This is a progress report on the NC H298 bill: Affordable and Reliable Energy Act.
Yesterday (Wednesday) there was a Commerce Committee hearing on this bill. It was well-attended, and there were numerous inputs. At the end, the committee voted to pass the bill. There are now three committees left to be dealt with, but it was generally acknowledged that the Commerce one would be the most difficult.
For those who did not attend, here is a video of that Commerce Committee hearing.
The next hearing for H298 is scheduled to be the House Environment Committee. I have not yet heard about the schedule for the Environmental Committee. Right now that Committee has 12 other bills already on the docket to review, so it’s hard to say when H298 will come up. My guess, though, is that it will be expedited. An official place where the schedule will appear is here.
To be prepared for all options, I wrote this report as a comprehensive, eye-opening Environmental Assessment of H298.
In it I provide some rarely reported information — like the problematic consequences of Rare Earth Elements (each turbine uses some 4000 pounds of REEs!). Few people are aware that one investigation concluded that wind turbine manufacture produces more radioactive waste material than results from the operation of a comparable nuclear facility!
There is also a superior new NC map by the US Fish & Wildlife Service (US F&WS), showing how almost all of the NC wind “suitable” locations are environmentally problematic. On top of that I superimposed the low-level flight paths of three major NC air bases. The result is that there is essentially zero “suitable” NC land left.I also listed the annual agricultural cost due to turbine bat deaths for each NC county — which just on their own usually exceed the unguaranteed promises made by wind developers. Etc…I think that you will find this document to be a wealth of information, so please pass it on to other interested citizens.
Please let me know any questions on any of this — or any suggestions you have for improvements.
There are now over a dozen organizations actively supporting H298 and we would appreciate your help.
regards,
john droz, jr.