Final Report on H484 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Stan:

    This will likely be my last email for awhile regarding H484, the NC Industrial Wind Permitting Process.

    At the last NC Senate committee meetings, three good citizens spoke about improvements needed to the bill, but they were basically ignored.

    Unfortunately, no retired military personnel were able to attend, so no one spoke on behalf of the NC military - which would likely have made a difference.

    This is most disappointing since the primary reason that the bill got started, was to see that industrial wind energy didn't cause NC military installations problems in fulfilling their missions.

    IMO the intention of the bill was fine, but the execution left much to be desired. For example, H484 does almost nothing to protect NC military bases from problems caused by industrial wind energy!

    Additionally there are no genuine safeguards for human health and safety, and the environmental protections are weak at best.

    FYI, prior to the bill being heard in the Senate, I received a call from a key DENR person asking that I support H484. His rationale was:

    a) this bill is better than what we have now,

    b) there had been strong resistance to the bill by some legislators, and

    c) if any changes were made to the bill it could kill the whole thing.

    Although I could see a tiny bit of merit to his position, I was not that convinced of his arguments...

    He acknowledged that H484 could be much better, but asked that I support a two step process: 1) pass this bill now, and then 2) DENR would see that consequential improvements would be made to it in the next legislative session.

    I said I would defer to his political expertise, and asked that he spell out the specifics of step #2 to me in an email. He thanked me for being reasonable and flexible. He promised that he would send me a written confirmation.

    [It's been about a week now, and I've received nothing yet...]

    During that time two senate hearings were held, and both committees passed the bill. The Senate then also passed H484. (It had already been passed by the House.) It was just signed into law by the Governor.

    Thank you for your support on this important environmental, civilian and military matter. I hope that we all remain vigilant to exactly how this will play out.

    I am not optimistic that this will be an effective permitting process, but would be very pleased to be proven wrong.