Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Stanly County lawyers weigh back in

Stanly County has replied to Alcoa's filing last week that argued there's no reason to delay granting another permit to operate the Yadkin River hydroelectric generating units it operates.

Stanly County says Alcoa wasn't telling the full story, and asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to include the full transcript of a case before a state administrative law judge that blocked the issuance of a water quality certificate Alcoa needs for a license renewal. For those who want to read the whole filing, here's a link.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If they don't run things then who will???

Anonymous said...

IMPEACH BEV PERDUE!!!!!

eda said...
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Anonymous said...

A process that is laid out in law is being subverted by a special interest group centered in Stanly County led by Mr's Dick, Dennis and Dunevant and their allies Crisco and Perdue.
As a person who grew to adult-hood in Stanly County, I can tell you that the economy of that conty is a mess. That mess happened because of a legacy of corruption and stupidity over the last forty years. When anchor employers eg Coors, Nucor were interested in Stanly County, they were discouraged because county leaders understood that good jobs with good wages would threaten their dominance. For example when Coors was looking, a Stanly County Commissioner expressed his opposition to the project by tellinig proponents"to move out of the county if you don't like what you have here."
Now the county is at a place where its tax rate is maxed out and any infrastructure mainteanace is dependent on grants from other governments (government to government welfare).
Mr's Dick, Dennis and Dunevant have not chosen to be part of the solution but have decided to be part of the problem by continuing the leagacy of corruption and ignorance by working in secret, ignoring the law, misstating facts, wasting scarce tax monies for a project that can never be self-sustaining.
The people of Stanly County deserve far better than these guys.

Anonymous said...

Here is letter to the editor in the N&O It is posted in its entirety.

I don't care how they dress it up; the State of North Carolina is attempting to take over a legitimate business: Alcoa's property along the Yadkin River, dams and powerhouses, and federal license to do business.

Alcoa conducted a comprehensive multi-year relicensing process involving 40 stakeholders. They held public meetings throughout the five-county hydroelectric project area, conducted studies, met in issue advisory groups and worked through a negotiation process to reach the Relicensing Settlement Agreement signed by 23 parties.

In contrast, the governor has not held one public meeting and has made no attempt to communicate with the stakeholders involved in the relicensing process. She's listened only to one county, which has spent nearly a million dollars on lawyers and PR firms to promote its special interests, and to political forces outside the project area.


The governor may mean well, but she's ill-informed, is not listening to her own regulatory agencies and has forgotten all semblance of democratic principle. We were doin' just fine before the governor and legislature decided to do an end run around those of us who spent years working, in good faith, to develop Alcoa's license application. We don't welcome this interference

Anonymous said...
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Paula Abbott said...

Re Anonymous June 20, 2009 10:54 AM

Your charges of corruption are wrong and baseless. The commissioners have been open and they have cited federal law consistently to back their opinions. They have followed the rules and worked effectively through the legislative process to win approval from the state Senate (and probable approval by the House of Representatives on July 7 followed by the governor’s signature into law). That could be why Alcoa’s local point person, Gene Ellis, suddenly decided to resign rather than continue his efforts against the county’s excellent work.

Any alliance that our governor has with local leaders is that they all have the best interests of the state, its citizens and our posterity at stake. They realize that continuing to have the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project under the thumb of Alcoa – or a foreign interest that buys Alcoa or purchases Alcoa’s license – will result in decades of lost jobs and no response to documented cases of significant environmental contamination resulting from Alcoa’s own operations. That would be a real waste of tax money and corruption for Stanly County, not to mention all of North Carolina.

The truth is that Alcoa has failed to make a compelling case to local and state leaders as well as the general public. Why else did nearly every speaker at the Division of Water Quality’s Jan. 15 hearing urged that Alcoa be denied certification because of its poor stewardship? As there are no signs things will be getting better with a new federal license for Alcoa, I strongly support the honest efforts of the Stanly County commissioners to improve our future.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmmmmm........
No corruption
Fact: 2 current criminal proceedings over thefts of funds at two of the four county high schools.
Fact: DMV licenses for undocumented aliens for bribes at the Stanly County DMV office, lcated ........in the same building of the Highway Patrol.
Stupidity:
Fact 12.5% unemployment and threats to fire local scholl lunchroom employees, annoucements of laid off school professionals by name on local radio while these hillbillies in the County Commission spend more than $1Million dollars to steal the assets of ALCOA shareholders.