News-Record.com

So I got an e-mail this morning announcing the following:

Gov. Mike Easley will make an economic development announcement at 11:15 a.m. TODAY (Sept. 1) at the General Electric plant (3901 Castle Hayne Road) in Wilmington.

There's nothing real unusual about this, Easley does these sorts of announcements all the time.

What is unusual is that yesterday I sat in a news conference where Easley told us all to conserve fuel and said that he was banning "non-essential" travel by state employees. Is this sort of travel essential? This is the question I posed to his press office this morning by way of e-mail:

The governor asked us all to conserve fuel yesterday and specifically said he was putting a stop to all "non-essential" government travel. What makes an economic development announcement in Wilmington something that's essential to travel to? Why couldn't he make the announcement from Raleigh? Isn't this kind of a bad example he's setting for the public?

I will admit up-front that this is sort of a smart-aleck question, but I think it's a valid one. If everyone should conserve gas, shouldn't EVERYONE conserve gas? Maybe the announcement is just that important, I don't know.

I'll let you know when I get a response and post it here.

Update1: Well, here's what Easley went down there to announce anyway.

Update2: Here's the answer I got from the governor's press office:

"As a part of this deal, the Governor told GE Nuclear officials he would be there today and 200 people will have jobs paying over $65,000 annually plus benefits because he kept his word."

Call me a skeptic, but I think the GE officials would have settled for the "$300,000 One North Carolina Fund grant and a $3.1 million Job Development Investment Grant." Or is a personal appearance by the governor that big of a deal that they would have pulled up stakes and left town? Feel free to tell me I'm off base via the comment link below.