At the same time the General Assembly decided to give money to the Randy Parton Theatre, it also started funding the Advanced Vehicle Research Center (AVRC) in Northampton County, a nonprofit working on new fuel technologies and providing a testing facility. Founder Dick Dell and the AVRC name are now in Wake County, but adding a facility in Nash; the project in Northampton County is now called NCCAR (North Carolina Center for Automotive Research). [Clarification on NCCAR and AVRC]
But Gov. Easley was not content giving money to NCCAR, so last week he announced the Advanced Transportation Energy Center at N.C. State to focus on plug-in hybrids.
With the recent bad press for ethanol, you might hope the governor would stop trying to subsidize alternative motor vehicle fuels.
UPDATE: February 28 clarification on AVRC and NCCAR here.
