Our county commissioners will be voting on establishing a 100 percent renewable energy goal for county government within 10 years, and all residents and businesses within 25 years on Tuesday, Dec. 5.
With the deadlock on climate change and attacks on the environment at both the federal and state level, we have a chance here in Buncombe County to make real progress on climate change by establishing a goal of going to 100 percent renewable energy.
The county is making great progress on reducing its energy usage and saving money. The county already has projects underway to reduce energy usage by almost 30 percent and will likely reduce its usage by at least another 10 percent over the next decade. The county commissioners have also approved a solar farm on the old landfill that will supply another 18 percent of the county’s current electrical usage. All of this has been done within the past three years.
It is now time to take the next step and establish a goal of replacing the remaining 40 percent with renewable energy by establishing a goal of 100 percent renewable energy for county government within the next 10 years and the broader community within 25 years. Setting and meeting this target will save taxpayers and ratepayers money.
Solar power is already comparable in price to other forms of energy and is projected to decrease in cost by another 60 percent over the next decade. In the meantime, the price of regular electricity continues to rise, with Duke currently requesting a 17 percent rate hike.
Buncombe County already has over 20 solar companies, and the average wage for a solar installer is over $20 per hour. Setting this goal will allow these companies to grow and hire more workers at a good salary. In addition, many companies have established goals of 100 percent renewable energy, and having renewable energy here will increase our chances of attracting new employers that will pay a living wage.
I urge our county commissioners to vote yes on establishing these 100 percent renewable energy goals.
— Ken Brame
Political Chair, WNC Sierra Club
Leicester
A dollar of contraception funding can do many times more for the environment than a dollar of renewable energy investment. Therefore your proposal distracts and diverts attention and funds from the best environmental policies thereby harming the environment on a net basis. CUT IT OUT!
Tell me… What are your thoughts on the eugenics and sterilization programs that North Carolina, as well as many other states, used to run?
Ask those who work in Planned Parenthood. It was founded for that exact same reason. They’ve progressed now to a farming organization for human body parts. You should be proud.
I’m curious as to why you’re allowed to post that kind of lunatic conspiracy theory.
The real dark history of the USA is owned by the left. Sanger, video of PP docs openly speaking of selling body parts is all known. Sure the left is great at censoring facts but that’s the insanity of it all. To pretend that people who founded what went on to be PP didn’t do it for eugenics and culling of blacks is hilarious. As if history can be changed and distorted to fit a narrative ala Stalin and his orders to edit out people in photos. That’s why the left will have to enact violence and take peoples rights away to gain the power they want. Simply because you can’t run on what they truly believe in. It’s all lies.
“As if history can be changed and distorted to fit a narrative ala Stalin and his orders to edit out people in photos.”
…he said, after once again lying to himself in public.
I am very proud because tissue sales should absolutely be used to offset abortion costs, except for going beyond free like contraception should: http://www.projectprevention.org/ . though I have no idea whether they are selling or not, they should and should do so proudly.
I have written whole essays on eugenics compensation and support massive monetary compensation without apology, returning to the survivors the trillions they saved us in sped, welfare and conservation tax. Many millions each.
Like them, I am personally sterile and childless and deserve environmental funding myself for volunteering.
The single most galling thing about the Eugenics program is that survivors were still forced to pay school tax even though they were sterile and childless. That should be the first and foremost apology, complete with full compensation.
Alan- I’m also childless and sterile by choice, although also happily in a heterosexual marriage.
Anyway, your method of shouting down the opposition, no compromise makes it so people can’t hear you. Let me put it this way- and I’m doing this because of your reply to another letter today:
You’re essentially giving people who don’t agree with you the same argument that white supremacists use to try and create a moral equivalency with the antifa.
They will hear me or I will blow their ears out!
LOL, ain’t happening. Nor should the county be involved in pushing the private sector into any energy investment/divestment. Especially after the corruption we’ve seen with Wanda Green. And Newman is again is involved smack dab in a conflict of interest.
Oh and I like how they’re touting the benefits of so called green energy now. But the huge costs and taxes that are needed to enact it aren’t mentioned. Lying leftist.
LOL and no matter how many leftist loons you elect to usher in your “progress”, you’ll never achieve it. The people you elect have no values except how to enrich themselves and push control onto others. Newman, Frost, Gantt, Green, Bellamy, are all examples of it. And of course we can all see the waste in the RAD with Bothwell acting surprised at the costs. And you think these people or those like them should be in charge of what amounts to billions in TAXPAYER money? Why, have they spent the money they’ve gotten in the past wisely? Or is spending money for Tryon something you loons think is a good thing.
Kudos again Lulz. These elitist PINOs you mention are an embarrassment to progressivism.
“the huge costs and taxes that are needed to enact it”
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/19/renewable-energy-is-now-cheaper-than-fossil-fuels.aspx
You’re only deceiving yourself.
If that is true then the market will turn to them without subsidies.
Get back to us when oil, gas, coal and nukes lose their subsidies.
What subsidies are these exactly? many free marketeers oppose any subsidies and if we can convince them that fossil fuels are subsidized on a net basis, then we can gain powerful allies in opposing them, as I totally oppose them. but that does not tempt me to support competing subsidies, though I would support state or local taxes on fossil fuels to compensate for federal subsidies. But you have to prove their existence first.
I totally agree, fund contraception instead.