Federal and state measures could deliver a double whammy to NC’s clean energy boom | Opinion
.JPG "Toyota is building its first electric car battery manufacturing plant in Randolph County, about 20 miles southeast of Greensboro. North Carolina has led the nation in clean energy investment since the Inflation Reduction Act became law in 2022.")
The record heatwave that hammered much of the U.S. may not have been directly caused by climate change, but it sure made people think about it.
It should also make people think about how expanding the use of wind and solar power could help stave off a blistering future.
Unfortunately, North Carolina’s remarkable progress in clean energy may be undercut by Congress and its own legislature. If so, the results will be lost jobs, higher utility costs and more greenhouse gasses spewing into the atmosphere.
The hardest hit is likely to come from Washington, D.C.. House Republicans are seeking to offset the huge cost of tax cuts in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” by abruptly ending clean energy tax incentives that were greatly expanded by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The IRA, which despite its name was largely a bill to address climate change, brought a windfall of investments in clean energy technology. North Carolina has been the biggest beneficiary, landing $21.5 billion in announced clean energy projects since Biden signed the IRA into law in 2022..
Ending the tax credits will diminish some North Carolina clean energy projects involving electric vehicles, battery storage and solar and wind power and will likely cost the state future projects.
“Under the the House proposal, you’re essentially pulling the rug out from under investors who have made really significant investments in the state,” said Matt Abele, executive director of the NC Sustainable Energy Association. “Broadly speaking, it’s not in the best interest of the country to completely reverse tax policy within just a two- or three-year period.”
The Senate may move the end of the tax credits beyond the December cutoff proposed by the House version.
“The clean energy industry wants to see a glide path that is a slow phase out so it doesn’t lead to a cliff, where you see a huge boom in project development in the next six months prior to the end of those credits and, once they end, a major slowdown,” Abele said.
Gov. Josh Stein says that slowdown would have a broad impact on the state economy and utility customers.
In a letter to key senators, including North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, Stein wrote, “Repealing these credits would threaten more than 20,000 jobs in North Carolina, put billions of dollars of investment at risk, and cause a significant increase in electricity prices — more than 13 percent for households and more than 20 percent for businesses across our state.”
The second blow to clean energy is coming from a bill passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. Senate Bill 266 removes a 2030 deadline for public utilities to reduce carbon-emissions and allows Duke Energy to charge rate-payers for new power plants before they come online. The changes weaken pressure on Duke Energy to expand its use of solar and wind energy. The bill is currently on the governor’s desk.
Dan Crawford, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, blasted the bill, saying in a statement that, “North Carolinians want to make the transition to cheap, clean, reliable energy, and this bill takes us in the opposite direction, while simultaneously enriching Duke Energy’s investors.”
Amid the heat of this early summer it’s especially painful to see what has happened and is happening to clean energy in North Carolina.
A state tax credit for solar power once helped lift North Carolina to second in the nation in solar power. The credit ended in 2015 and the state now ranks fifth. The spread of rooftop solar has been slowed by changes in what Duke Energy will pay for the excess energy. The state’s offshore wind resource, the strongest on the East Coast, is not being tapped because of opposition by the Trump administration.
North Carolina has the sun and wind and the investment climate to make it a leader in clean energy. But it now appears that federal tax cuts for the wealthy and North Carolina utilities’ dependence on fossil-fuel profits will get in the way of cheaper energy and a cooler future.
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 11:39 AM with the headline "Federal and state measures could deliver a double whammy to NC’s clean energy boom | Opinion."