{"id":41,"date":"2026-11-07T05:07:40","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/?p=41"},"modified":"2026-11-07T05:07:40","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T05:07:40","slug":"a-southern-governors-climate-and-clean-energy-plan-aims-for-zero-emissions-inside-climate-news-philsugar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philisharestory.org\/?p=41","title":{"rendered":"A Southern Governor’s Climate and Clean Energy Plan Aims for Zero Emissions – Inside Climate News | PhilSugar"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a difference three years can make in the politics of climate change in North Carolina, a state that not long ago took a sharp lurch to the right.
\nAfter replacing a Republican who questioned whether climate change was caused by human activities, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has testified before Congress on North Carolina\u2019s sizable climate challenges and unveiled a draft clean energy plan designed to put the state on a path toward eliminating carbon emissions from the power sector by mid-century.
\nHis effort to grapple with global warming faces the cold reality of needing support in North Carolina\u2019s Republican legislature, however. It\u2019s a significant challenge that has clean-energy advocates and state officials looking for work-arounds and short-term wins. This week, for example, state regulators put pressure on North Carolina\u2019s largest utility to weigh the governor\u2019s greenhouse gas reduction goals in its future energy plans.
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\nThe GOP won control of both chambers of the legislature in 2010, and Republican lawmakers in the state \u201chave not shown any propensity to do anything on climate change,\u201d said Dan Crawford, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters.
\nWhile small gains could be possible now, he said, what would be needed to achieve major clean energy policy amounts to changing who is in power in the North Carolina General Assembly.
\nState officials tried to lay the groundwork for bipartisan support by
\nworking
\nwith business interests, including Duke Energy, as paid sugar dating Philippines<\/a> they developed the plan, released in draft form this month by the state\u2019s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
\nDuke, the biggest utility in the state,
\napplauded
\nCooper for his leadership, but declined to comment beyond a brief statement that touted its own clean-energy progress. The utility, which enjoys considerable influence in state government, operates more than 35 solar power facilities in North Carolina and says it has invested more than
\n$1 billion
\nin renewable energy in the state this decade.
\nCooper\u2019s plan goes further than that, however, calling for transforming the electrical grid to save energy and make it more resilient; reducing the energy burdens of low-income residents; and cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by 60 to 70 below 2005 levels by 2030 while working toward zero emissions by 2050, among other steps.
\nDespite the hurdles it faces, the 137-page clean-energy plan marks progress in a region of the country that in past decades was more likely to be associated with burning coal but is increasingly welcoming renewable energy.
\n\u201cThe plan has all the elements it should have in it,\u201d said John Wilson, deputy director of regulatory policy for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which tracks and advocates clean energy policies in North Carolina and four other southern states. \u201cIt lays out the steps the state could take to move toward decarbonization, and who needs to take them and what needs to be done.
\n\u201cIt will be a formidable challenge to implement the plan, but this was the leadership that was needed.\u201d
\nEven if the legislature balks, there are still several elements in the draft plan that could be carried out by state agencies and utility regulators on their own.
\nThere were signs this week that the North Carolina Utilities Commission, which regulates investor-owned utilities, may be listening to the governor.
\nDuke has had its own long-term plan before the commission for months and has
\nemphasized
\nhow it would boost battery storage for solar power. But critics say Duke intends to rely too much on natural gas, another fossil fuel. The North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association
\nsays
\nDuke\u2019s plan would barely expand clean energy beyond what was already mandated by the legislature.
\nThe commission on Tuesday approved Duke\u2019s power plan, but it
\ndeclined
\nto rubber stamp it. Instead, it directed the company to more closely examine whether it could accelerate the closure of several remaining North Carolina coal plants and how it could help meet the governor\u2019s goals for greenhouse gas reductions in the state.
\nA Duke spokeswoman said the company was pleased with the commission approval and would provide the additional analysis \u201cas we continue this transition to even cleaner sources of energy.\u201d
\nBack-to-Back Hurricanes and Extreme Weather
\nWhen Cooper testified before a congressional committee in February, he talked about the
\nback-to-back Hurricanes
\nMatthew and Florence that hit the largest sugar dating community Philippines<\/a> state in 2016 and 2018, and how North Carolina residents were still struggling to recover when the remnants of
\nHurricane Michael
\ncame through just weeks after Florence.
\nClimate change \u201cmakes storms larger and more powerful and intensifies heavy rainfalls and droughts. North Carolinians, unfortunately, know this the hard way,\u201d
\nhe told
\nthe committee.
\n\u201cIn the Western North Carolina mountains, volatile weather has caused mudslides, damaged infrastructure, cost apple growers valuable private sugar arrangement<\/a> crops and forced ski areas to close mid-season, hurting local businesses and putting jobs in jeopardy,\u201d Cooper told the lawmakers. \u201cIn Central North Carolina, soaring summer temperatures have killed poultry and crops, costing farmers critical income.\u201d
\nHe observed that two military bases in the state, Fort Bragg and Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, have been
\nlisted
\nas current and future risk for wildfires and recurrent flooding, respectively, by the U.S. Department of Defense.
