cfrw.us Blog

Fish Celebration Dinner

Proposed Energy Bill

The proposed energy bill now in the General Assembly may have some fatal flaws:

The original bill, known as the renewable energy bill, appears to have the following flaws:

it may raise our power bills and threaten our state economy
it may squander our chances to slow global warming
it will all allow 2,000 hog waste lagoons to continue harming our communities and rivers
it may undermine our growing industry for renewable efficient energy
it will shift the risk for multi-billion-dollar coal and nuclear power plants on to rate payers

Duke Energy and Progress Energy plan to build $20 billion worth of power plants in the Carolinas. Bill S-3 would obligate customers to begin paying for them, including profits and interest, long before they produce electricity even if the projects fail like many did in the 1980s. This bill would create a cost-plus gravy train for coal and nuclear power plant contractors, not clean energy.

Power companies and the hog industry are used to getting their way in the Legislature because of their well-funded lobby squads and hefty campaign contributions. This time, the stakes are far too high to allow more business as usual.

How can you help? Urge your state legislators either by a short telephone call or e-mail to stop Bill S-3 unless:

provisions promoting new coal and nuclear plants are removed
full environmental protections at hog and poultry waste-to-energy plants are added
provisions allowing utilities to grossly overcharged for energy efficiency are removed

You may contact Governor Mike Easley and 919-733-4240 or 800-662-7952 or governor.office@ncmail.net. You may also identify your state House member at this website HTTP://www.ncga.state.NC.US/ and click on Who Represents Me?

Call them Tigers of the sky or night predators. Meet real birds of prey-a Peregrine falcon, Barred owl, American Kestrel and Eastern screech owl-6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Halyburton Park. Fee: three dollars per participant; registration required. Details: 910-794-6001

• This bill is working its way through the state Senate
• This Bill aims to help North Carolina’s commercial fishermen and increase public access to coastal waters
• The Bill includes deep property tax discounts for working waterfronts used by commercial fishermen
• The Waterfront Access Study Committee made 27 recommendations but only a handful of the recommendations are included in the bill
• The bill would give working waterfronts used by fishermen the same tax breaks already applied to farmland, forest and horticultural areas
• The property taxes on fish houses and dock areas would drop significantly because they would be taxed based on their present use, not on their potentially most valuable use
• Some fear the tax breaks are too little, too late, since the money that waterfront owners can make from selling to developers dwarfs what they would save on their tax bill
• The bill, which still has to be approved by the Senate finance committee and the House, also would modestly increase boat registration and title fees
• The new funds generated by these increases could be used to add or improve existing waterfront access sites

• Wilmingtonians use an average of 138 gallons of water a day!
• If we used 8 gallons less per day it would save 200 million gallons daily!
• Nearly 97% of the world’s water is salty or non-drinkable!
• Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers!
• That leaves 1% for all of our needs – agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community and personal needs!
• There is the same amount water on Earth now as when it was formed!
• The water from you faucet could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank!
• Water regulates the Earth’s temperature!
• Water regulates temperture in the human body!

An interesting online newsletter particularly the article on global warming.

BLACKWATER PARADISE
A Canoeing Guide to the Northeast Cape Fear
And its Tributaries

By Bruce Watkins

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Ashe’s Creek
Burgaw Creek
Burnt Mill Creek
Fishing Creek
Island Creek
Lillington Creek
Long Creek/Riley’s Creek/Turkey Creek
Merricks Creek
Northeast Cape Fear River
Prince George Creek
Shaken Creek
Shelter Creek
Smith Creek

This is an excellent guide some of the creeks in Lower Cape Fear River Basin. Copies are available from Cape Fear River Watch. Mail a check for $15.00 plus $1.02 sales tax plus $2.50 for shipping and handling (total $18.55) to Cape Fear River Watch, c/o Dick Ehrhart, 428 Capeside Dr., Wilmington NC 28412.

Highlights of the Work Cape Fear River Watch Did for the City of Wilmington for the Fiscal Year 2006-2007

8 watershed cleanups completed. 141 volunteers worked a total of 557 hours to remove more than 202 bags of trash from various watersheds.
Held a workshop for Stormwater Services employees. This was a hands-on workshop completed in cooperation with NC State University Extension Service. The employees learned two techniques 1) how to stabilize stream banks using native vegetation and 2) how to harvest and use plant materials from City wetland areas.
10 public seminars were completed with 159 participants.
11 school field trips programs completed with 193 student participants in a variety of educational experiences at Greenfield Lake.
61 Greenfield Lake eco-tours completed with between 250 to 300 people learning about the flora, fauna at Greenfield Lake and its water quality challenges.
We were an active partner in the Burnt Mill Creek program. Five large BMPs were installed in cooperation with the NC State Extension Service. Six backyard rain gardens were completed in the Bottoms neighborhood.
36 Enviroscape presentations were completed. We brought this water quality educational experience to more than 844 students. We spent 236 volunteer hours and staff time completing these presentations.
We contributed speakers to the Birch Creek Week program.
9 Greenfield Lake Monitoring reports were completed with photo documentation.

Let Cape Fear River Watch keep those old wireless devices out of landfills. Maybe you just bought the new iPhone or just bought a better phone with more bells and whistles. Or maybe you just wanted out of the wireless rat race and decided to use your old-fashioned land-line phone.

Whatever the reason PLEASE DON’T THROW YOUR DISCARDED WIRELESS PHONE INTO THE THE TRASH! Bring it, mail it but somehow get to us a 617 Surry St. We will recycle it for you.

Not in place yet but we are working out a plan to provide postage paid envelopes or boxes for you to package and send your discarded phones to us or to recyclers.

Cell phones already are the largest and fastest growing segment of the e-waste world. Keeping them out of the waste stream is becoming ever more difficult. The many metals in cell phones are both valuable and hazardous like cadmium, arsenic, copper, lead-stuff you don’t want leaching into groundwater.

So please help the planet we live on and Cape Fear River Watch-donate your discarded cell phones to us.

NC Senate Bill SB3 passed the Senate 46-2 and goes to the house. Major provisions: * Gradual phase-out of tax on sale of energy to farmers and manufacturers * Provides income tax credit to builders of energy-efficient homes * Allows tax credit to contributors to certain organizations for renewable energy property