NC House votes to repeal 2030 carbon mandate promising $15B in savings

The North Carolina House passed The Power Reduction Act Tuesday, a bill that would eliminate the state’s statutory goal to cut carbon emissions by 70% by 2030. Supporters say the policy change could save North Carolinians up to $15 billion in future utility costs, and will help meet skyrocketing demands for power.

Senate Bill 266 passed both the House Rules Committee and the full House by a vote of 75-36 on Tuesday, sending it back to the Senate. Twelve Democrats voted in favor of the bill and one Republican — Rep. Ben Moss, R-Moore — voted against it.

First introduced as a repeal of provisions within the 2021 energy law, House Bill 951, SB 266 targets the carbon dioxide emissions mandate imposed on investor-owned utilities like Duke Energy. That 70% reduction benchmark, based on 2005 emissions levels, was intended to be achieved by 2030, with net-zero emissions required by 2050. The new legislation would roll back that timeline-driven target and replace it with a renewed focus on reliability, affordability, and least-cost energy planning.

Legislative Shift Toward Affordability and Grid Reliability

Supporters of SB 266 say the 2021 emissions mandate—pushed under the Cooper administration—threatened to saddle families and small businesses with skyrocketing energy costs to meet an arbitrary carbon target. By repealing it, the bill would allow more flexibility in North Carolina’s energy mix, enabling the use of natural gas, nuclear, and emerging technologies alongside renewables, without being restricted by politically driven deadlines.

According to legislative projections, the changes could reduce future compliance costs by approximately $15 billion over the next quarter-century. The bill also updates regulatory guidance to the North Carolina Utilities Commission, directing it to emphasize affordability, system reliability, and energy security when evaluating utilities’ integrated resource plans.

Opposition From renewables industry group

Environmental groups and those representing the renewables industry have sharply criticized the bill, claiming it undermines the state’s response to climate change and will stall the transition to clean energy. They also oppose a little-known mechanism called Construction Work in Progress, aiming to determine how utilities recover the cost of building new power plants — before they even generate a single watt.

First enacted in North Carolina in 2008 under the Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards (CEPS) law, CWIP allowed utilities to begin charging ratepayers for the costs of approved facilities — particularly nuclear and baseload power plants — while construction was still underway. The idea was to soften the financial blow utilities faced from high upfront capital expenses, provided those investments were deemed “reasonable and prudent” and in the public interest by the North Carolina Utilities Commission.

The latest version of SB 266 proposes new guardrails. Chief among them that CWIP would be permitted only if the NCUC determines it would create overall cost savings to customers over the lifetime of the facility. It would also require annual reviews of any facility using CWIP to ensure accountability and cost-effectiveness.

“Senate Bill 266 in its current form would add more caveats to use of CWIP,” said Jon Sanders, director of the Center for Food, Power, and Life at the John Locke Foundation. “Chief among them is that the NCUC must determine there to be an overall cost savings to customers over the life of the facility and that the facility be subject to an ongoing annual review by the NCUC. It also contains a 2033 sunset of CWIP recovery of construction costs for baseload natural gas facilities.”

The goal, backers argue, is not to kill investment in new power generation, but to balance affordability with long-term infrastructure needs. Advocates contend that the reform is part of a broader effort to pivot away from an energy policy they see as skewed by unrealistic decarbonization goals — favoring instead a “least-cost” strategy that better reflects grid reliability and long-term consumer affordability.

The passage of SB 266 was labeled a “key vote” by the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, saying an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy is needed for growing energy demands.

“As the North Carolina affiliate for the National Association of Manufacturers, we recognize the importance of this critical policy, especially to a manufacturing community that requires certainty and predictability in its power 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” the Chamber wrote in a statement issued this week. “If we are to continue attracting economic investment, reliable, affordable energy must continue to be a priority.”

speculative infrastructure

Critics argue that current law depended heavily on speculative infrastructure, including offshore wind, and failed to offer a reliable or affordable path to compliance — especially in light of inflation and increasing demand for electricity.

“By repealing the interim 70% carbon reduction mandate by 2030, this legislation removes a key pressure point that would have shoehorned nondispatchable resources like wind and solar onto North Carolina’s grid—regardless of cost or reliability,” said Donald Bryson, CEO of the John Locke Foundation. “This is a smart, bipartisan step that gives the Utilities Commission more flexibility to pursue a balanced energy mix that keeps power affordable and dependable for ratepayers and businesses alike.”

SB 266 now goes back to the Senate for concurrence and, if approved, would place a major energy policy decision before Gov. Josh Stein, who recently succeeded Roy Cooper. Stein has generally expressed support for environmental and carbon reduction initiatives, though he has not publicly committed to a position on this bill. A veto could set up a political battle with the Republican-led legislature.

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