Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The Charlotte-based consultants overseeing a 16-month long site-selection process for a waste-transfer station in Orange County (see the March 11 Indy cover story, "Trash Talk") have estimated that building and operating a station at one of two sites along N.C. Highway 54 will cost Orange County taxpayers roughly $55 million, over 20 years. Olver, Inc. will deliver the report (available here, along with supporting materials here) to the Orange County Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB) tonight at 7 p.m., at the Solid Waste Management office at 1207 Eubanks Road in Chapel Hill.
The report compares the estimated cost of an Orange County waste transfer station to that of two other alternatives: direct haul to transfer stations operated by private haulers in RTP, and direct haul to a transfer station in Durham. According to Olver, paying private contractors to haul trash to Durham would cost the county $64.6 million over 20 years, while paying contractors to haul to RTP would cost $62.2 million--more than the cost of building, and operating, a transfer station in Orange County combined. No other scenarios (such as regional partnerships, or alternative transfer-station sites) are considered in the report.
"The hauling costs will be significantly more, and outweigh the cost of development," Orange County Solid Waste Management director Gayle Wilson said in an interview. "You're spending more money [on private contractors], but you're spending it on gas, rather than on concrete and asphalt."
Olver wrote that it also estimated "certain operational risks associated with different alternatives," and other intangible impacts, including "loss of economic benefits from having local employees" and "less influence on the disposal site operations to ensure environmental protection and community health and safety." It is unclear whether these "costs" figured into Olver's financial analysis.
By contrast, Orange County Voice, an advocacy group that has organized opposition to the proposed transfer-station sites in Bingham Township, estimates that a county-run facility would cost as much as $108 million to build and run over the next 20 years. The group's conservative estimate for private-hauler costs is $72 million. (View the O.C. Voice report, and accompanying press releases, here.)
We'll be at the SWAB meeting tonight, and will attempt to determine how Olver arrived at its figure, how much it estimates for construction costs, and whether it included intangible factors in its financial analysis.
A new report from NC WARN, co-authored by Duke University economist John Blackburn and environmental attorney John Runkle, says Duke Energy and Progress Energy would save electric ratepayers a bundle by getting serious about energy-efficiency programs and renewable energy (wind, solar, biomass and cogeneration) while cancelling four nuclear reactors they have on the drawing boards.
Duke Energy should also cancel its planned Cliffside project near Charlotte, a coal-fired plant, the report says.
Altogether, the four nukes and Cliffside will cost at least $35 billion and probably a a lot more than that, the two authors said today. Supplying the same amount of energy via proven conservation methods and renewable sources would cost far less, they said.
Currently, residential electric customers in North Carolina pay an average of about $100 a month. If the five planned plants are built, that average could jump to between $150-$200 over the next 10-15 years, the two said.
Progress Energy is seeking licenses to add two reactors to the one now operating at the Shearon Harris facility in Wake County. Duke Energy's two planned reactors would be at a Gafney, SC facility about an hour south of Charlotte.
If the utilites dump the five plants and put energy-efficiency programs in place instead that cut electricity consumption by just 1 percent a year over the next 15 years while also pushing the percentage of electric generation derived from renewable sources from the current 4 percent to 10 percent, the authors said, electric bills might actually go down, not up.
"Rates will go up, but people pay bills, not rates," Blackburn remarked.
Blackburn, an emeritus Duke professor, is former chair of the economics department at Duke and a specialist in energy-generation issues.
Update: Mike Hughes, a spokesman for Progress Energy, said the utility has figured a "significant" decrease in electricity usage from energy-efficiency measures into its load forecasts/ But Hughes added that PE must cope with the reality that the Raleigh-Cary area is the fastest growing metro in the country and 10 other North Carolina counties are among the nation's top 100 fastest-growing.
"We are moving forward on efficiency and renewable as part of a balanced energy strategy. But we cannot put all of our eggs in one basket and hope that customers make dramatic lifestyle changes in a few short years, or that renewable energy sources become more reliable or competitive," Hughes said. "We have a responsibility to plan many years in advance for the resources that will be needed to ensure that the lights come on 10 years from now. If the facts change in the coming years, our resource plan will reflect the changes."
Monday, March 30, 2009
SELC calls Jordan Lake boundary 'conservative'
Citing conflicting data, the Southern Environmental Law Center, a Charlottesville, Va.-based advocacy group, has called on the Durham County Board of Commissioners to reject a developer-funded survey of Jordan Lake, and commission an independent survey of the reservoir. The group based its recommendation on data collected in 2007 for the N.C. Floodplain Mapping Program that show Jordan Lake extending beyond a margin set in the 1970s by U.S. Geological Survey maps.
