Public records provide inside look at opposition to Yadkin Project relicensing

Alcoa Power Generating Inc. has launched a website, TheYadkinFacts.com, that makes public records related to the relicensing of the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project available online. Click here to view the website. 

“We believe transparency in government is important,” said Kevin Anton, Alcoa’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “The records included on this site will help make clear the activities of those pushing for a government takeover of Alcoa’s private property and dams, activities that to date have largely been kept from public view.”   

Documents contained on the site are organized around three categories — the $5+ million in taxpayer money spent by the Stanly County Commissioners to oppose Alcoa’s license; the missed opportunity to create 450 new jobs with Alcoa’s recruitment of Clean Tech Silicon & Bar; and the tactics employed by Alcoa’s opponents. 

Some of the documents on the website show that:

• Stanly County has spent more than $5 million since 2006. More than $3 million has been paid to Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, a Charlotte law firm that has billed the county as much as $495 an hour. 
• The written agreements proposed by Alcoa and Clean Tech in December 2011 included a commitment to provide 750 jobs with an annual payroll of at least $30 million for the next 30 years. 
• The NC Water Rights Committee was a created by Stanly County. A public opinion poll and other information released under the name of the NC Water Rights Committee was actually paid for by Stanly County taxpayers. 
• A Stanly County lobbyist drafted legislation calling for a Yadkin Project Study in 2008. Alcoa’s opponents were encouraged to tell legislators “the simple bill you will be voting on just creates a study commission…," but the lobbyist had a different message for Stanly County Commissioners: “Remember that I drafted the bill and left plenty of holes wide enough to sail the recapture ship through the dams."  

This site will make available thousands of public records Alcoa received from the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, the NC Department of Commerce, and the Office of the Governor in response to public requests requests that began in 2008.  An initial set of documents is now available, and a searchable database of all public records provided to Alcoa is under development. New documents will be added frequently.

For more information, visit the website at www.theyadkinfacts.com.