energy policy

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.

Prior to becoming governor, AG Roy Cooper spoke strongly against consumers being made to pay coal ash cleanup costs, but under his governorship and two settlement agreements later, consumers appear to be on the hook for almost 90 percent of the $9 billion cleanup costs.

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.

Energy poverty is a serious issue. Research shows that higher energy prices cost lives. The U.S. Energy Information Agency showed in 2018 that one in three families struggled…

This week Bloomberg Energy issued an attention-grabbing report on a serious waste problem with wind turbines: retired turbine blades are clogging up landfills. This problem is only going…

Several questions surround the coal-ash cleanup settlement agreement between Gov. Roy Cooper’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), several “Community Groups,” Duke Energy, and not electricity consumers. The agreement…

Prior to April 2019, Duke Energy had agreed with the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to close and excavate all but nine of its 31 coal-ash basins. DEQ had…