If you live in North Carolina and you thought power was already too expensive, well get ready for it. Senator Steve Goss just introduced a bill in the NC Senate to ban the use of 1/3 of the States power source. So where does the good Senator suppose the rest will come from? If the dollar didn’t hurt before, it will now!
Bill introduced to phase out use of mountaintop coal in NC
STAFF REPORTS • PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 26, 2009 10:25 AM
RALEIGH – North Carolina lawmakers introduced a bill today that would phase out state electric utility purchase of coal from mountaintop removal mines.
Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Greensboro, is the lead sponsor of the Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act in the state House of Representatives. Sen. Steve Goss introduced a companion bill in the state Senate.
Harrison introduced similar legislation last year.
According to a press release from Boone-based Appalachian Voices, North Carolina is currently the second largest consumer of mountaintop removal-mined coal. The group said that 30 percent of the state’s electricity is generated from the burning of mountaintop removal mined coal.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990226026
February 26, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Mountain top removal is already banned in North Carolina. So why should we care what other states want to do? I bet he owns stock in Blue Ridge Electric.
February 26, 2009 at 8:01 pm
It would seem some interesting titling has been used to disguise the intent of this bill. “Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act” It should be called the, We won’t take energy from West Virginia Anymore Act.
February 27, 2009 at 10:10 pm
The cost difference with mountaintop removal coal and underground mined coal is approximately $3 a ton. The overall cost increase to the ratepayers should be something like 24 cents a month, no more. Duke is already raising our rates, if this bill passes and they raise our rates again, it will be from sheer greed and not because mountaintop removal coal is cheaper than underground mined coal. Are Americans so greedy they would rather have mountains blasted apart and ecosystems destroyed to save a few measly dollars a year? Good, loving Republican and Christian West Virginians’ lives are being destroyed for this heinous practice. AMERICAN lives are being destroyed, and American soil is being defaced. We cannot continue to let this happen!
February 27, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Amazeddd should check the bylaws of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Cooperative, because if he/she did they would find out that it is owned by it’s customers.
Cooperatives are not-for-profit, member-owned businesses. Electric cooperatives were formed over 60 years ago with the specific task of electrifying rural America.
Please get the facts straight before you start lobbing charges at Senator Goss.
February 28, 2009 at 8:13 pm
A few things…
1) Senator Goss (as many of the articles on this legislation have pointed out) is advocating that we move on to other cheaper coal sources that do not also blast apart our mountains and poison our water. He is a true blue advocate for the mountains, fiscal responsibility, and personal responsibility.
I expect you and your readers listen to facts, so lets look at a few…
2) Its a bad investment for North Carolina to use Central Appalachian coal in the first place. Central Appalachian coal is some of the most expensive coal in the world. In the last 6 month’s its been as much as $150/ton. For comparison, Powder River Basin coal from the west is around $12-14/ton.
Many utilities are raising rates JUST to cover the soaring cost of Appalachian coal. AEP is just one example (http://www.cnbc.com/id/25948836/for/cnbc).
Progress Energy was fined for “failures of management” and made to pay back $13.8 million to their ratepayers for continuing to use exorbitantly priced Central Appalachian coal.
So, if you’re still opposing this bill, you are putting us in a position to have our electric rates raised, while still defending blasting apart the Appalachian Mountains. I find this position indefensible.
3) If we want to do something stupid like continue using central Appalachian coal – 71% of the reserves are recoverable by underground mining. Coal mined underground is $3 more per ton than coal mined by mountaintop removal, and as an added benefit we don’t have to completely destroy everything we love, completely flatten the Appalachian Mountains, poison the water, and destroy the Appalachian economy.
And the cost to NC ratepayers is negligible. That $3/ton would translate to less than .50 cents per month on our electric bills, which would be phased in over a 5 year period.
Additionally, that tiny cost is an insurance policy against sudden supply shortages when courts, Congress or the Obama Administration take action to outlaw mountaintop removal.
4) There are already several Republicans on this bill in the House and Senate. Its bipartisan legislation, because its good common sense.
An ineffective strategy to oppose it would be:
a) Whine
b) Make stuff up
c) Repeat
…while defending mountaintop removal mining.
A better position would be:
a) Do the right thing and support the end of mountaintop removal mining (as John McCain does
b) Support this popular and pragmatic bill, and
c) Put North Carolina in a better position environmentally, economically, and in doing what is right by our fellow man.
March 24, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I would say that the people of West Virginia aren’t in a total uproar over this or Sen. Byrd would have stopped it a long time ago. He is still the ancient senile King of WV, right? Sounds to me like Goss is just another ultra-eco-liberal who wants to legislate across state lines.
Of course these eco-nuts would have you believe that its either their “pragmatic” manner or be evil. If this bill was so popular why is being introduced again? Must be that democrat greed in Raleigh, eh?
Good post NC05, keep letting people know what Goss is really up to.
March 24, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Dear Blah Blah,
If you had read the text of the Appalachian Mountain Preservation Act, you would know that in this legislation there is no place where it is stated that North Carolina can no longer buy coal from West Virginia. It simply states that North Carolina could not burn the coal mined using the mountaintop removal method of coal mining. For your information, just over 40% of the coal mined in West Virginia comes from mountaintop removal sites.
By the way, for all of you who care about the facts – the Appalachian Mountain Preservation Act would result in a rate hike of 47 cents per month for NC rate payers.
I love living in the Appalachian Mountains, and don’t want to see them turned into the Appalachian Flats.