Public policy attention this week will focus on the President’s message in his State of the Union address; plus more news, this week in CIB:

Washington Watch: State of the Climate?

Climate change action advocates are pondering the question of what President Obama will announce on that topic in tomorrow (Tuesday) evening’s 9 p.m. State of the Union address.

Speculation has been fueled in part by the release last week of a high-profile report on options for taking further action on this issue without the need for Congressional approval. The report came from a group of clean energy experts, business leaders, and former government officials, led by former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, and including Obama’s former “climate czar” Heather Zichal. It includes about 200 recommendations for executive branch action on clean energy standards that can be taken in support of Obama’s stated climate plan goals. More here.

In last year’s SOTU, Obama included a renewed commitment to climate change action, and he later announced his plan for steps which could be taken on his existing authority, many of which are now in progress. Observers noted at the time that he clearly recognized that time was running short for him to move if he still considered it a priority to leave a legacy of coordinated action on the issue.

As part of the political/policy maneuvering taking place during the run-up period to this year’s address, climate action advocates are calling attention to the elements of that plan, and pledging support for aggressive implementation.

We will know what the president has to say on climate change action this year by about 10 p.m. tomorrow.

Legislative Watch: Big Brother Knows Best

Stormwater management? No. Stream buffers? Uh-uh. Tree conservation? Forget it.

Coming soon to a city or town near you…in fact, to yours…is the next step by Big Brother in the N.C. General Assembly to slash environmental protections. This time, they intend to strip your local governments of the ability to protect you and your environment.

The same folks who brought us state laws declaring that state environmental protections can never be any stronger than the required federal minimums now want to dumb down all city and town ordinances to the same idiot level. This proposal was raised in last year’s long legislative session, but was turned into a study committee in response to heated opposition from local governments.

Now, proponents of continuing to eliminate environmental protections at all levels are gearing up to bring it back, in the name (of course) of creating a more “business friendly” atmosphere. Never mind that real businesses don’t seem to be clamoring for it. Local governments–long viewed as the level of government most closely in touch with what citizens actually want–fiercely oppose more new shackles on their authority to respond to the different physical conditions and local preferences in their communities.

More information on the debate can be found here.

Administrative Watch: Duke Wants to Cut Payments for Rooftop Solar

Duke Energy announced last week that it will ask state regulators to cut the price it is required to pay small solar energy producers for the electricity their systems put back into the power grid. Solar energy advocates view this proposal with alarm, saying that it will undercut the rising growth in “rooftop solar” installations–growth that is poised to change the landscape of electricity generation overall.

Under a process known as “net metering”, electric customers who have their own small solar electric (photovoltaic) systems are paid by the utility for the electricity they feed back into the power lines when those systems are operating. The rate paid for that electricity is one of the keys to whether it’s worthwhile for customers (business, residential, and industrial) to invest in these systems. At present, Duke is required to pay these small generators the same rate per kilowatt hour that it charges those customers for the electricity they buy from Duke.

That rate was set as an incentive for customers to make the investment in photovoltaic systems to connect to grid and reduce their net demand. However, Duke now says it wants to drop the rate it pays for that power down to what it claims as its overall costs of generating electricity. In this case, under Duke’s proposal the rate it pays for this small solar would be approximately cut in half–from 11 cents per kilowatt-hour to 5 to 7 cents.

The energy produced by these rooftop solar systems in North Carolina has doubled in the past two years. Current trends suggest to many observers that this boom is just the beginning a major shift. They believe that Duke is trying to head off that growth, and the changes it would make in the electricity-producing system. For more details of this story, see here.

Some analysts go further to point out that Duke’s bid is in keeping with a nationwide push-back by utilities attempting to undercut the growth in solar power that may shake their customer base and profit structure. They note the involvement of the national anti-environmental organization ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) in efforts opposing net metering. As previously noted in CIB, ALEC is increasingly dominated by the extreme fringes of politicized industry actors, including the oil and coal interests represented by major political dark money sources like the Koch Brothers.

We can expect this debate to play out this year in front of the N.C. Utilities Commission–and potentially the state legislature as well.

Education & Resources: Documenting the Clean Energy Boom

The N.C. Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA) last week released the 2013 North Carolina Clean Energy Industry Census, its latest annual report quantifying the industry’s rapid growth and contribution to the state’s economy. The census is based on responses from 570 clean energy firms operating within the state, about 52% of the estimated 1,100 firms now doing so.

According to the 2013 Census, the clean energy industry in North Carolina currently employees more than 18,000 people (FTEs), up over 20% from 2013, and reports about $3.6 billion in gross revenues.

NCSEA Executive Director Ivan Urlaub commented that “growth like this doesn’t happen by accident or chance.” He said that it relies on the commitment and confidence of entrepreneurs, investors and workers in the field, which requires “good clean energy policy.” (NCSEA news release, 1/22/14.)

The detailed 2013 Census can be found here.

That’s our report for this week.