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...
House Bill 951 would retire coal plants, increase natural gas, and mandate increases in renewable capacity, but high costs and erosion of N.C. Utilities Commission authorities unite stakeholders in opposition. It is a rarity for large, consequential, far-reaching legislative reforms to engender a consensus across a spectrum of stakeholders, but the energy reform of House...
In a late-night legislative session, the N.C. House passed an energy bill early Thursday morning, July 15, that prescribes retirement for certain coal-fired plants, increases sourcing from renewables, and significantly alters the oversight authority of the N.C. Utilities Commission. Though developed over the past 18 months with a select group of stakeholders, changes to major...
North Carolina remains vulnerable to fuel shortages because it’s too reliant on a pair of pipelines for gas and energy, industry leaders and experts told lawmakers. The point is made even more crucial because of a recent rise in both the number and sophistication of cyberattacks, such as the one that recently crippled the Colonial...
The Cooper administration forced those billions in additional costs, and only afterwards did it agree to settlement language that forced the burden of those billions on electricity customers.
Meredith Cooper, Gov. Roy Cooper’s sister-in-law, has been listed since April as manager of the company that owns the Cooper family’s Nash County solar farm property. That’s when Meredith filed an annual report with the N.C. Secretary of State. Meredith Cooper’s husband is Pell Cooper, a District Court judge. Pell and Roy Cooper are brothers....
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...
Opponents of an industrial-scale solar utility in Beaufort County rejoiced earlier this month when a state regulatory agency rejected the developer’s application to revise plans for the facility. But the David versus Goliath celebration was short-lived. Wilkinson Solar Plant appealed the split decision by a three-member panel of the N.C. Utilities Commission to the full...
RALEIGH — The Public Staff of a state government agency has failed its duty by not representing N.C. electricity customers’ interests, a new John Locke Foundation Spotlight concludes.
