Home Action Alerts Action Alert: Political Watchdog Calls for Freeze on Titan Air Permit!
Action Alert: Political Watchdog Calls for Freeze on Titan Air Permit!
Thursday, 19 November 2009 11:13

With a day to go before the public comment period closes on Titan’s draft air permit, former Democratic political consultant and campaign watchdog Joe Sinsheimer has sent a searing letter to Governor Bev Perdue urging her to “impose a 90-day freeze on the environmental permitting process for Titan Cement and ask Attorney General Roy Cooper to conduct an investigation into whether any undue political pressure has been involved in the permitting process to date.”

 

Mr. Sinsheimer makes the case that ongoing investigations into the former Easley Administration and DENR’s permitting process have shaken citizen’s confidence in our state government. As for Titan Cement, Mr. Sinsheimer requests that Governor Perdue ask the NC Attorney General Roy Cooper to investigate the Easley Administration’s actions to exempt Titan from the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) as well as the unprecedented political maneuvering that occurred this summer when Senator Julia Boseman’s cement plant moratorium bill was dismissed from a Senate hearing without ever being heard. Mr. Sinsheimer specifically mentions the federal bribery convictions of a former DENR official working on a permit for Agri-Ethanol; recent testimony about top Easley officials helping a coastal developer with a permitting issue while they were soliciting a $50,000 campaign contribution from him; and a grand jury recently serving DENR with a half dozen subpoenas in a probe into payoffs to state officials during permitting reviews.

 

It’s worth noting that Mr. Sinsheimer sent a similar letter to then Gov. Mike Easley about former speaker of the House Jim Black. In that case, Gov. Easley never responded and Jim Black went on to plead guilty to three separate felonies. It’s also worth noting that former Gov. Easley, Titan’s top lobbyist John Merritt, and Easley former counsel Ruffin Poole, all now work for Titan’s Richmond-based lobbying firm McGuireWoods.


So, what impact will Mr. Sinsheimer’s letter have on the ongoing battle over Titan Cement? We’ll that depends on YOU. Governor Perdue’s latest statements say she won’t intervene unless state lawyers convince her otherwise. So, let’s help convince her---call Governor Perdue (919-733-4240) and tell her you support Mr. Sinsheimer’s request for a 90-day freeze on any permits for Titan. Then call Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office (919-716-6400) and request that he investigate undue political influence into the permitting process for Titan Cement AND its avoidance of the State Environmental Policy Act.


Read the letter for yourself and also coverage of it from Raleigh’s WRAL-TV (http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/video/6450875/). Then make your points with a few reminders:


  1. SEPA applied to the Titan project when it was first announced. SEPA was removed only after Titan’s lawyers and high-paid lobbyists met privately with DENR officials and negotiated themselves out of it.

  2. Emails obtained through FOIA requests document Titan officials asking their lobbyist and lawyer how to get out of SEPA and show Titan’s top lobbyist telling everyone to sit tight while Titan’s lobbyist makes a call to then-Secretary of Commerce Jim Fain. At some point following this exchange, SEPA was no longer required for the Titan Cement project.

  3. Recent political maneuvering by high-ranking members of the General Assembly and officials in the Commerce Department kept Senator Boseman’s Cement Moratorium Bill from ever getting a vote. Senator R.C. Soles was quoted as saying he’d never seen anything like it in 40-plus years of serving in the General Assembly.

 

Let the Governor and Attorney General know that we expect our government to work for US, not big, foreign corporations and we definitely expect our regulatory agencies have our interests at heart, not Titan’s, not their lobbyists, and not their political pals.


And as always, a big thank-you from your friends at StopTitan.org.




Comments
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JOE ODONNELL  - MR   |2009-11-19 03:29:01
STOP THE PLANT
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Serje   |2009-11-19 05:24:10
That was way more than I expected. Thanks for the update.
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Carroll S.  - CEO, "Snap-Pro-Plus Co."   |2009-11-19 07:11:40
The jobs this company would provide are so insignificant compaired the air quality we would be loosing. Have a job or kill our children or anyone with respatory problems? Think of others before you line your pockets at the expence of someones life.
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Kelly Stryker   |2009-11-20 05:36:14
New Development relating to this story: Robin Smith, attorney for DENR, appeared before grand jury, along with about 5 other DENR past and current employees. See link here: http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/6458190/
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JL  - NO TITAN!   |2009-11-20 07:10:10
NO TITAN FOR CAPE FEAR!
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Jesse Ellington  - Yes Titan   |2010-01-06 11:05:19
Just more "NIMBY". How about everyone quit building houses and driveways in Eastern NC and import cement from third world countries where old cement plants continue to pollute and harm their children. Send your doctors there to help those folks.
I guess cement plants aren't "pretty" enough for NC, same as wind power is heavily opposed statewide. Not pretty is it!
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Kelly Stryker   |2010-01-11 18:00:27
Great idea on no more houses. We're overbuilt here as it is. And we DO import cement from over seas, even with numerous US cement plants within 400 miles, we get imported cement from South America..go figure. So I'm guessing by your email, you don't live here? That would explain why you wouldn't understand that we don't want to cement over our natural resources. Some things are worth fighting for, and our community and all the NIMBY's in it, are more than willing to do just that.
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