The Winston-Salem Journal editorializes on Fibrowatt’s new Surry County plant, which will receive at least $3.2 million in economic incentives:
Fibrowatt’s announcement last week that it will build a plant in Surry County that will convert chicken litter to electricity advances the leading role this region is taking in North Carolina’s efforts to produce alternative forms of energy. The Surry project, just as a solar farm planned for Davidson County, should do much for economic development. And the Surry project, just as the Davidson one, will demand a careful eye from officials in regard to both incentives and environmental safeguards.
Now comes the skepticism, after the deal’s done:
The N.C. General Assembly passed a law last year requiring power companies to begin using renewable energy sources. In addition to wind and solar power, renewable energy includes energy generated from animal waste. Fibrowatt played a role in the drafting of the energy law. According to state records, it spent $84,600 to hire lobbyists.
…..”The legislation is written in such a way that only Fibrowatt would qualify for it. And that appears to have happened in North Carolina, and that’s bad public policy,” David Morris, vice president of the Institute of Local Self-Reliance, an advocacy group based in Minnesota and Washington, D.C., said this morning.
If I saw this point of view anywhere in the mainstream media in the leadup to the Fibrowatt deal, I missed it. And I do miss things….
