Chapel Hill Commits to 100% Clean, Renewable Energy

CHAPEL HILL, NC -- This week, Chapel Hill’s Town Council unanimously passed a resolution establishing a goal of 100% clean, renewable energy by 2050. The resolution also sets an interim goal of 80% clean, renewable energy by 2030.

Two petitions were submitted to the town earlier this year by N.C. Sierra Club’s local Orange-Chatham Group and the Climate Reality Project, calling for this ambitious commitment.  Chapel Hill joins 23 other cities, towns and counties in the state who have passed policies taking steps toward a clean energy future, including Hillsborough, Apex, Buncombe County, and Wake County, and over 130 cities across the country with a 100% renewable electricity goal. Orange County, where Chapel Hill is located, adopted a similar resolution in 2017 and the Orange Co. Board of Commissioners recently passed a quarter cent sales tax for climate action, the first of its kind in North Carolina.

As more communities across the state and country step up to the challenges of climate change, utilities, regulators, and fossil fuel companies are taking note. With the number of clean energy resolutions piling up, Duke Energy has vowed to eliminate its carbon emissions by the year 2050.

In response, Rachel Schaevitz, Chapel Hill Town Council Member, issued the following statement:

“I am proud to stand alongside my Council colleagues in unanimously passing this resolution.  It will take the kind of multifaceted collaborative support demonstrated by nonprofits like the Sierra Club and communities like Chapel Hill to make the changes necessary to address the climate crisis facing us all.  We look forward to doing this work together.”

Michael Parker, Chapel Hill Town Council Member, issued the following:

“Climate change is the existential challenge of our time. I thank the Sierra Club for bringing their petition forward and I am pleased and honored that I was able to vote for this landmark resolution.”

Jess Anderson, Chapel Hill Town Council Member, issued the following:

“We are thrilled to be moving forward with our climate action plan and our aggressive goals for renewable energy and carbon reduction that we committed to last night. We will continue to rely on our community to help us chart the path and to inspire us to act decisively and quickly in the face of the climate crisis. We will all need to move forward together, given the enormity of the task ahead, but seeing the energy and passion at the meeting last night and at the climate strike last week, as well as the youth engagement we are seeing each and every day, I have faith that we can rise to the challenge.”

Ed Harrison, member of the Orange-Chatham Group of NC Sierra Club, issued the following:

“It was a joy to witness this community’s leaders embrace the urgency of our petition and discuss the issues so knowledgeably. Sierrans join with them in their optimism that Chapel Hill will meet these goals.”