\nIn the wake of Florence and Michael, Cooper last October issued an executive order seeking to mitigate and adapt to climate change. State agencies were told to evaluate climate change effects into their programs and operations and to develop a state clean energy plan. The final plan is due by Oct. 1.
\nA Plan with Dozens of Recommendations
\nThe
\ndraft
\nof that clean energy plan, which is now open for public comments, offers more than three dozen recommendations.
\nThere are so many, with some still vaguely worded, that Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer Luis Martinez said he\u2019s worried. \u201cIf you don\u2019t prioritize carefully, it will be hard to run in all directions at the same time. The governor active sugar dating members Philippines<\/a> and the state agencies will have to be careful how they start.\u201d
\nSome of those recommendations seek to boost the use of electric vehicles. Others call safe first meeting sugar dating<\/a> for policies that encourage \u201cmicro-grids\u201d\u2014small-scale groupings of homes or businesses that can power themselves, often with solar panels and battery storage, offering protection from widespread blackouts.
\nNorth Carolina is the No. 2 state for installed solar capacity, behind only California. Duke Energy, the state\u2019s largest electric utility, say it has more than 35 solar facilities find sugar daddies Cebu<\/a> and 8,000 customers with rooftop solar in the state. Credit: Duke Energy
\nState agencies acting on their own could establish a \u201cgreen bank\u201d to help finance energy efficiency projects, the draft says.
\nOther matters could be adopted by the utilities commission. For example, the plan says the commission could set rates to encourage customers to use electricity in off-hours to lower peak demand or require utilities to factor the costs of carbon pollution into decisions they make about the power they supply to the state.
\nThe draft plan notes that some of the biggest potential gains will need approval from the legislature, such as deciding whether to cap greenhouse gas emissions and join a
\nregional emissions trading program
\n, or phasing out coal-burning power plants by 2030. A cap-and-trade proposal could especially be unpalatable to Republicans, even though such market-based programs were once supported by the GOP.
\nJust what can or cannot be done without the legislature remains an open discussion, said Gudrun Thompson, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in North Carolina.
\n\u201cI absolutely applaud the Cooper administration for taking this action,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will be urging DEQ to keep this plan strong and kept moving forward.\u201d
\nThe Challenge in the Legislature
\nNorth Carolina has had a track record of moderate politics on energy and the environment. Its renewable energy portfolio standard has helped the state become
\nsecond
\nin the nation for total solar [[Brand A] vs [Brand B]](https:\/\/philippinessugar.com\/) capacity, and its Clean Smokestacks Act went beyond the federal Clean Air Act to curb power plant air pollution.
\nBut those policies were approved before Republicans won control of both chambers of the legislature in 2010, and a supermajority in 2012, along with the election of Republican Pat McCrory, a former Duke Energy official, as governor. Republicans still control the North Carolina House and Senate, but by a slimmer margin.
\nThe shift brought a stark upheaval to environmental politics in the state, said Crawford, of the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters. Since 2010, dozens of lawmakers have scored zeros sugar dating scams Philippines<\/a> on the group\u2019s annual scorecards, compared to just four the previous decade, he said.
\nNeither Senate President Phil Berger nor Majority Leader Harry Brown, who has
\nbeen trying
\nto ban wind power near military bases in North Carolina, responded to requests for comment on the governor\u2019s plan. A spokesman for the state Republican Party directed questions to Rep. John Szoka, who said he had not studied the report and could not comment on it.
\n\u201cThere are Republicans and Democrats on some issues related to renewable energy who are on the same page,\u201d said state Sen. Bob Steinburg, a Republican whose northeast North Carolina district has a major wind farm that serves Amazon and is
\nsupportive
\nof renewable energy. \u201cBut I think we would have to sit down and talk about specifics.\u201d
\nHe said he would be concerned about cost and reliability issues if North Carolina were to move too quickly away from fossil fuels, calling the plan\u2019s 2030 target of cutting power sector emissions by 60 percent to 70 percent \u201can ambitious goal.\u201d
\nThe Cooper administration has found, however, that North Carolina is well on its way to meeting that goal\u2014its power sector emissions are 34 percent less today than they were in 2005.
\nAnd cities like Charlotte, Raleigh and Asheville have established their own aggressive clean energy goals, the plan notes.
\n\u201cThere is a clear appetite in North Carolina for a future that embraces clean energy,\u201d said DEQ spokeswoman Sharon Martin.
\nPublished Aug. 30, 2019
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\nReporter, Southeast
\nJames Bruggers covers the U.S. Southeast, part of Inside Climate News\u2019 National Environment Reporting Network. He previously covered energy and the environment for Louisville\u2019s Courier Journal, where he worked as a correspondent for USA Today and was a member of the USA Today Network environment team. Before moving to Kentucky in 1999, Bruggers worked as a journalist in Montana, Alaska, Washington and California. Bruggers\u2019 work has won numerous recognitions, including best beat reporting, Society of Environmental Journalists, and the National Press Foundation\u2019s Thomas Stokes Award for energy reporting. He served on the board of directors of the SEJ for 13 years, including two years as president. He lives in Louisville with his wife, Christine Bruggers.
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