North Carolina bill would slash carbon reduction goals and saddle customers with more utility costs

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A North Carolina Senate bill proposed on Monday would undo a critical carbon pollution reduction deadline and open the door to charge customers for energy projects, even if those projects are ultimately delayed or abandoned, said clean energy advocates.

A bipartisan state law – passed only four years ago – requires North Carolina’s power sector to reduce carbon pollution 70% below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, tasking the North Carolina Utilities Commission with developing a “Carbon Plan” to meet that deadline. The Southern Environmental Law Center represents the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Sierra Club, and Vote Solar in the pending Carbon Plan proceedings.

The proposed bill would remove the 2030 deadline entirely, allowing state monopoly utility Duke Energy to drag its feet on climate action at a time when North Carolinians already suffer the consequences of heat-trapping pollution.

The bill would also allow Duke to increase customer rates, without sufficient oversight by the utilities commission, for projects that are still under construction. This kind of advanced cost recovery for utilities has led to massive bill increases in other states, with customers forced to pay for cost overruns, project delays, and cancellations. In South Carolina, for example, customers were left on the hook and are still paying for a $9 billion nuclear plant that was canceled mid-construction, providing no benefit to customers.

David Neal, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said, “This bill risks benefiting Duke Energy’s shareholders at the expense of its customers. North Carolina families deserve better than having their energy bills raised for big power plants without customer protections and without proper scrutiny from the utilities commission. And the last thing we need is to force customers of the monopoly utility to finance more carbon polluting projects when we are already suffering from climate-fueled disasters like Hurricane Helene.”