Civitas asks for Investigation into “Clean Energy” PAC’s Campaign Reporting

In a letter to the State Board of Elections Chairman, Josh Howard, Civitas President, Francis De Luca asked the Board to investigate the campaign reporting practices of the North Carolina Clean Energy Business Alliance (NCCEBA) PAC – Kristin Laster, Treasurer.

Click Here  to read the letter delivered to Howard and State Board of Elections’ Executive Director, Kim Strach on Friday, July 31, 2015.

De Luca said, “Our study of the campaign reports of the Alliance’s PAC found a disturbing pattern of discrepancies, errors, evasions, mistakes, questionable changes, missing information, the failure to file complete and timely reports, and apparent efforts to conceal or obscure spending and contributions.”

NCCEBA played a key role in Civitas’ three-part series on “Big Solar” and its connection to Republican political consultants and state legislators.

In part one of the series, we took a first look at these consultants, who created a business model that involves advising GOP legislators to take up the cause of more government mandates, political favoritism and higher electric bills by opposing any bill that would have frozen Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS) mandates at current levels or roll back subsidies for the solar industry.

Part two of the series explored the web of organizations pushing for solar energy in North Carolina, including three nonprofits and one political action committee (PAC) set up by the Republican political operatives. They are: the North Carolina Clean Energy Business Alliance (NCCEBA) and its Political Action Committee (NCCEBA PAC); the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA); and Conservatives for Clean Energy. We also attempted to decipher NCCEBA PAC’s campaign finance reports filed with the State Board of Elections since February 2013. We found the reports to be full of errors and inconsistencies and ultimately extremely difficult to understand and follow.

In part three of the Big Soar series, we looked to highlight one of Big Solar’s key channels for spending on political campaigns – and what Big Solar’s success would do to North Carolina.