From Nov 7th - 9th, North Carolina will suspend sales tax on energy star appliances. (Details, Sierra Club Press Release)On Oct 10-12, 2008 the NC Chapter ran an educational basecamp outing instructing in the art of backcounty navigation. Our focus was learning basic map & compass skills in outdoor classes held over the weekend. We honed our new skills during a day-hike on Saturday and a workshop Sunday morning. Our Saturday hike wound it's way through the Wilson Creek basin, crossing Quebec Branch, and ascending Wilburn Ridge for some focused map and compass work, plotting bearings to the Scales and to 1st Peak. Afterward a large part of the group scaled the highest rock outcropping for a 360 degree view of the area, and stayed up there until completely oriented to the area, or perhaps because the view with clear skies was astounding.
Tops in the nation were 1) California 2)Oregon 3) Connecticut 4) Vermont and 5) New York.North Carolina ranks low on a list of energy-efficient states put out by an advocacy organization. The state is 29th on the list, released this week by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Washington, D.C.-based ACEEE says it advances the cause of energy efficiency “as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security and environmental protection.”
States were ranked on eight metrics, including their public policies on energy conservation, their building codes, and transportation policies such as emissions standards, transit funding and tax incentives for hybrid vehicles.
North Carolina didn’t rank highly in any of the metrics, though the state did get some credit for strict building codes and for a law enacted in 2007 that requires utilities to get a percentage of their power from renewable sources beginning in 2012. The 2007 law isn’t aggressive enough on actually saving energy versus merely getting energy from alternative sources, the ACEEE report says.
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