By Cassie Gavin
Senior Director for Government Relations
This week at the N.C. General Assembly, the focus was on energy policy. A major overhaul of energy law was passed - "H 951, “Energy Solutions for NC” - but without enough protections for low-income customers for N.C. Sierra Club to support it. And a Senate committee approved a fracked gas industry bill to limit local government efforts on building electrification (H 220, Choice of Energy), adding a new section to the bill that would restrict access to certain public records in an overly broad way.
Opportunity for Action
Please use our action alert to ask your senator to oppose H 220. If you’ve already sent an email, please make a follow-up call and ask them to defend local government authority over gas industry interests. This bill may be up for a vote next week.
Energy bill sets up carbon emissions reductions but falls short on equity
On Thursday, the Senate passed H 951 and sent the bill to Governor Cooper for his review. Cooper is expected to sign the compromise legislation. H 951 was significantly revised from the version that the House passed mostly along party lines in July. The revision dropped some of the controversial provisions such as mandated fracked gas plants, a $50 million dollar nuclear subsidy and a ban on the state joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. But multi-year ratemaking, which Duke Energy sought, was kept in the bill. The final bill contains language to set the state on a course to meet Cooper’s goal to reduce carbon emissions 70% from 2005 levels by 2030, which is what garnered support from the minority party.
The revised bill's carbon emissions reduction goal is in line with Cooper’s 2018 Executive Order 80, “North Carolina’s Commitment to Address Climate Change and Transition to a Clean Energy Economy,” and the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. Carbon emissions can be greatly reduced in North Carolina by closing old, uneconomic coal plants that cost ratepayers more than clean energy would cost.
At the same time, the bill allows Duke Energy to seek approval from the N.C. Utilities Commission (NCUC) for a multi-year rate plan, with the potential for yearly rate hikes of up to 4%. Concerns about rate increases have for years stopped legislators from passing this change. Multi-year ratemaking would be a significant change in the way the NCUC reviews Duke’s applications to adjust rates. That creates the potential for Duke to make massive profits at customers’ expense.
Given the lack of help for low-income customers and the lack of any funding to help coal communities transition to clean energy jobs, N.C. Sierra Club opposed the final bill. Please thank Senators Don Davis (D - Greene, PItt) and Gladys Robinson (D - Guilford) and Rep. Marcia Morey (D - Durham) for speaking up about the need to address the problem of the energy burden faced by the poor.
H 951 directs the NCUC to create a plan by the end of 2022 to meet the 70% carbon emissions reduction goal, so much remains to be decided at the Commission level where Sierra Club regularly engages and will continue to do so. Read more about the energy bill at Coastal Review.