NC's Green New Deal and the major electric rate increases now facing NC citizens | Eastern NC Now

The chickens are coming home to roost from NC's Green New Deal.  As was warned about at the time, moving to shut down reliable and cheap generation of electricity by coal and replacing it with expensive and intermittent generation by wind and solar guaranteed rate increases to consumers.

This has been the experience of other countries and their subdivisions that have gone hog wild on wind and solar.  Germany went that route in Merkel's Energiewende (Energy Transition) and got the highest residential electric rates in the world as a result.  The UK went that way with Labour;s Net Zero CO2 campaign, called by the country's leading opposition figure Nigel Farage and his Reform Party "Net Stupid", and got not only high residential electric rates but also the world's highest industrial electric rates.  The story is the same other places.  It was all very predictable.

Wind and solar are also driving up costs here in the US.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/05/what_is_really_driving_electricity_in_affordability.html

Roy Cooper proposed a similar plan for North Carolina.  Consumer groups warned of its economic consequences but liberal ideologue Cooper did not care.  "Woke" energy monopoly Duke Energy pushed it because they wanted to boost their ESG score with the left.  Duke has quietly admitted it would raise electric rates but was more interested in burnishing its ESG credentials.

How this monstrosity passed through the legislature is a cautionary tale:

https://www.beaufortcountynow.com/post/48970/ncs-green-new-deal-the-anatomy-of-a-betrayal.html

Unfortunately for North Carolina ratepayers, the wokesters at Duke got the RINO legislative leadership, primarily Senate boss Phil Berger, but also House Speaker Tim Moore on board.  Pay for play was likely involved, but the RINOs pushed it through the legislature and into law.  The vehicle was a total rewrite of HB951 in the Senate.

Now it is the average Joe who is paying the price.  Duke Energy has already raised rates to pay for wind and solar and is now imposing a new 14% increase.  Because cities that have electric utilities buy their power wholesale from Duke, this is also being passed on to electric customers of Washington, Belhaven, and Greenville.

Leftwing climate alarmist ideology, promoted originally by Roy Cooper and woke Duke Energy, but facilitated by RINOs Phil Berger and Tim Moore is hitting North Carolinians hard in the pocketbook.

Meanwhile, a new study by a German medical school finds that living near wind turbines can be very damaging to heart health of humans.

https://indepnews.org/en/infrasound-from-wind-turbines-makes-people-ill-new-mainz-study-shows-increased-risk-of-heart-damage/