Unable to move Senate 331 the "Military Operations Protection Act of 2017" through the committee process, Senate sponsors have gone another route, placing the language in this year's Appropriation Act, Senate Bill 257.  If the provision remains in the bill, it would impose a three-year moratorium on the permitting of all onshore and offshore wind projects.   
 
The provision:

• Tramples on the rights of land owners in North Carolina telling them they cannot make their own decision on how they want to use their land. 
• Is an unwarranted imposition on free enterprise and the free market, preventing companies and landowners wanting and able to do business that benefits North Carolina from doing so. Apparently, legislators only trust the free market to work when it is in accord with their priorities. What's next?  A ban on natural gas exploration? A ban on the use of necessary crop protection measures?
• Would prevent hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in some of North Carolina's poorest communities. 
• Would lead to the development of so-called "maps" under the guise of "business certainty" for energy companies, knowing that companies ARE OPPOSED TO AND ARE NOT ASKING FOR THOSE MAPS to be included in legislation.
• Goes AGAINST STATE LEVEL military interests who have expressed interest in evaluating wind energy projects on a case-by-case basis.  
   

We need your help in getting this provision out of the Senate Budget Bill!  
 
Please contact the Senators listed below NOW and ask them to vote NO on this anti-business legislation that violates private property rights or ask that Section 24.2(a-e) be removed from the bill. Explain that the long term impact of this provision will be to reduce tax revenue in rural areas that are needed for public services, and unlikely to provide any new protections for the military.

Southeastern Wind Coalition | www.secoastalwind.org