Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
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Jan. 27
The News & Observer of Raleigh on Democrats and gerrymandering:
The term “gerrymander” arose from an 1812 Massachusetts state Senate district so convoluted for partisan advantage that a cartoonist depicted it as a salamander. Since the mapmaking was done under the control of Gov. Elbridge Gerry, the new political creature was labeled a gerrymander.
Two centuries later, it’s clear the artist saw the outline of the wrong reptile. For what politically contorted districts really resemble is a chameleon. When the party in power shifts, the districts change color.
Republicans and Democrats alike decry gerrymandering when they are in the minority and then impose it with gusto once they regain control. The phenomenon has recently been intensified by advances in computer-assisted mapmaking and Republican willingness to stretch the tactic to the verge of creating a one-party state.
This aggressive gerrymandering has fed political polarization at the federal and state level, contributing to gridlock and a loss of public confidence in the democratic process. But now there are signs that the excess may bring an end to politicians picking their voters.
Federal courts in Wisconsin, North Carolina and Maryland and the state Supreme Court in Pennsylvania have all found partisan gerrymandering a violation of constitutional rights. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court will have to decide the legality, but it’s encouraging that the high court even is considering it. Traditionally, gerrymandering was considered a spoil of political victory and perfectly legal unless it violated the civil rights of minorities. Now gerrymandering in any form is coming under legal scrutiny.
While politicians on both sides await the outcome of the legal challenges, it is not too early for Democrats in North Carolina to commit to ending gerrymandering here.
Republicans, who enjoy veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers and dominate the state’s congressional delegation 10 to 3, won’t give up the redistricting power that supports their advantage. It’s up to Democrats to pledge now that they will support an end to gerrymandering should they regain the majority.
North Carolina State Sen. Jeff Jackson, a Charlotte Democrat, has moved in that direction by proposing an amendment to the state Constitution that would establish an independent redistricting commission. Republicans, however, dismiss the proposal because it allows the governor an appointment that could tilt the commission in his party’s favor. Since Gov. Roy Cooper is a Democrat, as most North Carolina governors have been, some Republican lawmakers are scoffing at the idea.
The Republican skepticism is understandable. Any commission that includes a partisan advantage defeats the purpose of such a commission. The key is to create a commission in which partisanship is balanced and softened by the inclusion of nonpartisan members. In California, for instance, the 14-member Citizen Redistricting Commission consists of five Republicans, five Democrats and four commissioners of neither major party.
One better approach to redistricting is found in Iowa, where partisanship has been drained out of the process almost entirely. Iowa’s legislative and congressional districts are drawn by a nonpartisan state agency without regard to voter registration data or previous election results. The legislature has up to three opportunities to approve the districts. If it fails, the state Supreme Court decides, but since the nonpartisan approach was adopted in 1980 the legislature has always approved the maps.
Jackson is willing to try whatever improves North Carolina’s contentious and unfair approach, an approach that has triggered 16 legal challenges since 2000, according the N.C. League of Women Voters.
“I’m open to any ideas - so long as we finally end the corruption of gerrymandering on which both parties have relied,” Jackson said.
His Democratic colleagues should share his open commitment to finding a better way. Wayne Goodwin, head of the N.C. Democratic Party, should push to have nonpartisan redistricting as part of the party’s platform and make candidates pledge to support it as a condition of party support.
Given the direction of the political tides - and court rulings potentially forcing less gerrymandered maps - Democrats may win control of the legislature before the next redistricting in 2021. But it will be a loss for everyone if under Democratic control the gerrymander, chameleon-like, turns blue.
Online: http://www.newsobserver.com
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Jan. 31
The Charlotte Observer on Duke Energy wanting to charge customers $647 million more per year on electric bills:
Should you pay close to $120 per year to clean up Duke Energy’s coal ash mess?
Duke wants to start charging customers in this part of the Carolinas $647 million more per year on their electric bills. That would be nearly a 17 percent increase on the typical residential bill.
Duke says it needs more than half the additional money to clean up its coal ash ponds. It needs the rest to cover costs connected with its decision not to build a nuclear plant in South Carolina, continue its move to cleaner sources of energy and to make improvements to the power grid.
The seven-member N.C. Utilities Commission will decide whether and how much Duke can raise its rates. Regulators were in Charlotte Tuesday night to hear the public’s feedback on the idea - and they got an earful from an angry crowd.
A utility, like any business, may indeed need to raise its prices from time to time. But Duke is regulated by the state because it has a near-monopoly in its market. Utilities commissioners need to ensure that a rate hike on the region’s 2 million-plus customers, if any, is as small as it can be while allowing Duke to make a reasonable profit.
