20070812 Ver 2_Its time NC recovered Yadkin River hydro plants_20090806

Dorney, John
From: Massengale, Susan [[e-mail]]
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 1:12 PM
To: [e-mail]
Subject: It's time N.C. recovered Yadkin River hydro plants
Attachments: ATT00001.c
From the Charlotte Observer
It's time N.C. recovered Yadkin River hydro plants
State wants to refocus use of water to produce N.C. jobs.
Posted: Thursday, Aug. 06, 2009
It would be hard to imagine other circumstances in which both Republicans and Democrats would push
legislation to buy a privately owned business operation that has been a staple of the N.C. and local economy.
But legislators are right to seek a way to take over ownership of four hydroelectric dams on the Yadkin River
operated by Alcoa Power Generating, Inc.
The reasons are compelling. Alcoa has a federal license to operate an unregulated utility. Alcoa won it in 1958
under the Federal Power Act. If Alcoa did not win a new license at the end of the 50-year term, Congress could
in effect buy the hydroelectric project from the company and allow the federal or state or local government to
operate it.
Alcoa once employed 1,000 or so workers at its smelter at Badin. But the smelter has been shut down and Alcoa
has a relative handful of employees there. It sells the power it generates on the open market, free of the
regulation that applies to other utility companies such as Duke Energy and Progress Energy.
While Alcoa argues that it has been a good steward of the state's waters that flow through its generating plants,
there are troubling reports of high levels of contaminants in the waters of Badin Lake related to the smelter.
Legislators and the Perdue administration have in the past year opposed a federal license renewal and backed a
plan to eventually purchase and operate the dams for the direct benefit of the state.
That makes sense. The Yadkin's waters belong to the public and their use should benefit this state - either
through a significant number of jobs or use of the power. State Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco says it's
simple: The state should use "the flow of that water" to provide jobs for North Carolinians and other economic
benefits to the people.
Alcoa has sharply resisted this move, arguing that the state is trying to take private property that will poison the
state's business-friendly reputation. But Alcoa's disingenuous argument ignores the fact that under the federal
agreement it signed with the state's support in 1958, it acknowledged that its right to operate the project would
end after 50 years.
Now, under a bill that passed a House committee Wednesday, lawmakers want to create a Yadkin River Trust.
It would purchase the plant and use its proceeds to compensate local governments for loss of tax revenue, create
a regional "Power for Jobs" fund and purchase instructional equipment for community colleges.
That's a far better use of the state's waters than allowing a monopoly to produce unregulated power of no direct
benefit to this state. Lawmakers should proceed.
Susan Massengale
Public Information Officer
DENR- Division of Water Quality
1617 MSC, Raleigh, NC 27699-1617
[phone]; fax [phone]
Please note: my e-mail address has changed to susan.massengalepnedenr.gov
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