20070812 Ver 2_Mayor, county at odds over Alcoa license_20090305

Mayor, county at odds over Alcoa license
Subject: Mayor, county at odds over Alcoa license
From: susan massengale <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:51:54 -0500
To: DWQ Clips <[e-mail]>
From the Charlotte observer
Mayor, county at odds over Alcoa license
Each side says the other has a financial interest in the Stanly
County dispute concerning hydroelectric rights.
By Bruce Henderson
[e-mail]
Posted: Thursday, Mar. 05, 2009
The nearly $1 million Stanly County has spent to fight renewal of Alcoa's Yadkin
River hydroelectric license is "motivated by greed," says the mayor of the county
seat, Albemarle.
The county is aggressively lobbying to reclaim the federal license, which Alcoa has
held for more than 50 years, and place it in public hands. Alcoa's aluminum works,
once Stanly's largest employer, has closed and its hydro power is sold on the open
market.
This week Mayor Elbert Whitley wrote Gov. Bev Perdue, who has expressed misgivings
about renewing Alcoa's license, to defend the company. Whitley questioned the
county's spending $965,000 over three years on lawyers and public relations experts
to make its case.
"Why is this issue even on the table?" Whitley wrote. "The only true consideration
is greed, and I am appalled that the state of North Carolina is buying into this
type of thinking."
Whitley, a Democrat, charged in an interview that the Republican-majority county
commissioners want Alcoa's millions of dollars in hydro revenue and thousands of
acres it owns around the four Yadkin reservoirs.
If the commissioners win, he predicted, new industries that use natural resources
will be afraid to locate in Stanly.
County Manager Andy Lucas suspects Whitley also has a financial motive. Alcoa's
proposed license terms allow Albemarle to draw up to 11 million gallons of water a
day from the company's reservoirs without charge.
"They've been given a financial incentive to go along with Alcoa on this," he said.
"We believe we need to protect the water and that's why we've spent nearly $1
million on this. We think it's an investment in our future to protect that resource
and keep jobs in this region."
Stanly is paying law firms in Raleigh and Washington as well as a Raleigh public
relations firm to make its case. Lucas said he doesn't know what future costs may
total. The county has a $60 million annual budget.
If the county gets what it wants, Lucas said, its expenses will be repaid "many
times over."
E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina
1 of 2 3/5/2009 5:34 PM
Mayor, county at odds over Alcoa license
Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.
Susan Massengale <susan.massengale(a,ncmail.net>
DENR.DWQ.CLIPS mailing list
[e-mail]
Part 1.3 Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Encoding: 7bit
2 of 2 3/5/2009 5:34 PM