OLF

Wind power is coming to Eastern North Carolina:

Hundreds of wind turbines, each about 400 feet tall, could be coming to at least three farm tracts in northeastern North Carolina - including Hales Lake in Camden County - where the Navy proposes a jet airfield.

It only took him five years - and the threat of a tough reelection campaign - to get off his ass and take a position against the Navy's misguided effort to dump an outlying landing field in eastern North Carolina.

Thumbing his nose at the general public, Admiral Harvey holds secret meeting with people of "influence":

Carolyn Riggs, a former Camden County commissioner, said the purpose of the meeting was to give business owners a chance to express their concerns to Harvey “one on one” about the Navy’s OLF study in Camden.

The meeting was also an effort, she said, to put the Navy commander with authority over the OLF project in touch with “people who are influential and who have their pulse on the community” in Camden and Currituck.

Dome is reporting today that the NC Attorney General has all but put a nail in the US Navy's OLF coffin.

A letter from the Attorney General's office to U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Farmville Republican, indicates the department would enforce laws by which the state would retain some jurisdiction over lands seized for an OLF in counties that do not already have military bases. That would allow the counties to enforce noise ordinances, for example, on the Navy.

We covered this back in April, when the Virginia Pilot reported that the NC General Assembly had passed legislation that would interfere with the Navy's Reign of Error.

They were trying to rush an environmental impact study through without actually knowing which and how many planes might be using it? Amazing.

Approximately zero.

Though I appreciate the efforts of our two good Senators to stop the Navy's misguided and ill-advised attempts to ravage farm land and farm families in northeast North Carolina, I can only conclude they don't know how to play the game. Or maybe they do know how and the game's not over yet? Stay tuned.

Dome reports today that North Carolina Congressmen Walter Jones and GK Butterfield are sponsoring an amendment to forbid the US Navy to pursue an outlying landing field in the two NC locations they're stalking these days. Here's the story.

State Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare County, and state Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank County, have asked North Carolina’s congressional delegation to urge Navy officials to move some of the fighter squadrons based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia to Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point.

Knowledgeable people, including many here at BlueNC, have argued for this exact same course of action for nearly two years now. It's nice to see elected officials finally getting their acts together.

The US Navy's plans to dump never-ending noise in the northeast part of our state hit a speed bump last week when the General Assembly wisely passed legislation severely limiting the Navy's ability to commandeer North Carolina land for an outlying landing field. The best coverage of this issue is always out of Virginia.

Asserting its rights under the U.S. Constitution, the North Carolina General Assembly has passed legislation that could complicate any effort by the Navy to build a practice airfield in Camden or Gates counties.

Virginia plans to build an Outlying Landing Field (OLF) in NC without the consent of the people. The OLF is to mitigate the noise pollution in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, VA.

Read the Executive Summary on page E-1 and Chapter 5 page 5-8. Unbelievable. http://www.vbgov.com/vgn.aspx?vgnextoid=5ba2964c2b04c010VgnVCM1000006310...

We need your help this has been going on for almost 10 years with over 22 communities on or off the list at any given point. This is dangerous to the environment, the wildlife and the people.

Over 30,000 acres are ruthlessly going to be impacted, that is 46 square miles.

This needs to be stopped and we need your help. Support House Bill 613.