Dive Summary:
- Representative Mike Hager, a North Carolina Republican majority leader, believes he has the votes to stop the state's green-energy law that requires electric utilities to derive rising amounts of their retail sales form renewable sources.
- Hager, a former engineer at Duke Energy, views the mandate as the government unfairly altering the marketplace; the law requires utilities to have three percent their power sales from renewable sources this year and rising to 12.5 percent by 2021.
- Despite Hager's confidence that he can block the law, people on the other side of the issue don't sense much momentum among North Carolina regulators to repeal the mandate, which has been in place in one form or another since 2007.
From the article:
The law says electric utilities have to derive rising amounts of their retail sales from solar, wind or biomass sources, beginning at 3 percent this year and ending at 12.5 percent by 2021. Separate, smaller targets for solar energy took effect in 2010.
Senate Bill 3, as the law is commonly known, is widely credited with creating markets for renewable energy – especially solar power – that didn’t exist in North Carolina before it was adopted. Advocates say it has produced thousands of jobs despite a slumping economy. ...
