The North Carolina General Assembly’s vote to override Governor Stein’s veto of Senate Bill 266 is a major setback for North Carolina households, clean energy progress and climate leadership. Despite warnings from economists, energy experts and everyday residents, the General Assembly chose to make law a bill that will raise customer energy costs and shift billions in risk and cost from utilities and larger commercial and industrial users onto families and small businesses — at a time when energy bills are already straining household budgets.
And there’s no mistaking where the blame for this new law and its damaging effects lies: squarely on the shoulders of the powerful utility, Duke Energy, that pushed it and the legislators who caved to Duke’s demands. As quoted in a WRAL story when the veto override vote passed both chambers, I summed it up by saying, “When your power bill goes up next year, remember this vote and the legislators who shifted risk and cost onto households.”
There’s no way around it. Senate Bill 266, which will now become law, has been a flawed approach from the start. It’s bad for customers and bad for the environment.
A $23 billion burden on households
Two independent studies — one from Duke University’s Nicholas Institute and one from NC State University — confirm what should have been obvious from the start: SB 266 is an expensive mistake. As it becomes law, North Carolinians can expect to pay $23 billion more on their electricity bills through 2050. That’s because the bill lets utilities pass fuel cost volatility directly onto customers, with no risk to utility shareholders.
Simply put, as quoted in this WRAL story before the bill passed, “[The Nicholas Institute] study reaffirms the cost risks to North Carolina households from passing a bill that will expose them to billions of dollars in additional fuel costs — expenses which are risk-free to the utilities and passed directly on to customer bills.”
The bill also shifts 19% more of the fuel cost burden onto residential customers, according to an EQ Research analysis, effectively giving large commercial and industrial users a break at everyone else’s expense.
Forcing customers to pay upfront for power plants that may never get built
SB 266 doesn’t just increase bills, it opens the door for utilities to charge customers upfront for the cost of new fossil fuel power plants, even before they’re completed or approved. This model, known as “construction work in progress” or CWIP, has been rejected by ratepayers across the political spectrum. A poll by Conservatives for Clean Energy found that 85% of North Carolinians oppose it.
Yet lawmakers voted to enshrine this unpopular and unfair model into law, giving utilities a direct draw on customer bills for projects before they deliver a single kilowatt-hour of electricity.
Killing jobs and clean energy investment
SB 266 may also slam the brakes on North Carolina’s clean energy economy. A study released by BW Research estimates that the bill will lead to the loss of 50,700 job opportunities and $47.2 billion in potential investments, because it makes it harder for renewable energy projects to connect to the grid.
That’s not just bad for the climate, it’s a direct hit to North Carolina’s competitiveness and workforce. We’re turning away good-paying jobs and affordable, clean energy at a time when other states are racing forward. And clean energy, especially solar, is the most affordable and rapidly scalable form of energy we can produce. To sideline solar is a huge mistake — a mistake for which Duke Energy and legislators have left customers to pay.
Repealing bipartisan climate goals
In a final blow, SB 266 repeals North Carolina’s 2030 climate pollution reduction target, a benchmark that was adopted just a few years ago with broad bipartisan support. That goal helped provide certainty for clean energy developers, communities, and businesses that the state was serious about a low-carbon future.
With this vote, that future is in question.
What comes next
At EDF, we’ll continue to fight for policies that protect North Carolina families, ensure utility accountability, and accelerate the transition to clean, affordable energy. But we can’t do it alone.
Thank Governor Stein for vetoing the bill. Ask your legislators why they voted to pass more costs onto households and block job-creating clean energy. Hold them accountable. Because when your power bill rises in the months and years ahead, it won’t be a mystery as to why. It will be because of this vote.