GOP legislature passes NC Ratepayer Protection Act on electric rates | Eastern NC Now

Electric rates in NC started heading up with the passage of NC's Green New Deal, HB951, whi;h promoted replaced cheap reliable coal power with expensive intermittent weather-dependent wind and solar.  The advent of data centers pushed that trend even faster.

Legislation making its way through the NC legislature, the NC Ratepayer Protection Act is intended to put the brakes on electric rate increases.  It had already passed the Senate, and the House followed at the end of last week.  Now the two chambers with have to iron out differences between the two versions, and hope liberal Governor Stein does not veto it.  Most Democrat legislators voted against the bill.

The bill puts restrictions on contracts between utility companies and data centers to avoid pushing up tates for consumers, restricts local governments giving incentives for data centers to open locally, and requires keeping open cheap and reliable coal plants to make electricity until cheap and reliable nuclear plants are open to replace them, instead of moving to expensive and unreliable wind and solar.

https://www.carolinajournal.com/nc-house-passes-ratepayer-protection-act/