carolina cronyism

Of the four possible combinations, we at the John Locke Foundation have always favored the Freedom & Growth combination of low corporate taxation with low corporate welfare. Gov. Roy Cooper's choice is the cardinal opposite.

Did you know there are also magic words that can make your power bill go up? They were just used in the coal-ash cleanup settlement agreement between the Cooper administration, environmental groups, Duke Energy, and not ratepayers.

"Sue and settle" is an illiberal tool used by outside pressure groups in cahoots with willing government agencies to bring about a regulatory change they know they could not get through proper political channels.

At the same time, Cooper would have media, teachers, and you believe that money not taken from corporations is one-to-one money not given to teachers.

Businesses make business decisions for business reasons. If they can get free money from politicians wanting to look good in press releases and photo ops, great, but it's rare that it's a deciding factor.

Even as solar advocates boasted that solar's costs are plummeting, North Carolina's PURPA terms were locking state ratepayers into a situation where they're forced to buy all solar energy produced at exorbitant costs that go well past the actual production costs. It's a great way to make money, but no way to treat captive consumers of a vital necessity.

"Market competition"? The renewable energy industry has made it crystal clear that they want nothing to do with market competition or anything near it. Their own advocates attest that their industry cannot survey without all kinds of government help.

The governor continues to interrupt his complaining about corporate giveaways to give money to corporations.