legislative

North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA) held a Clean Energy Jobs Lobby Day on Wednesday, April 13, 2011, at the NC General Assembly. The event was well attended by advocates and supporters of North Carolina’s Clean Energy Economy.

At issue here are: the 2007 NC's REPS law which has helped create over 12,500 new Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency jobs in all 100 NC counties; and new clean energy legislation that will create thousands of jobs, expand business opportunities, increase market competition, and allow greater use of renewable energy resources and energy efficiency solutions. This legislation was based on the feedback and suggestions of clean energy companies, employees and supporters across our state.

Adam Searing is the Director of the North Carolina Health Access Coalition. My one experience with Adam was watching his downtrodden and negative take on healthcare at a Chapel Hill forum. That and he doesn't support the push for UHC at this time, which I disagree with. He's been fighting for healthcare reform longer than any of us, but I think maybe he needs a change of scenery.

That aside, he has put together a good postmortem on why the high risk pool died a lonely death (PDF). It is easy to see why Mr. Searing (his resume says graduate degrees in law and public health, but I don't think they are Ph.D.s, if so, I apologize) is downtrodden on healthcare reform in North Carolina. The high risk pool would have covered somewhere between 9,000 - 20,000 North Carolinians. There are 1.5 million uninsured. This bill would have covered 0.1% of them, and it didn't pass. I'll cut and paste a few things after the break, but the PDF is a good read.

Chris Fitzsimon gets it over at the NC Policy Watch. I have recently said here that the NC legislature is a "old boys" club that happens to allow women. If you don't already have your money, you ain't getting in.

The Fitzsimon File below the break.

Hola desde Mexico!

Over at Orange Politics Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton has written an blog post titled, Ethics Moratorium Passes NC House. The jucy bit is Rep. Michael Decker admitting to bribery in Federal Court. Via Original news articles by the N&O.

Also of interest are the comments of Alderman Dan Coleman, "Even our own delegation, for all its vaunted liberalism, has been disappointingly silent."

I APPLAUD loudly both Carrboro officials for speaking up about this! Here is my favorite part from Mayor Chilton,

"The hide-our-heads-in-the-sand strategy adopted by Democrats has been both pathetic and counterproductive. Instead of ejecting Black from the Speaker's office and standing up for clean government, my own party has completely undermined the Democratic Party's national strategy and handed a tremendous campaign issue to North Carolina Republicans - and all this in a year that ought to be a slam dunk for Democrats at all levels (other than Black)."

The Republicans have come out showing their true colors in this short session of the NC Legislature. The first bill on the calendar for today, the first full day in session?

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT TO REPEAL THE GOVERNOR'S VISION CARE PROGRAM AND THE REQUIREMENT FOR A COMPREHENSIVE EYE EXAMINATION ENACTED UNDER THE GOVERNOR'S VISION CARE PROGRAM, AND TO PROVIDE THAT FUNDS APPROPRIATED TO THE RESERVE FOR THE GOVERNOR'S VISION CARE PROGRAM SHALL REVERT TO THE GENERAL FUND.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1. Section 10.59F of S.L. 2005‑276 is repealed.

SECTION 2. Funds in the Reserve for the Governor's Vision Care Program shall revert to the General Fund on June 30, 2006.

What is the Governor's Vision Care Program and why should we repeal it? Well, we're spending too much money in North Carolina and collecting too many taxes. Just look, we have a $2 Billion surplus. So, what do Republicans suggest we do? Cut programs for children.