An overriding issue in the matter of the Progress Energy power plant is representation and trust. While the county manager has authority to explore deals of possible benefit to the county/taxpayers behind closed doors, once a deal is ready to present to the Board, the doors should be opened.
In good conscience and fairness, even if not required by law, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners should have at least told the taxpayers it represents that the Progress Energy “peaking plant” was under consideration, and should have asked for citizen input way before this was basically a done deal. The land is owned by the taxpayers; the air to be polluted serves the taxpayers; and the commissioners were elected by and are paid by the taxpayers. After the day of the public hearing, there should have been adequate time for public input and reflection before a vote was taken.
It would be interesting to know if the commissioners really understand peak-kilowatt demand and the alternatives to a so-called peaking plant. A number of other electric utilities have addressed this by means far short of building another electric-generation plant, such as by tapping into other electric utilities’ grids and/or requiring large users who contribute significantly to the peak to provide for alternate-fuel or generator cutover when the existing main plant is approaching excess peak. But in no event should the local government—the taxpayers—have to, in effect, give the utility the land on which to build its generating capacity. Progress Energy can afford—and include in its rate structure—the cost of the land. It’s doubtful that this subsidy can be supported by job (and other) revenue that the plant will create for the area. And nothing can justify the additional pollution in this time and place of major concern about pollution.
At this point, the least we taxpayers should demand is to know why we should contribute this land for this private business’ use and accept the additional pollution. And why the Board was reluctant to let us all in on what it was considering before it had made up its collective mind.
Our land, our air, and supposedly our representatives. We should look for better representation.
Amen.
This is the least we can ask for, and we should receive it in abundance!