A bill speeding through North Carolina’s Legislature would drop a short-term climate target for the state’s largest utility.
S.B. 261 would nix a goal set for North Carolina’s investor-owned utilities — primarily Duke Energy — to cut emissions 70 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The measure also would make it easier for utilities to charge ratepayers for projects under construction before they start providing power.
Sponsored by Republican state Sen. Paul Newton, the Senate majority leader and a retired Duke Energy executive, the bill was filed last Monday and passed the Senate on Thursday — a remarkably fast pace for legislation.
The bill cleared the Senate on a 31-12 vote, with three Democrats crossing the aisle to give it enough support in the upper chamber to overcome a potential veto by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. The bill now awaits action in the House, where Republicans are one vote shy of a supermajority.
