U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre touted North Carolina’s agriculture and alternative fuels while in Greece today for an international conference on energy.

McIntyre, a Lumberton Democrat, is a senior member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, which promotes security through human rights, democracy and environmental cooperation, reports Barb Barrett.

He spoke in Athens before about 200 parliamentarians from 49 countries who attended the fall meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

There, he talked of how farmers in North Carolina are trying to develop energy from resources such as animal waste.

“In my home state of North Carolina, the agriculture industry is already making significant progress in converting plant and animal waste, agricultural stover [residue] and woody biomass into viable options for alternative energy sources,” McIntyre said.

“We need to be flexible and forward-looking, using alternative fuels, new crop-tilling mechanisms and the latest research in irrigation so that farmers will continue to be a reliable source of food and fiber not only for their own families, but for the world.”

North Carolina is a national leader in "energy infrastructure," but the state's not doing so well in energy generation or energy storage.

Those are some of the findings in a new profile of North Carolina's green economy by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.

The NGA prepared profiles on the green economy in all 50 states. It did not rank the states, instead opting to provide a report on each state.

The report on North Carolina describes the state as "a national leader in energy infrastructure, which includes consulting and management services and "cable and equipment." The report says 400 people in North Carolina are employed in energy infrastructure.

The report says that "recycling and waste," with 5,200 jobs, is the largest employment area in North Carolina's green economy.

But the report also shows that North Carolina lags far behind the national average in areas such as energy generation and energy storage.

Half a million people want a say in how or whether the Obama administration develops energy from the Outer Continental Shelf along the nation’s coastlines.

The Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service announced today that 530,000 people have responded in the public comment period about the issue, reports Barb Barrett.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced in February that he was extending the Bush administration’s timeline for developing a plan on drilling for oil and natural gas off the nation’s coastlines.

Salazar also announced that the administration would expand its review of offshore energy to include the potential for wind, wave and currents.

According to studies, the coastline off North Carolina’s Outer Banks contain some of the best wind potential in the nation. Previous studies have indicated reserves of natural gas and, possibly, oil in the same region.

The Department of Interior’s public comment period ended Monday. After the administration reviews the comments, its next step is to begin an environmental analysis for a five-year plan, as required by law, for oil and gas development in the Outer Continental Shelf.

It’s not only health care that is prompting rallies and counter rallies across North Carolina during the August congressional recess.

On Thursday, Energy Citizens, a coalition of industry groups, will hold a rally at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, reports Rob Christensen. Greensboro is the home of freshman Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan.

The event is called “Rally for Jobs and Affordable Energy” and is one of a series of rallies being held in 19 states across the country.

The industry-sponsored rally centers on legislation in Congress designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions often called cap and trade.

Meanwhile, a counter rally will be held across the street by a coalition of groups that wants Hagan to support legislation backed by Obama administration, which says it will create clean energy jobs and lesson dependence on foreign oil.

Environmental groups and their allies were circulating a memo from the American Petroleum Institute, the lobbying arm of the oil industry, which is organizing the rallies.

The memo says, in part: “The objective of these rallies is to put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy and to aim a loud message at those states’ U.S. Senators to avoid the mistakes embodied in the House climate bill and the Obama Administration’s tax increases on our industry.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr will speak at the N.C. Chamber Monday.

The Winston-Salem Republican will speak about President Barack Obama's energy plan and how it might fare in Congress at the group's third annual manufacturing summit.

The event will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sheraton hotel in Greensboro. Burr will be at the event from 10 to 11 a.m.

Where does the State Energy Office belong?

The agency, which leads the state's efforts to provide information about sustainable energy, would move to the N.C. Department of Commerce under a state bill endorsed today by Gov. Beverly Perdue as part of a reform package.

State Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat and bill co-sponsor, admitted that might sound a little odd to some people, since Commerce typically handles business recruiting and development.

But she argued the office should focus on business.

"This office is largely a relic of the Arab oil embargo, when it was focused more on energy security," she said. "We seem to have now entered a new era where it's as much about economic development and homegrown energy options as trying to find alternatives to Mideast oil."

The office is currently part of the Department of Administration, a catch-all government agency that houses the state construction office, among other things.

Harrison opposed an earlier effort to move the office to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources which she argued was designed to undermine it. She says the new proposal is a good-faith effort.

CARY — Standing in front of solar farm, Gov. Beverly Perdue this morning announced an energy program designed to both make North Carolina more energy efficient and also create more jobs connected to the so-called green economy.

The governor proposed investing more public money in private alternate energy start-up companies, elevate state energy policies, and also make state government more energy efficient, Rob Christensen reports.

"Developing our green economy is one of the cornerstones of why I wanted to be governor," Perdue said.

Perdue said the proposals were part of her campaign promise in 2008, in which she said she would work to produce more jobs in North Carolina for projects such as weatherizing homes and businesses, and making the equipment needed for alternative energy forms such as solar power.

After the jump, her proposals.

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Gov. Beverly Perdue will announce an energy reform package.

She will announce a package to refocus state energy policymaking and make strategic investments in environmentally friendly industries at the SAS solar farm in Cary at 9:45 a.m. tomorrow. 

Perdue will be joined by Ivan Urlaub, executive director of the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association; John Sall, co-founder of SAS; and other business and environmental leaders. 

The federal government has cleared the way for wind farms off North Carolina's coast.

Regulations published Wednesday afternoon in the Federal Register and touted by President Obama at an Earth Day speech lay out the rules for leasin, siting, permitting and building wind turbines and other forms of renewable energy.

Dozens of applications for proposed offshore wind projects are expected in the north and central Atlantic in the coming months, said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

A report from his department says the Outer Banks have some of the strongest and steadiest winds on the East Coast.

"We realize there's a tremendous opportunity offshore," said Bob Leker, a program manager with the State Energy Office in Raleigh. "I think it's a good idea. It's a resource the country as a whole has a lot of." (N&O)

Should a Cabinet appointee oversee military affairs?

An advisory group on military issues for Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue has recommended the creation of a new Cabinet-level position, perhaps called the secretary of military affairs.

The appointee would oversee the long-term sustainability of the state's military bases, economic development, base relocation measures, support services for members of the military and their families and identifying places for training.

"Base sustainability (that is, protection against inappropriate development near bases that  is inconsistent with the military function of the bases) is an issue of immediate concern that could be addressed by the cabinet-level office," the report notes. "The secretary could (also) oversee land use planning to protect effective military use of bases."

The report argues the position would open "clear channels of communication" between military and civilian leaders in North Carolina.

If created, the position would become the 11th member of the governor's Cabinet, and the first since the secretary of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention was added in 2000.

The legislature would have to approve the position.

One member of the advisory group on aging also recommended creating a new Cabinet post to look into issues of the elderly, while a group on energy split on whether to identify a "point person" on that issue.