Here’s the math we’d use if we were utilities commissioners:
Duke wants to raise bills by $647 million per year. About $336 million of that is to clean up decades of coal ash storage that culminated in one of the nation’s worst spills, into the Dan River four years ago Friday. The company knew its ash was a potential hazard for years. Shareholders, not customers, should pay for Duke’s decision to deal with its waste in the cheapest, not most responsible, way possible all this time.
Subtract the $336 million and Duke’s remaining request is at $311 million.
Much of that money can come from the tax cut the company is about to enjoy courtesy of Congress and President Trump. The Utilities Commission’s Public Staff estimates that Duke will save about $210 million per year on its federal tax bill going forward. Duke made its request months before the tax bill passed and that money should go straight to the company’s needed $647 million.
Put the $210 million toward Duke’s after-coal-ash total of $311 million and Duke’s request stands at $101 million.
Utilities commissioners should dissect Duke’s request and, if found to be warranted, grant that $101 million hike. That would result in an increase on the typical residential bill of about 2.6 percent or about $35 per year. That’s an amount that both Duke and the average customer could live with.
One other needed change: As part of its request, Duke wants to raise the fixed charge on bills from $11.80 per month to $17.79 per month, a jump of more than 50 percent. The economics don’t justify that, and it would be an especially large burden on the low-income customers who, incidentally, typically use less electricity.
Duke has provided reliable electricity at relatively low cost for years. It has made a lot of money, too. The Utilities Commission should maintain that balance.
Online: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/
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Jan. 31
The Fayetteville Observer on Chemours offering water filters to homes affected by its chemical dumping:
Chemours, the chemical company whose plant on the Cumberland-Bladen county line has been dumping the chemical GenX into the Cape Fear River and apparently leaking it into the local water table, has offered to equip affected homes in the area around the plant with water filters.
The company recently told the state that it plans to put “granular activated carbon treatment” systems on wells with likely unsafe concentrations of GenX, a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon and other nonstick or waterproofing materials. The chemical has been found in more than 250 private wells around the plant, about half of which have levels above what the state Department of Health and Human Services has set as safe. In tests on animals, GenX has been found to cause some forms of cancer and other health problems. So far, there is no definitive testing to document its effects on people.
The state hasn’t accepted the Chemours offer, and that’s the wise course at this point. “Activated carbon systems have not been considered a final remedy for contaminated groundwater,” state Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Bridget Munger said this week. Michael Scott, director of the DEQ’s Division of Waste Management, said in a letter to Chemours earlier this month that state officials “strongly recommend” that the company not implement the filter plan or notify residents about it until the plan gains state approval, which won’t happen anytime soon. Chemours had informed the state that it wanted to start installing the filter systems on Jan. 22. Scott suggested that the company begin with a pilot program at four residences, testing the systems for at least three months, while continuing to supply bottled water to affected families.
The filtration proposal will be discussed when state officials come to Bladen Community College Thursday at 6 p.m. for a GenX informational meeting.
Meanwhile, Cumberland County commissioners last week agreed that one of their top priorities this year is getting a safe municipal water supply to this county’s residents whose wells are contaminated by GenX. The county has already gotten estimates for the engineering studies that would be the starting point for a water project. That, ultimately, is the only long-term solution to the pollution problem, the only way to be certain that families in the area around Chemours’ Fayetteville Works are getting safe, clean water.
And when the county discusses the cost of the water system, the commissioners should be looking to Chemours and DuPont to foot a large portion of the bill. DuPont operated the Fayetteville Works for decades, producing Teflon and related products there. Chemours was created as a spinoff company by DuPont in 2015. Responsibility for GenX and other contaminants from the plant prior to 2015 belongs to DuPont, which still has a presence at the Fayetteville works. The taxpayers of Cumberland County didn’t put GenX, its predecessor, C8, and other related “emerging contaminants” in the river, on the land and in the groundwater around the plant. They shouldn’t be paying for the remediation.
At this point, we’re still not even sure what remediation will look like. New contamination has been discovered regularly since we first learned about GenX contamination in the Cape Fear River. Testing still hasn’t defined the boundaries of the contamination in the groundwater around the plant, and GenX has been found on the east side of the river as well. The chemical was also found in honey from a hive in Bladen County and new research from the Netherlands has found GenX in plants and vegetables around a similar Chemours plant there. Since there are substantial agricultural operations around the Fayetteville Works, it’s clear that expanded testing is needed.
While it’s clear that residents around the plant need safe water, it’s not at all clear what the extent of the problem is and what the ultimate solutions will be. It may be years before we know all the answers. But for now, we should all be able to agree that the water project is the top priority, along with a full mapping of the pollution’s extent.
Online: http://www.fayobserver.com/
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