Let me begin this week’s Locke Notes with saying “Happy National School Choice Week!”
Hi there,
Let me begin this week’s Locke Notes with saying “Happy National School Choice Week!” It is a great time to be a champion of school choice in North Carolina where significant gains have been made over the past several years, but especially last month when the General Assembly expanded the Opportunity Scholarship Program for families currently on the waitlist.
In celebration of this momentous week, I wanted to share a new resource that you might find helpful as you’re sharing the many reasons school choice is essential to a free society. It is our NC School Choice By The Numbers infographic and you can download it by clicking the image below:
Now, onto this week’s Locke Notes!
When it comes to global carbon emissions, North Carolina might be just a speck in the grand scheme of things, but our current state law thinks otherwise.
The state Carbon Plan requires carbon neutrality in electricity in North Carolina by 2050. North Carolina's emissions have decreased by more than half since 2005, when the law was enacted, begging the question: why do we even need this law on the books at all?
Unfortunately, complying with the law moving forward could lead to higher electricity costs, and less reliable energy for North Carolinians. In fact, compliance will require the biggest expansion of electrical infrastructure since the 1920’s.
What are the implications of this law for North Carolina families, businesses, schools and industries?
A new report from the John Locke Foundation explores two different paths to carbon neutrality by 2025: we can use either renewable facilities or nuclear power. And the report evaluates the state’s existing electrical infrastructure and how much new infrastructure will be needed in the coming years.
Which would be better, nuclear or renewable?
Nuclear power is not only a zero-emission resource capable of baseload power generation, but it is also the best option for meeting future increases in energy demand.
Nuclear would also be the more cost-effective solution.
To meet the required power generation capacity for 2050, the renewable scenario requires an estimated 12,500 miles of transmission infrastructure, and 7.7 million acres of North Carolinian land for power generation (that’s approximately 20% of all of North Carolina’s land mass!).
In comparison, the nuclear scenario only requires an estimated 1,348 miles of transmission infrastructure, and just 15,190 acres of land for power generation!
Not only would the nuclear scenario require significantly less new capacity and infrastructure, it would also be more reliable, more efficient, and more cost-effective.
When it comes to which path to choose, the nuclear scenario seems like the best choice to me!
You can read more about North Carolina’s energy road map here, here and here.
While North Carolina is still dealing with the fallout of registration problems in the 2024 election, county election boards have begun to remove ineligible voters from rolls
Regular list maintenance is crucial to catch people who become ineligible because they moved, died, or were convicted of a felony
Regular voter roll maintenance improves voting by:
Protecting against fraud
Helping improve Election Day planning
Reducing poll worker error
Minimizing wait times at the polls
Simplifying post-election procedures
NC law already provides a way to remove registrations who haven’t had any contact with election officials for federal election cycles
It's a 2-part process:
Voters who haven’t voted in 2 congressional elections (4 years) are put on an inactive list
And is subject to removal after 2 more congressional elections (another 4 years)
Biennial list maintenance also has a great impact on voter rolls
Between January 5 and 19, 92 counties conducted biennial maintenance, reducing registrations by 397,331
However, general upticks in NC’s registrations more than make-up for the removals
Democrats saw a net decline of 139,246 registrations, Republicans 90,433, and Unaffiliated 164,139
However, the impact on future elections is almost zero, as removed registrants were already not voting for years
While some claim list maintenance is a form of voter suppression, the reality is that list maintenance simply cleans out voters who were already inactive
President Trump issued an executive order terminating federal workforce Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives…
And encouraging merit-based hiring practices as well
Following suit, the North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek and Labor Commissioner Luke Farley announced they will prohibit DEI from being used in their own agency’s hiring practices
Boliek cited research that has shown that DEI initiatives can actually backfire and increase racial suspicion, prejudicial attitudes, and authoritarian policing
In a statement, Boliek said:
“DEI is divisive and brings little-to-no return on investment of time and resources… Corporations across the country are abandoning DEI, as are colleges and universities, and it’s time for the government to do the same.”
