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State taxpayers pay Asheville restaurants to "go green"
By Dr. Roy Cordato
This weekly newsletter, focused on environmental issues, highlights relevant
analysis done by the John Locke Foundation and other think tanks, as well as
items in the news.
1. Asheville area restaurants receive over a
quarter of a million dollars in state taxpayer money to "go green,"
despite state budget woes
Seventeen Asheville area restaurants using a $285,000 grant from a
little-known state government agency called the NC Green Business Fund to the
Asheville Independent Restaurant association. I guess the word
"independent" here does not refer to being independent of their fellow
citizens' tax dollars.
According to this
article in the Asheville Citizen-Times, the grant will be used to allow 17
Asheville area restaurants to "retrofit their hot-water systems with solar
panels, upgrade their lighting and take other measures to meet the standards
for Certified Green Restaurant status." This status is bestowed upon
restaurants by a nonprofit called the Green Restaurants Association, which
proudly lists endorsements by such leftwing groups as the Environmental Defense
Fund and the Natural Resource Defense Council. The latter is the group that
perpetrated the phony Alar
scare, which devastated apple farming in this country back in 1989.
Apparently these changes and the "certified green label" that they
bring are not changes those restaurants would consider worth making if they had
to use their own money. The amazing thing is that, after all the spending cuts
that went into balancing this year's state budget and all the teeth-gnashing
about loss of state jobs, programs like this continue to flourish. (HT to my
colleague Jon Sanders.)
2. $10 billion more
in guaranteed government loans to be handed out by the end of next week
And here
it is:
As mandated by the stimulus bill, the Obama administration
has until September 30 to "spend" all the funds allocated for the
Department of Energy loans program, which
guaranteed a $535 million loan to the now defunct solar company Solyndra. The
program has already allocated about $8 billion so far, but has an additional
$10 billion worth of loans in the works that must be finalized before the end
of the month or the money will be
reclaimed.
These
funds will have a much greater stimulative effect if they are
"reclaimed."
3.Celebrate
annual World Car Free Day
Today is World Car Free Day. I want to urge
everyone in the Raleigh area to leave your cars at home today and either walk,
bicycle, or take the bus, especially those living south of
town. This way I can drive in on a traffic-free road. 4. Weekly Ozone Report
Each week during the summer ozone season this newsletter will report how many,
if any, high-ozone days had been experienced throughout the state during the
previous week, where they were experienced, and how many have been recorded
during the entire season to date. While many environmental groups express
concern about air quality, the John Locke Foundation is the only organization
that keeps up-to-date track of the actual ozone data and reports it in an
unfiltered manner on a regular basis.
The ozone season began on April 1 and ends October 31. All reported data are
from the North Carolina Division of Air Quality, which is part of the state's
Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
During the period from September 12 through September 18 there were three reported
high-ozone readings on monitors across the state of North Carolina, two on
monitors in Mecklenburg County and one in Rowan County. All three occurred on the
same day, September 14. So far this season there have been 99 readings on
various North Carolina monitors that have exceeded federal standards of 0.75
parts per billion. These have occurred over a period of 26 days.
Click here for the Environmental
Update archive.
Thursday, Sep. 22nd, 2011 at 12:00 p.m.
Luncheon and Discussion
with our special guest Hans von Spakovsky
Voter ID: Protecting Election Security Monday, Sep. 26th, 2011 at 12:00 PM, Noon
A meeting of the Shaftesbury Society
with our special guest Eugene Boyce
"From Duct Tape To Electronic Tapes"
Inside The Watergate, And How We Found The Truth Thursday, Sep. 29th, 2011 at 4:30 p.m.
A Lecture at Duke University
with our special guests Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie
The Declaration of Independents:
How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America Saturday, Oct. 22nd, 2011 at 9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
A Constitutional Workshop in Pinehurst, NC
with our special guests Dr. Troy Kickler & Dr. Michael Sanera
Workshop #2 in Pinehurst: "What would the Federalists and Anti-federalists say about the current political and economic crises?" Saturday, Oct. 29th, 2011 at 9:30 am - 3 pm
A Constitutional Workshop in New Bern, NC
with our special guests Dr. Troy Kickler & Dr. Michael Sanera
Workshop #1 in New Bern, NC- What the Founders and the State Ratification Conventions Can Teach Us Today
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