AN OPEN BIPARTISAN LETTER

AN OPEN BIPARTISAN LETTER

From

The Executive Committees of the Granville County (NC)

Republican and Democratic Parties

Granville County Republican Party

418 Hancock Street,

Oxford, NC 27565

Granville County Democratic Party

207 N. Cozart Street

Creedmoor, NC 27522

Monday 21^st July 2008

TO:

The Honorable Richard Burr. US Senate (R – NC)

The Honorable Elizabeth Dole. US Senate (R – NC)

The Honorable G K Butterfield, US House of Representatives (D – NC 1^st District)

The Honorable Howard Coble, US House of Representatives (R – NC 6^th District)

The Honorable Bob Etheridge, US House of Representatives (D – NC 2^nd District)

The Honorable Virginia Foxx, US House of Representatives (R – NC 5^th District)

The Honorable Robin Hayes, US House of Representatives (R – NC 8^th District)

The Honorable Walter B. Jones, US House of Representatives (R – NC 3^rd District)

The Honorable Patrick T. McHenry, US House of Representatives (R – NC 10^th District)

The Honorable Mike McIntyre, US House of Representatives (D – NC 7^th – District)

The Honorable Brad Miller, US House of Representatives (D – NC 13^th District)

The Honorable Sue Myrick, US House of Representatives (R – NC 9^th District)

The Honorable David E. Price, US House of Representatives (D – NC 4^th District)

The Honorable Heath Schuler, US House of Representatives (D – NC 11^th (District)

The Honorable Melvin L. Watt, US House of Representatives (D – 12^th District)

Dear (Member of the North Carolina Congressional Delegation),

ENERGY CRISIS – A CALL FOR ACTION

Jointly, on a bipartisan basis and at the direction of our respective membership, we, the Officers of the Executive Committees of the Granville County Republican and Democratic parties, call upon you to understand and acknowledge our very serious concern regarding the energy crisis that our country faces today, and our general dissatisfaction with the conduct and inactivity of the United States Congress that has given rise to, and currently sustains the consequential and unacceptable threat to our national security and our individual and collective economic well being.

Mindful that in times of major emergency or danger, members of the military, the emergency services and key administrative officials and staff are required to postpone periods of leave and stand-to so as to address the matter at hand, we call upon the leadership of the US Senate and The US House of Representatives to order the current session to continue through the upcoming August recess. Further, we request and require that members of the North Carolina Congressional Delegation, both Republican and Democrat, come together and remain at work until this issue is resolved.

We further call upon other constituency associations across the State of North Carolina, and our nation, to join us in this call for action, and for the cessation of partisan bickering in the US Congress that amounts to no more than ‘fiddling while Rome burns’.

We neither endorse nor dismiss any or all of the recent calls by Members of Congress on either side of the aisle that have sought to tactically address the immediate difficulties arising from excessively high oil prices. To the contrary, we believe that these various proposals, perhaps efficacious in the short to medium term, are mere band-aids over a deteriorating strategic wound. We are alarmed, and we deeply regret that successive Administrations and Legislatures have, over decades, allowed the present situation to occur at all.

Specifically, we call upon the congressional addressees of this letter to urgently recognize the paramount need to send an unambiguous signal to the rest of the world that the United States intends to take any and all steps necessary to become energy independent at the earliest opportunity, and thereby cease shopping for fossil based fuels from sources outside North America. We believe that such a clearly communicated statement of intent, coupled with attendant actions designed to stimulate the creation and rapid growth of an innovative, multi-faceted and sustainable energy market-place domestically, will do much to curb adverse speculation in the oil futures market, and cause timely and appropriate pause for thought in certain foreign capitals.

In order to clearly illustrate and underscore this signal of intent, we call upon the North Carolina Congressional delegation to come together and immediately draft, co-sponsor and present a bill, perhaps to be known as the Granville Act, or the Tarheel Act, that will pass into law the requirement that all federally owned buildings will, within ten years of the date of enactment of the bill, meet and satisfy 100% of their energy requirements from renewable and sustainable resources, and that such measures be paid for from within current budget allocations and cost estimates over the next decade (in other words, no new money). We would also advocate that the proposed bill would also include a requirement that from the date of the tenth anniversary of the enactment of the bill, the Federal Government would no longer purchase, lease or hire any land vehicle (exempt specialist or battlefield vehicles) that utilize fossil based fuel to provide the primary motive power.

In conclusion, we are encouraged that our views expressed in this letter, are endorsed by the results of an increasing number of national surveys and reports in which the overwhelming majority of the American people, regardless of political affiliation, clearly indicate their recognition that the time to change course is upon us, and the time and luxury for endless and indecisive debate, self serving sound bites and rhetoric is long since passed.

Respectfully,

Granville County Democratic Party
Darryl D. Moss, Chairman
Renee Whitney, 1^st Vice Chairman

Granville County Republican Party

Robert Rector, Chairman

Brian Reynell, 1st Vice Chairman

James Chalmers, 2^nd Vice Chairman

Copy: The US Senate Majority Leader, The US Senate Minority Leader, The Majority & Minority Leaders of the US House of Representatives, The Democratic and Republican Leaders of the NC General Assembly, Chairs of NCGOP & NC Democratic Parties.

All media outlets: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, AP, Reuters, WRAL, WPTF, News & Observer, Durham Herald Sun, Oxford Ledger, Butner/Creedmoor News, Henderson Dispatch.

Media Enquiries:

Darryl Moss, 919-528-6548 (Democratic Party)

Brian Reynell, 919 693 6966 (Republican Party)