Editor’s Note: This week’s Raleigh Report contains a link to the State Board of Elections where you can check your voter registration status, polling station, and see a sample ballot. We recommend a look.
This week Gov. Easley announced the recipients of the Energy Efficiency Reserve Fund grants.
Legislators helped create the grant program and set aside $5 million for this fiscal year. This investment will save us about $3.2 million a year in utility costs. I want to use this opportunity to tell you about this fund and some of the work we are doing between sessions on energy and environmental issues.
Thank you for your interest in state government and for allowing me to share this information with you. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.
Energy Efficiency Reserve Fund
More than 200 groups applied for the Energy Efficiency Reserve Fund grants administered by the State Energy Office. All of the 58 projects awarded grant funds will help us use our natural resources and tax dollars more efficiently. A full list of the recipients and a description of individual projects can be found at www.energync.net. The fund was established at the request of Speaker Joe Hackney and included in the budget for the first time this year. I was among the supporters of this program.
Recipient — Grant amount($) — Est. yearly savings($)
Joint Select Committee on the Agricultural Drought Response
The Joint Select Committee on Agricultural Drought Response met last month and made several key recommendations to be presented to the General Assembly in May. The committee voted unanimously to appropriate $12 million to assist a number of farmers hurt during the recent drought. Of this amount, $1.5 million will provide a cost-share program to help some 300 farmers drill new wells and re-drill old ones and $1 million will help 150 farms clean out or construct farm ponds. The committee recommends that $8 million be used for pasture renovation for 1,600 farms and another $1 million to educate consumers on water conservation and to conduct a campaign to preserve the economic viability of the green industry. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs could use $141,000 for a new position to coordinate agriculture emergency response in the State. The remaining $359,000 would be used for administrative expenses and engineering costs incurred by North Carolina’s Rural Center for implementation of these recommendations.
The committee is please to announce that in mid-April, $6 million will be available immediately for pasture renewal since the planting season has already begun and seed, fuel and fertilizer costs have skyrocketed since last year.
Members of the committee are especially thankful for the work of private financers as well as the Rural Center for its assistance in relief efforts. According to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, the drought has caused an estimated $600 million to $700 million in damage to North Carolina agribusiness
Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change
The Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change is still receiving input from various interest groups as it looks toward making recommendations for legislative action in its May meeting. Members anticipate adopting a goal of capping carbon emissions at 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050, with interim goals, such as stabilizing emissions by 2015. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report says these steps are necessary to avert irreversible climate change.
The commission is also hoping to recommend legislation enacting stricter efficiency standards for all government buildings and any buildings that receive government funding. Members will take some measures to begin adapting to the changes in climate and sea level rise that are already occurring. The commission also hopes to recommend that North Carolina adopt California’s clean cars standard. Mobile sources are responsible for more than 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and cleaning those up are the quickest and easiest achievable reductions.
The commission agreed to accept the recommendations of the Climate Action Plan Advisory Group (CAPAG). CAPAG’s 56 recommendations focus on residential, commercial, and industrial areas, energy supply, transportation and land use, agriculture, forestry and waste management, and cross cutting. A draft of the full report can be found at http://www.ncclimatechange.us/capag.cfm.
Environmental Review Commission
The Environmental Review Commission evaluates actions of all boards, commissions, departments, and agencies of state and local government related to the environment and protecting the environment. Recently the commission discussed the management of low-level radioactive waste, the controlled releases from Falls Lake, and the development of a proposed recycling program for fluorescent lamps.
The commission also studied pending legislation in similar states, drought conditions, and the governor’s recommendations to respond to droughts. Members of the commission discussed changes to the federal ozone standard and what those changes mean for North Carolina. The commission also reviewed the implementation of several environmental laws in North Carolina including Promote Renewable Energy/Baseload Generation (S.L. 2007-397), the Energy Conservation in State Buildings legislation (S.L. 2007-546, Sec. 2.1(c)) and the Swine Methane Capture Pilot Program (S.L. 2007-523, Sec. 4
Sample Ballot Available Online-Shared by Mr. Bill Gilkeson-Research Division
In the past, I know a lot of people have wanted to see, ahead of time, a ballot that is the sample of the ballot that they will see when they go to the polls on election day. (Or when they go to an early-voting site.) Before now, the answer was that you couldn’t see any such thing. The best you could do was to look at a list of all the candidates running anywhere in your county and piece together which district races were going to be on your own ballot.
But that just changed. The State Board of Elections now has a feature on its website that will show you your sample ballot in the upcoming election. You fill a field with your first and last name, then copy a code, then click submit, and you will get a statement telling whether you are eligible to vote. You can then click “My Sample Ballot,” and it will show you a PDF of the ballot that has all the races, and only the races, you are eligible to vote in.
My first-and-last-name combination is apparently unique among NC registered voters. (Not a surprise.) When I filled in the fields I immediately got the information about me. If your name is John Smith, that won’t happen. In that case you will get a screen full of John Smiths, in alphabetical order according to middle name. Unfortunately, there’s no room on the screen for all the John Smiths, so your search stops in the middle of the John D. Smiths, and there’s apparently no way to extend the search and get the rest of the list. Not good for John M. Smith. In that case, you should go back to the search screen, and click the second radio button that says “Show me my voter information.” That will give you a search screen that calls for your first and last name, plus your date of birth. That should narrow the choices to only one screen, even for the John Smiths.
The ballot that you get is a sample ballot only and is marked as such. You can’t actually vote online, and you can’t vote by printing out the online sample ballot and mailing it in. Voting must be done either by going to the polls on election day, or by going to an early voting site during the early voting period (April 17 through May 3), or by requesting, applying for, and casting an absentee ballot by mail. The online sample ballot is supposed to be nothing more than an aid for the voter in preparing for the election.
Notes
I plan to attend the following meetings/events:
Please invite me to attend your county, city, community or civic, etc. meetings or events.
As I’ve said many times before, I hope you will continue to let me know how you feel about the issues that are being debated by the North Carolina Legislature and the challenges you and your family are facing each day.
By working together, we can make Northampton, Vance and Warren Counties and all regions of North Carolina a better place to live, work and raise a family.
Please remember that you can listen to each day’s committee meetings and press conferences on the General Assembly’s website. Once on the site, select “audio,” and then make your selection — Appropriations Committee Room or Press Conference Room. You can also use the website to look up bills, view lawmaker biographies and access other information.