with North Carolina’s Renewable Energy and Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS). His argument for it is renewable or clean energy is too expensive and taxpayers shouldn’t help a failure. Of course you won’t hear him talk about taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil anytime soon. And of course, these special interests love to talk about jobs created by dirty energy such as oil and natural gas with its fracking. But the truth is, clean and renewable energy in North Carolina employs around 15,000 North Carolinians and is growing. In fact, in the 4th quarter of 2012, North Carolina ranked number 1 in the country in creating clean energy jobs. Renewable energy such as wind is one of the cheapest ways to generate power and solar will have grid parity in the US by 2014 (and already has grid parity in other countries). But in addition to being a Duke Energy alumni in the legislature, Rep. Hager is also a member of the corporate special interest bill mill called ALEC. So are approximately 45 legislators in North Carolina. ALEC is a large collection of corporations and members of state legislators who together, behind closed doors, craft “model” bills that legislators introduce later in their respective legislatures without knowledge or input from the public. ALEC is currently engaged in a multiple state assault on the clean and renewable energy industry on behalf of polluting energy source industries. And guess who is a member and major funder of ALEC? Noneother than Duke Energy. Connect the dots, get involved, and let your legislator know he or she is supposed to represent you, not big oil or natural gas at your expense and North Carolina’s environment.


Original with links and video (I am the author)

[octoberlib]

1. Excellent post! Thank you. nt

[mmonk]

2. Thank you.

[John2]

3. It is a good Post,

they also decide who gets hired and who doesn't not based on merit. It is more about who you know and not about qualifications. Employers also are becoming emboldened to threaten their employees voting habits also through hiring. This threatens democracies.