Legislation reversing North Carolina’s progress on climate action—and giving away public dollars to pad Duke Energy’s profits—has passed the NC Senate. It may stall in the NC House.
As has become standard procedure for the NC Senate leadership, the dirty Duke giveaway bill SB 261 was unveiled without warning by its cadre of supporters and then fast-tracked through a rubber stamp by the Senate majority the same week. The so-called “Energy Affordability and Security Act” has Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger as its primary sponsor. Berger and his chief allies introduced the bill on March 10; it passed two committees on March 11; and passed the full Senate on second reading March 12 and third/final reading March 13. So much for public debate and transparency in today’s NC Senate.
Senate Bill 261: Dirty Duke Giveaway Bill
SB 261 “rolls back cheaper, more reliable clean energy goals in favor of dirty coal and fossil gas, while allowing Duke to line its pockets on the backs of ratepayers. The legislature is also proposing to let Duke start charging customers for new, expensive methane gas and nuclear plants while they are under construction, forcing ratepayers to foot the bill for delays and cost overruns years before they ever see service,” said Dan Crawford, NCLCV’s Director of Governmental Relations. “The cost of solar and wind power is already 50% cheaper than power from coal and gas. In fact, during North Carolina’s winter storms in 2022, gas failed while solar and wind kept working. And while solar farms often take less than a year to build, gas plants take up to seven years and cost millions more to build and operate, leaving ratepayers on the hook for years to come. North Carolinians want to make the transition to cheap, clean, reliable energy, and this bill takes us in the opposite direction, while simultaneously enriching Duke Energy’s investors.”
The NC Justice Center also warned that SB 261 has the potential to make customers pay up front for expensive and risky energy projects. “When South Carolina had a similar policy in place 10 years ago, ratepayers paid billions of dollars to fund the construction of a nuclear power plant that never produced a single unit of power,” said Claire Williamson, the Justice Center’s senior energy policy advocate. “What other industry requires customers to pay for a service without any guarantee of receiving it?”
Massive Risks for Ratepayers
Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe) sought more time to study the bill, also warning of the consequences of shifting massive risks from Duke stockholders to public ratepayers. Mayfield told the Senate that she didn’t want North Carolina to end up in the same situation as Georgia did when nuclear plant Vogtl ran $17 billion over budget. Georgia had passed a similar law in 2009 that allowed Georgia Power to recover costs on the plants’ two nuclear units during construction.
David Neal, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), said of SB 261, “This bill risks benefiting Duke Energy’s shareholders at the expense of its customers. North Carolina families deserve better than having their energy bills raised for big power plants without customer protections and without proper scrutiny from the utilities commission. And the last thing we need is to force customers of the monopoly utility to finance more carbon polluting projects when we are already suffering from climate-fueled disasters like Hurricane Helene.”
While the legislation now moves to the NC House, legislative observers project that it will receive more extended scrutiny there. We are keeping a close eye on SB 261, and we will let you know if/when it moves.
Find Us in The News
Not only are we working at the legislature to influence our elected officials, but we reach out to media outlets to make sure they include the environmental impacts of these elected officials’ decisions. Such is the case with SB 261. You can find us featured in Axios, Inside Climate News, and Yahoo News/NC Newsline.
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