Energy
Environment
Exploring market-based solutions to the most pressing environmental issues facing North Carolina.
Energy
WRAL Nixes ‘Renewable Energy Drives Higher Power Bills’ Headline
Raleigh news station WRAL has a consumer reports feature aimed at helping North Carolinians save money and be better consumers. It’s called “5 On Your Side.” On April 11, WRAL’s…
Research Brief
Energy
Model Bill To Align Power Company Incentives with Customers’ Needs
Under current law, a power utility in North Carolina can expect full cost recovery and profits on building new power plants, regardless of their reliability. This structure incentivizes overbuilding the…
Energy
Warning of Solar Power Loss During Eclipse Forgets It Happens Every Night, All Night
Duke Energy, General Assembly, Utilities Commission, capacity factor, output factor, dispatchable, energy, natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, offshore wind, onshore wind, hydro, hydroelectricity, emissions, CO2, consumers, electric power, electricity,…
Research Brief
Energy
Rising Power Bills Stem from Bad Policy Choices and Incentives
Power bills are going up quickly in North Carolina. The problem is multifaceted, starting with the state’s Carbon Plan to close down working coal plants and dictate how to replace…
Energy
Biden’s EV Dictates Face Two Big Problems: Buyers and Sellers
Gov. Roy Cooper wants 50 percent of new car sales in North Carolina to be electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030, and amid his Covid-fueled mania of releasing executive orders, he had…
Research Brief
Energy
Three Dead Whales in Three Days
From Corolla, North Carolina, to Virginia Beach, Virginia, three dead whales washed ashore in three days in early March. Investigations and studies from environmentalists, whale conservationists, and concerned citizens argued…
Agriculture
The Heavy Toll of Government Environmental Policies on American Farmers
A new report from the Buckeye Institute finds that environmental policies harm farm workers. In the push for environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality, governments around the world have implemented various…
Energy
Bombshell: Electricity Customers and Taxpayers Are the Same People
My recent piece in Washington Examiner looks at the issue of massive subsidization of certain energy sources and then pretending they’re not expensive. It also criticizes the central planning behind…
Research Brief
Agriculture
To Save North Carolina’s Endangered Farmland, Stop Overbuilding Solar Facilities
A recent report placed North Carolina second in the nation for threatened farmland from residential development. Meanwhile, the amount of new solar facilities sought by Duke Energy could endanger as…
Research Brief
Energy
Report Finds Vast Disparity Between Computer Models’ Predictions of Climate Change and Actual Observations
Pres. Joe Biden, Gov. Roy Cooper, and other leaders and bureaucrats would force wrenching changes to how people power their homes, drive, eat, and more in order to stave off…
Research Brief
Budget, Taxation & Economy
How a Budget Provision Keeps the Cooper Administration from Creating a Tax out of Thin Air
The Biden administration seeks to fund extreme environmentalist initiatives at the state level, including cap and trade programs. Such programs amount to “an energy-rationing scheme that acts as an energy…
Energy
Duke’s Worrisome Text
Late afternoon on Thursday, January 4, customers of Duke Energy received a text message alerting them to expected high energy demand the next day and requesting they “take steps to…