The controversial developer-funded survey, by contrast, shows Jordan Lake contracting in the opposite direction, thus removing property owned at the time by private developer Neal Hunter from a protected area surrounding the reservoir. In letters to state and county officials, Hunter's associates have argued the survey--which Hunter commissioned in 2005--represents "better information" than the 1970s maps, and used the difference in mapping technologies as justification for bypassing a public hearing process required by state law to implement zoning map changes.
The 2007 data SELC presents was collected via a technology known as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), used by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to analyze topography. In a March 20 letter (PDF), SELC Staff Attorney Kay Bond notes that the LiDAR data "cannot substitute for an on-the-ground-survey" such as Hunter's, but "can give an accurate enough approximation of actual conditions to indicate whether the conclusions reached by a survey are generally valid."
Bond implies that Hunter's survey--which only analyzed the portion of Jordan Lake affecting his property--may not be completely accurate:
Based on these maps, it appears that the original Jordan Lake boundary recognized by USGS is a conservative one. These maps call into question the surveys submitted by the City of Durham in support of its request to adjust the watershed boundary for Jordan Lake.
View a PDF of SELC's maps, which include Neal Hunter's 2005 survey, and the original U.S.G.S. survey, here.
A dozen locations around Durham, including the Dog House restaurant, have been staked out for the production of Main Street, a film starring Orlando Bloom, Andrew McCarthy, Ellen Burstyn, Patricia Clarkson and Colin Firth, according to the Durham News Service.
Check out the Triangle's arts blog, Artery, for a map of the locations and a shooting schedule.
The “Anti-Competition Act” is back.
Two years ago, state legislators rejected a bill that would have effectively made it impossible for cities, towns and counties to build their own high-speed Internet, cable TV or phone services. Now a new version of the bill has emerged.
Last week, N.C. Sen. David Hoyle (D-Gaston) introduced SB1004 to “level the playing field” of telecommunications by saddling local governments with extra costs and strict financial requirements if they seek to compete with private companies.
Industry advocates say it’s unfair that governments can borrow money more cheaply, through bonds, than private companies can. So the bill would require local governments to tack on to the fees they charge consumers the difference in the amount it would cost a private company to borrow start-up funds.
Also, a city could not use government funds to “cross-subsidize” the launch or operation of a system—a practice common in private industry.
The bill appears to aim directly at the City of Salisbury, which is building its own $30-million municipally owned fiber-optic Internet, TV and phone system.
The City of Wilson launched a similar system last summer. As Salisbury’s system will do, Wilson’s Greenlight competes with the cable and DSL offerings of private companies in the area. But the city-owned, fiber-based service offers significantly higher speeds at comparable prices (see "Mighty, mighty broadband," June 18, 2008).
“This is an attempt to protect monopolies at the expense of local communities,” says Wilson spokesperson Brian Bowman. “The 2007 bill that would have crippled Wilson was a bad bill and so is this one.”
In 2007, phone and cable companies pushed hard for "The Local Government Fair Competition Act,” but an alliance of cities, public interest groups and private companies –- including Google –- successfully opposed it.
Among the opponents was Catharine Rice of Action Audits, which advises and advocates for local governments on communications issues. She says the bill is geared to prevent competition. “The industry wants to burden communities who want to build their own networks to underserved areas by loading them up with costs so that the rates are so high, nobody will buy the service.”
Stakes are higher this time around, Rice says, because the bill could prevent North Carolina communities from being eligible for broadband stimulus money.
“The [National Telecommunications and Information Administration] has set aside $4.7 billion to bring broadband to underserved and un-served communities, making states and localities directly eligible,” Rice says. But the agency has said it will only fund financially sustainable projects, and saddling governments with extra costs renders their services unsustainable, Rice says. If the state legislator passes this bill, “the rest of the country would get to apply for federal broadband grant money, but not North Carolina.”
Jordan Lake developers get friendly reception in Herald-Sun, TBJ
A UNC School of Government official has concluded that the Durham County Board of Commissioners must hold public hearings on changing the Jordan Lake watershed boundary, echoing a long-held legal opinion of the North Carolina courts. However, the Herald-Sun and the Triangle Business Journal have insisted on making the public hearing issue a debate, when there is none.
