When Senate Bill 3 passed a couple of years ago, there were bound to be problems. S.B. 3 imposed sweeping, expensive, and ? many argued ? unnecessary requirements that North Carolina’s energy would have to come from renewable energy sources and energy-efficiency measures.
A firestorm has erupted as the Senate considers S.B. 1068, “Permitting of wind energy facilities.” Now that it’s time to get those wind turbines installed to meet the renewable energy requirements, it turns out no one wants them. It turns out that wind is in the mountains and on the coast, but neither region wants the wind turbines.
Speaking for the western opposition, Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, called the turbines visual pollution, and, while staring down President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, says if anyone proposed putting a wind turbine on top of a lighthouse, it would be voted down, and putting one on top of a mountain should not be considered either. He also objected to a provision that the Coastal Management group would oversee the permitting of wind turbines on the coast while mountain turbines would be subject to DENR oversight. Sen. Joe Sam Queen, D-Haywood, says similar obstructions on Sugar Mountain “ruined the beautifulest mountain in the northwest part of the state.”
As the debate became more heated, Majority Leader Tony Rand called for a recess and immediate meeting of the Democratic caucus. They have been meeting for an hour and a half now.
No word on how that caucus discussion is going, but rest assured there is a lot of hot air being blown about. Will they count that towards the renewable energy requirement?
5:20 p.m. update: After more than 1 1/2 hours of a Democratic caucus, where apparently no agreement was reached on where, when, and how the wind turbines will be built, the Senate sends S.B. 1068 back to the Senate Agriculture Committee.
