Saying all the right words, but doing all the wrong things:

Both Southern and Duke say that their pro-climate positions are aligned with the pro-climate positions of two of their two largest trade associations, the Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association, citing boilerplate language from each.

EEI says that “global climate change presents one of the biggest energy and environmental policy challenges this country has ever faced.” AGA says that it is “committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through smart innovation, new and modernized infrastructure, and advanced technologies.”

Just a quick reminder, the AGA is behind a new NC bill that forces cities to allow natural gas connections for buildings, even though the carbon footprint from said buildings is massive. The Edison Electric Institute has been a climate change denier since Jesus was in middle school, and they have particularly attacked renewable energy programs:

Their rise to power in 2010 is nothing to be proud of:

In 2010, McCollum’s prison mugshot appeared on a flier the North Carolina Republican Party mailed to voters. The ad attacked Democrats who’d supported a measure to allow death row inmates the chance to present evidence that their convictions were tainted by racial bias. It suggested that if voters supported Democrats a flood of death row inmates would be let loose.

“Meet your new neighbors,” the ad said on the front, with McCollum’s picture on the back. Next to it was a menacing description, some of the type in red capital letters: “Get to know Henry McCollum. He RAPED AND MURDERED AN 11 YEAR OLD CHILD.”

Understand, it was racist ignorance like that which resulted in Henry's and Leon's wrongful imprisonment in the first place. Also understand, after investigators were presented with strong evidence they were likely not the ones who raped and murdered an 11 year-old girl, their lack of concern for finding the real perpetrator left children in that community vulnerable. But there is a lot of shame to go around in this sad tale:

Apparently small donors are just as bad as dark money groups:

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Wednesday said broad-based, small-dollar contributions given to Democratic candidates through online donor platforms is the “same exact thing” as political spending by well-heeled “dark money” groups who are allowed to conceal their funding sources.

During a Senate panel hearing about the influence of money over the federal judiciary, Tillis appeared to take aim at ActBlue, an app that helps Democrats and liberal groups collect individual contributions in amounts that are too small to trigger mandatory disclosure rules.

Bolding mine, because little Thommy seems to have a math problem. Let's go through this again, Einstein: it would take a hundred transactions of $50 a pop to equal one $5,000 check from Daddy Warbucks. And these genuine dark money groups, which often receive between $50,000 and $250,000 from individuals, would take thousands of small transactions to achieve. Why (in the name of all that's holy) would a wealthy individual go to such trouble to mask their contributions? The answer is they wouldn't, of course. This is just Tillis grasping at strawmen:

When I start to feel NC's US Senate race is getting too weird for words I just recall #NC09, when the GOP field was so weird that a Boss Hogg impersonator named Stony Rushing & his pet snake seemed to fit right in. So far the Dem field is positively ordinary by comparison. #ncpol

— EQV Analytics (@AnalyticsEqv) March 8, 2021

Yep, next year's R Primary is going to be carnival show, but the D Primary might be pretty painful too...