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North Carolina lawmaker revives push to eliminate renewables mandate

4/25/2017

Article by Robert Walton on UtilityDive:
http://bit.ly/2qbG0vW

North Carolina Rep. Chris Millis (R) introduced a bill to eliminate the state's renewable energy portfolio standard, arguing the mandate has cost the state far more than anticipated, WRAL.com reports.
The renewable standard is currently at 6% and will rise to 10% next year, before reaching 12.5% in 2021. Under the bill, the standard would be frozen at the current level and tax credits for solar energy would be repealed.
According to Millis, North Carolina has doled out $1.6 billion in tax credits to renewable energy in the last seven years, and the mandate has driven up power bills in the state. Similar efforts to roll back the mandate were unsuccessful in recent legislative sessions.

There is significant debate over whether North Carolina's renewable energy standard has cost the state or saved consumers, and if House Bill 745 becomes law, it would end tax breaks and freeze the RPS at its current level.
WRAL.com reports the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association believes the renewables standard has saved customers $162 million since it was approved in 2010. Strata Policy has estimated the mandates is costing about $3,500 per family.
The proposed bill strikes language directing a renewables standard and instead says energy will be procured "in a manner that is consistent with the development of the least cost mix of generation."
What is clear, however, is that renewable energy mandates and a decline in natural gas prices played a role in pushing out coal-fired generation.
Coal-fired power plants provided more than half of the electricity generated in the state before 2012, but now that is less than a third according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. On the other hand, renewable energy and natural gas generation increased rapidly.
"The amount of electricity generated from solar energy in North Carolina has increased rapidly," EIA said. "With 2,294 megawatts, the state has the third-largest installed solar capacity in the nation."
Wind energy is also growing in the state as federal agencies seek to open up offshore tracts to bidders. Last month, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it would lease 122,405 acres offshore North Carolina to Avangrid Renewables, for development of a wind energy facility off Kitty Hawk. It would be the company's second wind facility in the state; Avangrid previously developed the 208 MW Amazon Wind Farm.

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NC Triad Air Quality Improves Dramatically

4/25/2017

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Original article by Richard M. Barron from the Winston-Salem Journal:
http://bit.ly/2oiiYa5

GREENSBORO — These days, you can breathe easier in the Triad.

Air quality is improving partly because, like the rest of the nation, strict emission standards have put the squeeze on the worst pollutants, according to the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air report.

Duke Energy was once a major air polluter. In the Triad, the company has installed expensive scrubbers at its Belews Creek Steam Station to remove dust particles from its smokestacks or converted other plants to natural gas.

The Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point area had the fewest days of high-level ozone pollution since the group started producing reports 18 years ago, the Lung Association said.

The Triad was also one of the cleanest cities for short-term particle days — spikes in pollution that can last for hours to several days and can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

In North Carolina, the cleanest cities for ozone air pollution were Greenville-Washington, Hickory-Lenoir, New Bern-Morehead City and Wilmington.

Forsyth, Guilford and Rockingham counties were among the state’s cleanest for short-term particle pollution.

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Air quality in Georgia improving

4/3/2017

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Original Article by LeeShearer of OnlineAthens

Air quality in Georgia has improved markedly over the past decade, and that improvement is likely to continue in the foreseeable future, according to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s top air quality administrator.

Emissions of fine-particle pollution and ozone-forming chemicals have declined dramatically, said EPD Air Protection Branch Chief Karen Hays.

Emissions of ozone-forming sulfur dioxide (SO2) declined from more than 700,000 tons a year in 2005 to less than 100,000 tons in 2015, according to EPD records.

In the same 10 years, emissions of nitrous oxide and nitrous dioxide (NOX) have also come down sharply, though not as steeply as SO2.

NOX emissions rose to around 650,000 tons per year in 2007, but by 2014 and 2015 had dipped below 400,000, according to EPD’s monitoring data.

Because of the improvements, EPD has asked federal officials to drop seven metro Atlanta counties from the Atlanta “nonattainment” zone, where ozone levels all too frequently exceeded a federal standard meant to protect human health.

Under the EPD’s October 2016 recommendation, Paulding, Douglas, Coweta, Fayette, Cherokee, Forsyth and Newton counties would be dropped from the Atlanta nonattainment zone.

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North Carolina lawmaker revives push to eliminate renewables mandate

NC Triad Air Quality Improves Dramatically

Air quality in Georgia improving

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