Clean Energy Plan

By favoring wind and solar generation with battery storage to the exclusion of viable, dependable sources, Gov. Cooper's "Clean Energy Plan" would be extremely expensive, costing consumers an average of $411 per year more for electricity. It would cost $123.86 per metric ton of CO2 emissions reduced and take up more land than the state's three largest counties combined. Alternatives provided for Locke by energy researcher Jordan McGillis showed that emissions reductions could be achieved via more natural gas or nuclear facilities at much less expense to consumers and with a miniscule environmental footprint.

Cooper's "Clean Energy Plan" has a very definite preference for extremely expensive, intermittent, and unreliable electricity resources, to the exclusion of viable, dependable resources. A report for Locke by energy researcher Jordan McGillis showed that Duke Energy's scenario most closely aligned with Cooper's plan would level enormous costs to consumers. Such reliance on wind and solar generation and battery storage carries many hidden and unconsidered environmental, supply-chain, ecological, and land-use costs.

On August 27, 2021, Jon Sanders submitted public comments to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) regarding the BOEM's Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Kitty Hawk Offshore Wind Project offshore North Carolina.

Counter to popular belief, North Carolina's greenhouse emissions have been falling all century — dramatically. The United States leads the world in reducing CO2 emissions. When people don't know these things, they may be more inclined to accept massive government interventions like Gov. Cooper's "Clean Power Plan," which would leave them materially worse off for no reason.

With zero emissions, unrivaled reliability, and lowest costs, existing nuclear power checks all the boxes for what different people want from electricity. Losing nuclear power has been shown to increase prices, cause grid instability, and even endanger lives. While Gov. Cooper's "Clean Power Plan" seeks "nuclear generation replacement," Pres. Biden recently signaled support for keeping nuclear plants operating.

North Carolinians should know that many of the energy policies Gov. Roy Cooper has advocated for here in North Carolina follow the mistakes identified as the cause of California's blackouts. As in California, these missteps will leave North Carolina unprepared for our energy future and will ultimately lead to blackouts here. North Carolina should not repeat California’s mistakes.

PEVs would increase electricity use and actually exacerbate global warming to the extent GHGs are the cause. Cooper should instead focus on reducing the carbon intensity of our electricity grid first by pushing for nuclear power.

Solar power requires the use of fossil fuels. Solar requires fossil fuel–fired combustion turbines to provide 79% of the load. To the extent manmade GHGs are impacting global warming, then, solar power cannot compete with nuclear power.

Nuclear energy is a clean (zero-emissions), cheap, and abundant energy source. But Gov. Cooper's "Clean Energy Plan" requires a straightforward, categorical rejection of nuclear power.

The ideology and known preferences of the ones providing technical support to Gov. Cooper's "Clean Energy Plan" sadly means we can expect higher energy prices, the loss of productive power plants, and California-style rolling blackouts.