In advance of an April 13 public hearing on the Jordan Lake watershed saga, the BOCC sought opinion from the UNC School of Government on implementing a developer-funded survey that would significantly alter the protected areas surrounding the drinking-water reservoir.
In response, UNC School of Government professor David Owens wrote that state law requires a proposed change to the Jordan Lake watershed boundary--as with any change to a zoning district's boundaries--"go through the public notice and hearing process." Citing several decades of case law, and North Carolina's General Statues, Owens writes:
The fact that the original district boundary may have been in error or more accurate information is now available to determine where the district boundary should be is legally irrelevant. The purpose or merits of the amendment are not the controlling factor. The simple requirement is that if a zoning district boundary is being changed, it must go through notice and hearing.
Yet, in reporting on Owens' letter today (reg. required), the Herald-Sun, wrote that "parties to the dispute disagree on whether the document supports the county attorney or a developer's attorneys." (As we've reported here and here, attorneys representing Southern Durham Development do not want a public hearing; County Attorney Chuck Kitchen, meanwhile, has insisted on one.) How could Owens' letter support the position that no public hearing is required to amend Durham's watershed maps? Per the H-S:
N.C. Association of Realtors, reported spending nearly $1 million on lobbying in 2007, according to figures released by watchdog group Democracy North Carolina. The group, which poured money into defeating several public referenda on the land-transfer tax, spent more than $92,000 on compensation for its six lobbyists. See the spending rankings here: lobbyingspending2
Nearly 900 businesses, trade associations and nonprofit groups spent $22 million on lobbying efforts that year, which, like 2009, was a long legislative session. Democracy N.C. has more detail in its press release: lobbyprincipalspend07release
Former Asheville state senator Steve Metcalf of The Policy Group, Inc., is North Carolina's highest-paid lobbyist, earning $485,000 in 2007 from his 14 clients, which that year included the N.C. Pork Council, Festiva Resorts and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. See the rankings of lobbyists' pay here:lobbyistspay1
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Dr. John Hope Franklin, the revered Duke professor emeritus and American man of letters, died this morning. He was 94.
“If the house is to be set in order, one cannot begin with the present; he must begin with the past.”
-- John Hope Franklin
[From Gov. Bev Perdue: “John Hope Franklin was a tremendous leader, historian and friend to North Carolina and to the nation.” said Governor Perdue. “He personified giving and his work to advance the understanding of African-American contributions was unmatched by any other. He will be sadly missed.”]
Former Indy arts editor, olufunke moses, profiled Dr. Franklin in 2007. He was a wonderful man with a soft voice, a brilliant mind and a love of scholarship, history, this country -- for all its faults -- and of orchids. His doctoral dissertation was published in 1943 as The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860. Four years later, he wrote the first and still the definitive history of blacks in America, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, now available in its 8th edition. A prolific scholar ever since, John Hope was nonetheless always generous with his time and help, especially to aspiring scholars of black history. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 by Bill Clinton.
For an hour yesterday, Raleigh City Councilors Russ Stephenson (center, in the blue shirt) and Nancy McFarlane attempted to explain our uniquely American system of democracy to nine visiting Iraqi mayors, clerics and researchers from Anbar Province. (Anbar: heart of the Sunni triangle. Raleigh: heart of the Research Triangle.) When we caught up with Stephenson today, he was afraid that perhaps something got lost in the translation -- as rendered by a total of six translators. The Iraqis quickly grasped our "Dillon Rule," which says that no local government in North Carolina can do anything without prior authorization from the General Assembly. Saddam, the visitors said, had a similar rule: Every capital project in Iraq, no matter how big or small, was approved by Saddam.
Beyond the Dillon Rule, however, Stephenson thinks, our intergovernmental ways were a little murky to the Iraqis.
Finally, some stimulus money for the Cap City. For transit? Nope. It's for military operations -- a new N.C. National Guard HQ with room for the Highway Patrol, state Emergency Management and some DOT stuff. Location is off District Drive, on the other side of Blue Ridge Road from the N.C. Museum of Art. Details below from an effusive Gov. Bev Perdue:
and of course the durham cult classic:
the beaver queen pageant
http://beaverlodgelocal1504.org/ …
by katchup on 2012 summer calendar highlights (Summer Guide)
Just weeks ago prior to the removal of the fence it had fallen down out of neglect, nearly causing me …
by Amy Leigh Brown on Greenfire's green wall: Fence is gone, but problem remains (Durham County)