Coastal North Carolina towns are coming out against off-shore drilling. Who can blame them? Accidents off the Gulf coast have closed beaches, caused long-term environmental damage and harmed both the fishing and tourism industries. Drilling poses risks that could upend their economies for uncertain economic benefits. It’s a gamble they’re not ready to take.
Both Pat McCrory and Barack Obama support testing for oil off the coast. While support for off-shore drilling used to be in the tank, entanglements in oil rich Middle Eastern states and demands for energy self-sufficiency have reversed the trend. For a lot of people who don’t live on the coast, the fear of terrorism and war outweighs the risk of oil spills and spoiled ocean views.
However, with oil prices dropping to lows not seen in decades, the risk of any drilling soon is low. States like North Dakota, Texas, and Oklahoma can provide plenty to meet demand. With Iran now ready to start selling oil legally on the global market again, the price will likely continue to plummet.
Oil economies are boom and bust. North Dakota was on the brink of extinction 15 years ago and oil made it a boom state. Today, the plummeting price might put them where they were before the boom hit, sending people fleeing for jobs in other states.
Chasing oil is like the miners of yore chasing gold. More people go bust than get rich. In North Carolina, we’ve built a stable tourist economy on the coast, balancing development with preservation. We’ve managed our fisheries well enough to sustain a recreational and commercial fishing industry that brings in billions of dollars to the state and creates tens of thousands of jobs. We would be better to protect the industries and economies we’ve built than risk them on a boom-bust industry that could destroy both tourism and fishing for years at a time.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Considering that 51 % of the voters voted against the Republican immoral majority only North Carolina only to be out flanked by “Election Fraud” and Gerrymandering, It is becoming evermore apparent that the GOP has no interest in serving the will of the Citizens,
Greed is now the primary motivation of the “Party of Stupid” , the Republican party. They now have zero interest in listening to anyone but ALEC and the KochCo and have no fear of loosing their seat due to of Voter suppression and gerrymandered districts
this alone is grounds to impeach the whole lot of them now
they are ignoring public safety for the sake of profit and bribes offered to them by their Corporate sugar daddies.
here is what they have done :
” The North Carolina State Senate has voted overwhelmingly to ban large wind turbines from the state’s scenic western ridgelines.
The 42-1 vote on Thursday represents the strongest stand against wind turbines taken by lawmakers in any state. The bill would amend a 1983 “ridge law” to allow only turbines that are 100 feet or smaller to be placed on ridgelines above 3,000 feet. This effectively bars industrial-sized turbines — which can reach several hundred feet in height — from the windy mountaintops.” – NYTimes
the Good part is North Carolina is going to have little choice about what they want to do about offshore wind power as long as there is “Common sense Democrat ” in the white house…
” North Carolina is forging ahead with plans to hop on the East Coast offshore wind energy bandwagon — not that the state’s lawmakers have any choice in the matter. The Interior Department has been leasing large swaths of federal waters for offshore wind development, and North Carolina just happens to be one in a series.” – Clean Technia
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/01/25/north-carolina-offshore-wind-energy/
It is now time to clear out this hive of villainy and scum that has reminded us of all the reasons that they were not able to hold a majority for the last 140 years ..
We should be increasing solar and wind, getting the technology affordable, and letting sustainable jobs with less risk of pollution and harmful waste by products for future generations, be generated in NC! Support infrastructure for alternatives, not more highways.
Wind turbines and Solar is not affordable. What about Hydro energy in the ocean.
Despite the huge vote against off shore drilling from communities on the coast and those of us inland who love dolphins, whales, and creatures that might be impacted from the oil industry and sonic booms, and love the coast as it is–beautiful–the governor and republicans don’t care about the people and what they want. Big oil, the koch brother tenacles, and greed rule these politicians–vote them out!!!
My policies are always to provide a way out. Energy, as they teach in sociology class, is the number one factor in the growth and maintenance of any civilization. To often the Greens have nothing to offer but complaints.
When I was intending to run for the US Senate I made some calls and found out that putting turbines in the Gulf Stream could provide the legacy grid with a great deal of power. If I was in a position of power I’d be demanding GE put their turbines there.
The Not Conscious Governor went flat out to grab the Fracking portfolio from a judge, and is likely still wanting to satisfy the clamor of some Frackers who wreck your neighbors water.
In 1937 they could put turbines into operation providing a great deal of electrical power to the Upstate region of NY from Niagara Falls.
If you want a powerful long term infrastructure you turn to your engineers and tell them you want it. You want to have an abundance of cheap clean power, and first rate ports run by professionals and not some bunch of self interested jerks playing Civil War and ripping off Yankees slowing down the trains with goods from the wrong ship.
25 percent of the people of Not Conscious are living in poverty watching Fox and counting quarters.
It, the mental landscape of North Carolina, Not Conscious, gets to me, and I know it isn’t just NC where the stupid man with the pitchfork screaming kill the monster stabbing what everybody can see for themselves is just some fabric on the ground still go at it because he is the loudest, so they rip the fabric to shreds and go get drunk with some shreds of it to flaunt as flags.
At any rate, when it comes to the future of North Carolina, it will be just like the past, and worse as long as ignorance is rewarded with laws that make sure nobody but those at the top get the money and the power.
Even what is already in place is so managed that what it could mean is wasted.
And let’s don’t forget the impacts of proposed fracking in our state. Especially in the equine industry and especially in the thriving Piedmont horse country. A 2009 NC Department of Agriculture study found that the NC equine industry generates $1.9 billion annually through well-paying sustainable jobs such as veterinary services, and contributes to land conservation that attracts tourism (more sustainable jobs). Let a bunch of wildcatters in to ruin the land and poison the water, and all that’s gone. And, of course, after the damage is done, the wildcatters will be gone too.
Why our so-called political leaders would support oil drilling off the NC Coast, an activity that would put a major state economic engine (coastal recreation & tourism) at risk from spills, as well as from the siting of “industrial-ugly” shoreside support facilities (e.g., pipelines, docks and transfer stations), is beyond me. It’s sheer madness, all to promote the interests of Big Oil.