20140957 Ver 2_Oppose the ACP_20170818

Strickland, Bev
From:MARTHA W GIROLAMI <[e-mail]>
Sent:Friday, August 18, 2017 8:45 AM
To:SVC_DENR.publiccomments
Subject:Oppose the ACP
NC DEQ Atlantic Coast Pipeline Listening Session
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Lumberton

Comments by Martha Girolami
Chatham County, NC

I would like to address energy jobs and energy costs in North Carolina.
My main points are that the ACP mainly benefits Duke Energy
and pipeline jobs and industrial benefits are few or non existent.

The ACP would give our state very temporary construction jobs which would
disappear after the pipeline is complete. Who knows if these workers will be
from NC or more likely they will be contract workers from out of state. Neither DEQ or NC
will have any say on who gets these jobs. Some engineering and technician jobs would be generated but would be intermittent and likely non local. I hear a
fantasy rumor that towns and factories would now have gas hookups and that is what everyone wants. That is bull. There have been no detailed information
on who gets hookups and the cost.
Again the rumor mill says each hook up will cost $1 million. This isn’t
going to be a boon for any landowner near the pipeline or small towns and cities.
Only a few permanent jobs and only a few pricey hook ups!

I worked at a factory as an engineer for 25 years. Our bill for electricity
was $1 million per year from coal electricity. We chaffed over the expensive electricity sold to us by Progress Energy and would have leaped at the chance to
cover our flat roof with solar panels. Sadly, back then, we did not have cheap solar as an option.

In 2017 the USA is in the middle of an energy revolution. We are switching to renewable energy despite government and private interference and plenty of
untruths piled on alternate facts. We have cheap solar. Walmart, Target, every factory with a flat roof or parking lot is adding solar.
By 2016 in the US, Target had installed 147 megawatts of roof top solar panels at 300
separate installations. Walmart had 145 megawatts at 364 locations. Who is the
biggest private employer in NC? It is Walmart.

So what has the clean energy industry done for NC as of August 2, 2017? It has created
34,294 clean energy jobs according to the NC Sustainable Energy Association.
Revenues from clean energies are now at $6.4 billion. There are 997 clean energy firms
in NC. The cumulative renewable energy capacity is 6984 Megawatts. That is so
impressive! And polls show that NC voters want clean energy and energy efficiency. Most emphatically gas is not what everyone wants. Gas is the past!

This gas pipeline is not needed by NC. It is a bad economic decision in the Age of Renewables. The ACP will be a stranded asset. But DE wants the ACP
for its big fat profit. Butt what happens as gas prices rise? Price increases will happen since the US is starting to ship gas off shore. Also drillers are not
earning enough on their frack wells, and many new frack wells are not very productive and don’t last long. This causes the driller to drill more and more for
less money. Expensive gas will be unattractive to ratepayers.

I heard at the Energy Policy Council meeting on August 16th that energy costs to ratepayers have dropped significantly in Texas and most important this was
due to solar and wind energy savings passed on by the utilities. But what is going to happen to NC ratepayers? They are at the mercy of the monopoly Duke
Energy who is asking to hike our power bills by 17 %. That request to the NC Utility Commission from DE is for coal ash clean up that we ratepayers get to
pay for. Then we ratepayers have to pay for the ACP—costing over $5 billion at a 14% profit. We will never stop paying DE if this terrible pipeline is built
and if DE doesn't go with renewables big time.

I thought that the NC DEQ would base the ACP 401 Permit certification decision on demonstrable ACP degradation to water quality, wetlands, wildlife,
hydrology, vegetation, water uses, drinking water that cannot be minimized and unacceptable risk to water supplies, human and environmental health. Am I
wrong? Or is DEQ just going to build this pipeline so that special, well-connected interests like Gregory Pool can sell some big pipeline machines and of
course because everyone must bow down to Duke Energy?

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