News
NC Lawmakers probe ‘Carbon Plan’ implementation
n a new analysis, experts ‘graded the grid’ and found wind and solar to be the worst energy generation options.
News
Duke Energy to build natural gas power plant as green energy methods fall short
Duke Energy has revealed plans to build a new natural gas power plant in Catawba County beginning in 2026, sticking to a reliable fossil fuel source as power demand grows and green energy options fall short.
Video
Locke’s Jordan Roberts supports bill addressing decommissioning of solar projects
Jordan Roberts, John Locke Foundation director of government affairs, speaks in favor of Senate Bill 669, Solar Decommissioning Requirements. Roberts offered these comments during the April 18, 2023, meeting of the Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee.
Opinion
Defacing art will not solve climate change
A recent spate of flashy environmental “protests” has garnered international media coverage. These protests have included throwing mashed potatoes and soup at famous paintings and vegan activists dumping milk onto grocery store floors. Despite the support these activists have received, including from prominent media sources and financial support from oil tycoon families, the efficacy of these protests is questionable at best. These activists believe that any media...
News
Appeals Court won’t force N.C. regulators to permit new solar plant
The N.C. Court of Appeals has affirmed state regulators’ ruling against a proposed solar energy plant for North Carolina. Appellate judges accepted regulators’ argument that the plant would have forced overly costly upgrades to the state’s electric grid. “North Carolina has made significant strides in generating and employing alternatives to carbon-emitting fuels,” wrote Judge Lucy...
Opinion
Are counties taking the lead in solar plant pushback?
North Carolina’s installed solar power is second only to California’s. Some may cringe at the thought of following California’s energy policy, given the rolling blackouts imposed there. Solar power seemed like an attractive option in 2007, when the Democrat-controlled legislature handed Democratic Gov. Mike Easley a bill that provided sweeping incentives to encourage solar power...
Opinion
Waste problems from wind and solar are why we need proper decommissioning
Bloomberg Energy this month issued an attention-grabbing report on a serious waste problem with wind turbines: Retired turbine blades are clogging up landfills. This problem is only going to get worse, as Bloomberg reports, because right now the blades at the end of their lifespan are from wind power built more than a decade ago....
News
Solar panel cleanup regs scrapped in Senate bill
Just days after warning of the need to regulate solar panel disposal, Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, scrapped his bill for a relaxed version. Facing opposition from solar-friendly senators and the renewable energy lobby, Newton gave regulators until Jan. 1, 2022, to study environmental impacts and adopt final rules. The original bill set a September deadline...
News
Bill requiring safe disposal of spent solar panels gets Senate committee hearing
If all the solar panels from industrial-scale electric plants in North Carolina were laid end to end, they would stretch from Raleigh to San Francisco and back nearly four times. Yet the state has no plan to handle the 475,000 tons of panels once they wear out and become waste. Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, a...
News
Solar energy output ratings misleading if not deceptive, critics say
In its application to build a solar facility on Gov. Roy Cooper’s Nash County property, Durham-based Strata Solar said its generating capacity would be about 5 megawatts. Enough energy to power continuously about 3,750 homes. But the plant won’t generate 5 MW of energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Much of the time...
News
Policymakers demand answers about GenX-like compounds in solar panels
As state and federal agencies investigate GenX in groundwater, Carolina Journal has learned GenX and its family of unregulated emerging contaminants are present in some of the solar panels increasingly dotting North Carolina’s landscape. GenX chemicals are classified as perfluorinated alkylated substances, commonly called PFAS. Responding to a CJ query, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency...
News
Governor’s brother manages businesses, in possible violation of judicial code
District Court Judge Pell Cooper, Gov. Roy Cooper’s brother, manages three businesses — a potential violation of state judicial rules designed to prevent conflicts of interest by judges. In 2009, state officials forced another district court judge who refused to leave two corporate boards to resign from the bench. [See editor’s note at end of...
