2008

Wind power is generated through large groups of massive industrial wind turbines, sometimes as tall as 50-story skyscrapers. Like the wind itself, wind power is intermittent and extremely unreliable. The wind must be strong enough, but not too strong, to generate power. So wind cannot be used for baseload generation nor to meet peak demand. For example, to avoid a blackout, a Texas grid manager recently had to cut off electricity to some customers, in large part due to a sudden drop in wind power.

RALEIGH – North Carolina plans to spend more than $49 million of state tax revenue and oversee spending of more than $475 million on job training and placement programs in…

Researchers have consistently found that government-provided job training and placement programs are wasteful, inefficient, and sometimes even counterproductive. Researchers have also consistently found that private providers of job training yield strong, positive results.

RALEIGH – A new John Locke Foundation report guides North Carolinians through “vague, overbroad” policies proposed to help the state address global warming. The report shows how the policy…

In 2006, North Carolina's Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) formed an advisory group called the Climate Action Plan Advisory Group (CAPAG). This group's task was to develop recommendations for specific actions to help reduce or prevent climate change.

Sixteen percent of all jail and prison inmates have serious mental illness. One in every 10 police encounters involves a mentally ill individual.

RALEIGH – North Carolina counties could boost public safety, cut costs, and improve health outcomes by steering the mentally ill away from jail and toward community-based care. That’s the major…

Last year’s 5.24 percent dropout rate was a four-percent increase from the 2005-06 school year and was the highest rate in seven years. Only 70.3 percent of students in North Carolina graduate in five years. Over the last ten years, the North Carolina General Assembly has repeatedly tried to address the troubling dropout problem with no apparent success. The latest initiative, dropout prevention grants, will likely have little short-term or long-term effect on the dropout rate.

RALEIGH – A new $7 million grant program will likely have little short-term or long-term impact on North Carolina’s high school dropout rate, according to a new John Locke Foundation…

North Carolina cities and towns can spur redevelopment of their downtowns without using economic incentives or eminent domain to seize private property to give to private developers. The city of Anaheim, California, adopted policies that revitalized its downtown without using eminent domain powers or economic incentives. Under the leadership of Mayor Curt Pringle, Anaheim developed a plan that relied on reducing government regulations and stimulating private-sector investment.