Legislative Watch: Dirty Energy, Ugly Billboards Back Again

Some of the ugliest policy proposals around came back for another round of stinking up the General Assembly’s policy debate atmosphere last week. They were this year’s incarnations of bills to stop development of renewable electricity projects, and to gut local restrictions on the proliferation of ugly, intrusive billboards.

House Bill 745 would freeze the state’s requirement for the percentage of renewable energy to be included in the electric generation mix at its current level, instead of allowing it to increase over time as provided for in current law. Proponents of maintaining reliance on fossil fuels for power argue that the renewable energy requirement increases costs for consumers. The NC Sustainable Energy Association, however, says that electric customers have already saved $162 million due to the current law, which has resulted in $2.6 billion in investments in renewable energy and 26,000 new jobs in North Carolina. HB 745 is similar to bills that have been defeated during the past two legislative sessions.

Also last week, two proposals to strip local governments of their ability to control where billboards are placed in their communities were heard in NC House committees. These bills are just the latest examples of legislative proposals to increase billboard dominance of North Carolina roadsides at the behest of the billboard industry.

While those bad ideas were primarily sponsored by Republican legislators, we shouldn’t forget that conservation is not supposed to be a partisan issue. Proving that again last week were three NC House Republicans who were the lead sponsors of legislation to streamline the permitting of new wind energy projects in North Carolina. They were joined by 18 cosponsors from both parties in putting forward House Bill 574, titled “Wind Energy/Consistency with Military.” Unlike similarly-titled bills previously filed, however, HB 574 would work to improve the process for these projects, not make it more difficult for wind projects to win approval.

Up next, meet NCLCV’s 2017 Catalyst Award honorees for this year’s Green Tie >>