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What's the Rush?
It's just the only planet we have
One of the few things that keep me interested in city government is my twisted sense of humor; call me perverse, but I actually enjoy watching self-important clowns. Needless to say, I've been loving the accusations, counter-arguments and general fumbling around in the dark over how the city should deal with the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement.
In case you missed it, the USMCPA is a pledge signed by representatives of over 400 cities, including more than a dozen in North Carolina, that they will cut greenhouse gases to pre-1990 levels in order to reduce global warming.
Mayor Pat McCrory chaired the committee that drafted the pledge, back in the days when he was bucking for a job as head of the EPA. He didn't get the position, especially after he couldn't deliver Charlotte for Dubya in 2004, and now he says he won't sign the agreement. Why not? One reason, says McCrory, is that language in the pledge preamble is too "political" -- which, in McCroryspeak, means acknowledging that global warming is actually occurring. Another reason is that the agreement doesn't include support for nuclear power as an alternative energy source.
Creative Loafing wrote about McCrory's conflicted roles in regards to the USMCPA almost two years ago, and we're gratified that the Observer has finally caught on. The daily paper recently lambasted the mayor in an editorial, correctly pointing out that the nuclear issue is irrelevant since local governments cannot build nuclear plants. Local governments can, however, carry out the pledge's suggestions such as preserving open space, enforcing land-use policies, promoting public transit, and inventorying greenhouse gas emissions in city operations. The Observer even remembered, for once, to report that the mayor is on the payroll at Duke Energy, which wants to build more nuclear plants.
I have to say that I am shocked -- shocked! -- that any Charlotte politician would be in the back pocket of one of our biggest corporations. Yes, I'm kidding.
I'm also wondering why discussions of local politics rarely recognize the obvious fact that big business calls the shots in Charlotte, and has done so for as long as anyone can remember. Instead, this city's debates, campaigns and media coverage are acted out in what I call "nerdy civics class mode," where politicians are assumed to be independent thinkers (or at least talkers) without corporate strings attached, and everyone nods and goes along, content with the fantasy.
McCrory, though, must be tired of the game, judging from his recent piece in the Observer, in which he openly embraced his inner corporate puppet. After the daily paper's editorial criticizing the mayor's inaction on the USMCPA, McCrory countered with an op-ed in which he so blatantly shilled for the wonders of nuclear power ("clean the air," "make us more energy independent"), I thought he was going to announce he was changing his name to Reddy Kilowatt. The op-ed read like a paid commercial for his employer -- which, in a sense, of course, it was.
But that wasn't the only odd thing in McCrory's little essay. Our city's top Republican public official actually held up conservatives' favorite boogeymen, the French -- who generate 80 percent of their energy from nuclear technology -- as an example for the United States to follow. In passing, the mayor also claimed "those on the left are not allowed to dare mention the word [nuclear power], much less support it."
McCrory apparently isn't aware that "those on the left" have, in fact, been revisiting the issue of nuclear power for some time. Many liberals remain adamantly opposed to building new nuclear plants, while others are weighing the risks of nuclear power versus the danger of remaining dependent on oil until solar and wind technologies are broadly available.
There's no question that much more energy and many more dollars need to be devoted to putting solar and wind power into service, but our need to get off the oil teat is so desperate, I say let's give the French model a shot, on one condition: The French, who have never had a serious nuclear accident, and who surround their facilities with anti-aircraft weapons (unlike U.S. nukes which remain vulnerable to air attacks), would get to build and run our nuclear plants. Meanwhile, City Council is leaping (or is that sleeping?) into action, two years after the USMCPA was introduced. For a few minutes last week, they even seemed to be on the verge of passing the pledge over McCrory's objections. But no, they need more time now, so they delayed a vote until June. Hey, just because those radicals in the Gastonia and Salisbury city governments have passed it, that doesn't mean the city that was once the leading progressive force in the region should do it, too.
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