Carolina Rebound
Budget, Taxation, and the Economy Introduction North Carolina’s strong fiscal position at the start of the COVID-19 crisis was a combination of planning and providence. Since 2011, the Republican-led General…
Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act
Energy
High Energy Bills Cost More Than Dollars
North Carolina had held the title “second in solar” for a few years now, but that title does not come cheap. And as JLF’s Jon Sanders writes in his latest…
Research Brief
Energy
Electricity policy in the post-COVID economy
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 to pay…
Energy
Why The Price Of Solar Is Falling, But Your Power Bill Is Not
The cost of solar power has been falling, yet you couldn’t tell by looking at your power bill. That’s what JLF’s Jon Sanders explained in his December 17th research brief…
Research Brief
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Why Aren’t We Benefitting From Falling Costs of Solar?
It’s a feature in reporting about solar energy to discuss how dramatically its costs have declined. That tends to be misleading because solar is a completely unreliable resource on its…
Energy
How to make consumers overpay for electricity by billions of dollars
North Carolinians are really stuck because we have the highest rates in the Southeast for QFs, the longest contracts in the Southeast for QFs, fixed rates, and 60 percent of…
Energy
Energy Bills Could Go Down As Government Mandate Relaxes
This week, JLF’s Jon Sanders wrote a research brief on the pending changes to the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA). According to Sanders: It’s is the law…
Energy
PURPA rules change could help electricity consumers
In the ensuing decades, deregulation, open access, a multitude of state and federal incentives for solar and wind power, and the onset of fracking have dramatically changed the energy scene…
Research Brief
Budget, Taxation & Economy
PURPA Rules Change Could Help Electricity Consumers
A pending major federal rule change could create a positive change for people’s electricity bills. That could be good news, especially for North Carolinians. This fall, the Federal Energy Regulatory…
Energy
Federal law forces consumers to pay billions more than they need for solar and wind power
Even as solar advocates boasted that solar's costs are plummeting, North Carolina's PURPA terms were locking state ratepayers into a situation where they're forced to buy all solar energy produced…
Energy
Favor for PURPA reform from the Left
Without reform, guess where things are particularly bad? North Carolina, where ratepayers face overpaying for electricity by roughly $1.25 billion.
Energy
NC ratepayers could pay the steep price of Cooper’s cronyism
NC ratepayers were faced with overpaying for electricity by more than a billion dollars. A new law was going to save them about $850 million on the cost of future…