Just when you thought things couldn?t get any more rotten or unseemly with the government?s efforts to take over the Alcoa hydroelectric plants and land.
Shortly after Senate Bill 967 narrowly passed the House Water Resources Committee this afternoon, bill sponsor Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, R-Cabarrus, pulled another trick, this one on the Senate floor. As I reported here, he successfully amended House Bill 1099, Amend Environment Laws of 2009 to ?add the Yadkin River Trust as an environmental entity.?
Turns out his amendment (amendment #2) added the entire language of the bill (SB 967) that creates, authorizes and empowers the Yadkin River Trust to acquire and operate the Alcoa plant. Hartsell?s amendment passed as did the bill, which now goes over to the House for a vote bypassing any committee review, perhaps as early as tomorrow.
In the meantime, SB 967 (the original Yadkin River Trust bill) has been referred to the House Public Utilities Committee for a hearing tomorrow at 10:00, essentially giving Hartsell and takeover proponents two bites at what is becoming a very rotten apple.
