Dam Rotten Politics
Why should the state of North Carolina own the hydroelectric plants that Alcoa built?
Environmental groups want control of the plants and believe state ownership is a step in that direction. But what exactly do environmental groups want? Certainly they are varied in their goals, but they all seem to lead to less instead of more. They want less coal, less roads, less cars, smaller houses and smaller yards for individuals.
They want less for the general population and more and bigger parks for the members of the environmental groups to play in. These parks are paid for, through taxes of course, by the same people the environmentalist want to have less. So in the case of Badin Lake and Alcoa, the environmentalists want another place to call their own, but at your expense. The fact that some state bureaucrats will get control of the income from selling the electricity may well be immaterial, but methinks not.
Now what could Gov. Beverly Purdue want with the hydroelectric plants? Since she is a good Democrat, it is impossible to think she is being altruistic in this. There has to be something in it for her. Perhaps someone, or some group of people, wants control of those plants and are pushing The Bev to get it for them. Maybe she owes someone, or wants something from someone, so she is pushing to get state control of the plants.
Or maybe she’s telling partial truths. Maybe she just wants the money generated by the plants. Maybe Alcoa didn’t contribute to her campaign. Maybe Duke or Progress Energy wants Alcoa out of the picture. So many maybes.
But if Beverly wants the Alcoa Badin facility, what will stop her from going after Duke Energy? Duke has hydro plants over the whole of the Catawba River. Why should she not go after those too?
The whole thing is fishy and reeks of Jim Black and company.
The state regulatory commission says there is some problem with dissolved oxygen. OK. And if the state owns the plants one must suppose that problem will instantly go away. The same is true of every problem brought up as a reason for the state to own the plants. The state will not be a better operator; the money will just go somewhere different – to politicians. This is actually the crux of the issue.
Once upon a time I believed that the functions of government were specified in a constitution and that they had to do with providing police protection, roads, courts and jails. Those were things private industry couldn’t supply in a manner in which they could make money. Those were things that were beneficial to all and necessary to society, but difficult to have pay for themselves. Thus they are supplied by government through taxes.
Unfortunately, and simply because the average person has paid little attention to the actions of those in government, government has grown by bits and pieces and finally leaps and bounds until there is no separation between what business does or should do and what those in government does or should do.
But there is a difference. It is the difference between a free society, where you have a menu of choices in how to live your life, and that of an authoritarian system where those in government make those decisions for you.
Beverly Purdue is showing her beliefs to be those of government of the bureaucrats for the connected by those in authority.
Alcoa should keep the dams and plant it built. Beverly Purdue and the state should stop trying to use the force of government to steal for their personal gain.
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