The Charlotte Observer article
makes it sound like legislators were doing a favor for Fibrowatt by
including a special provision in the bill.  This isn’t
accurate–it gives too much credit to the legislators. 
Legislators weren’t even involved in the drafting of the bill. 

Here is how S.B. 3
was developed: Numerous special interests worked on a “renewable
energy” bill for months (and drafted the bill).  Some of the
drafting was done in public.  All of the special interests tried
to make sure that they received protection from the onerous
requirements of the bill and did what they could so the bill actually
would benefit them.

Is it any surprise that S.B. 3 is a special
interest bill when special interests literally drafted the bill? 
Of course, the one group that got ignored is the public–not that the
public mattered to the legislators who voted for
S.B. 3.  Who is going to win: utilities, some (not all)
environmental groups, corporations, such as Fibrowatt that are involved
in alternative energy, developers, farm lobby,… or the general
public, specifically residential electricity customers?  In North
Carolina, the winner is obvious.

To see a list of winners and losers from S.B. 3, please check out the chart at the end of this Spotlight.  

The Public Staff
is supposed to protect the public.  It is supposed to be an
independent body representing the interests of electricity
customers.  Instead, it simply worries about appeasing
environmental groups and utilities.   I have written ad nauseum that the Public Staff is the biggest villian of the S.B. 3 mess (other than the legislators) and the entire agency should be eliminated or drastically reformed.

I don’t blame Fibrowatt for getting “goodies,” they were just
involved in the special interest bill drafting process created by
Senator Charles Albertson.

The special interests that draft a law to their benefit aren’t
to be blamed–what else are they going to do?  The legislators are
to blame for the process and for not focusing on the public first and
foremost.

BTW: There are numerous provisions in S.B. 3 that will come as a
surprise to legislators.  The special “carve-out” that requires
utilities to buy energy from poultry litter sources isn’t one of
them.  In fact, it wasn’t a secret that Fibrowatt was going to be
the sole beneficiary.  Some of the special interests during the
“drafting sessions” even referred to the provision as the Fibrowatt carve-out.