Have you ever wondered what is causing your electric bill to go up?

Many North Carolinians currently believe our State’s growing use of energy savings solutions and renewable energy are the major cause of their rising electric bills due to inaccurate media stories or other sources.  Through our research into publicly available documents at the NC Utilities Commission, NCSEA has found that since 2000, the average residential customer’s electric bill has steadily risen to pay for the rising cost of coal fuel and new coal and natural gas power plants – not new renewable energy and energy saving solutions.

Legislators returned to Raleigh last week for a second special session, which made a handful of fixes to earlier legislation and approved a controversial constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage and civil unions that will appear on the primary ballot in May. Although it appeared each day on the House calendar, no action was taken on Senate Bill 709, the "Energy Jobs Act," which legislators approved earlier this summer, but the Governor vetoed at the end of June. (This bill includes offshore oil drilling, natural gas "fracking," and a major restructuring of our state's Energy Policy Council - i.e. a promotion of fossil fuel development both on and offshore in NC and de-emphasizes clean energy development as a goal of state policy.) The Senate has already voted to override the Governor's veto of SB709, so it's awaiting action by the House, which currently does not have the needed 72 votes to override the veto.

Amidst a week of news reports about Duke Energy’s lack of need for new solar capacity to comply with state solar requirements, Progress Energy Carolinas (PEC) has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for additional solar photovoltaic (PV) resources....

Last week, the NC Utilities Commission conducted hearings on Duke Energy's progress toward complying with our state's Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS) law - and specifically the solar set aside. Attendees, including NCSEA's staff, were stunned by their testimony. And, in a second blow to NC's clean energy industry and consumers this week, our utilities finally convinced legislative leadership to not take up the Solar Jobs Bill (HB495/SB473) and the Energy Independence & Job Creation Bill (SB694). These much-needed bills would have retained jobs, created up to 8,300 new jobs across North Carolina by 2015, and allowed a reasonable amount of market competition.

Exelon Energy is a major generation company, and one that is  heavily invested in nuclear.  Over 93% of their 31,000 megawatt fleet is nuclear fueled, making Exelon the owner of Americas largest nuclear generation portfolio and the third largest nuclear fleet in the world.  However, the big news out of Exelon this past week was not a new nuclear proposal, but instead a major acquisition of renewable energy assets.