Is This Happening in Your State?

Last fall my Carolina Journal colleague David Bass reported about how North Carolina’s Division of Air Quality (and their counterparts in other states) recruited companies they regulate to “voluntarily” become members of the nonprofit Climate Registry, and pay for the privilege of reporting their greenhouse gas emissions (again, no pressure!). Brock Nicholson, NCDAQ’s deputy director at the time, helped launch the Registry, joined its board, got NCDAQ to pay $100,000 for it, traveled on its behalf, and recruited other states to join — all on the North Carolina taxpayers’ dime.

Last month David explained in more detail Nicholson’s activities on behalf of the Registry.

Today his latest story is posted, in which David explains how half of North Carolina’s contribution to the Registry was paid for out of state gas tax revenues:

Former DAQ deputy director Brock Nicholson, who served on the Climate Registry’s board of directors and executive committee, said the funds paid by DAQ were temporary.

“Those were up-front fees to help seed the registry. We don’t anticipate that will ever be paid again,” he said.

Nicholson said North Carolina is benefiting from its partnership with the registry. “This is the foundational work for a program to identify emissions, and then therefore emissions reductions projects that [have] monetary value to our sources in North Carolina,” he said.

So, while North Carolina’s decaying road system continues to fall into disrepair amid cries that gas tax revenues are insufficient to maintain it, environmental bureaucrats are taking it upon themselves to use those same public funds to “seed” an outside, faux-regulatory agency that is unaccountable to voters/citizens/taxpayers. Oh, and an agency that will accomplish nothing to improve human health conditions.

It’s very likely this has happened in your state also.