In July, Duke Energy had every reason to expect that the N.C. Utilities Commission would approve its plan to build a 245-megawatt solar project in Richmond County. The facility was in line with its Carolinas Resource Plan, the commission-approved framework for adding more power.
Ultimately, the commission approved the plan, but only after a sharp dissent from its newest member, Donald van der Vaart. The former state environmental-quality secretary downplayed the usefulness of solar power that lacked battery storage, and highlighted how North Carolina’s natural gas supply remains limited.
“These constraints necessitate extending coal-fleet operations to bridge to large-scale nuclear for carbon neutrality by 2050,” he says.
Van der Vaart’s dissent, and his presence on the commission, signals how the regulatory body’s outlook is in flux. It’s partly a function of a restructuring ordered by state Republican leaders, who have gained more sway over North Carolina’s regulatory agencies.
The governor had traditionally appointed all seven members of the Utilities Commission. Now, after a law passed in 2023, the commission is down to five members, with Gov. Josh Stein and legislators each picking two people and the state treasurer selecting the other seat.
The treasurer, Brad Briner, picked van der Vaart. He joined holdovers Karen Kemerait and Floyd McKissick Jr., who were gubernatorial picks, and Bill Brawley and Tommy Tucker, the legislative selections.
McKissick, a Durham Democrat, and Tucker, a Union County Republican, are former state senators. Brawley is a former Mecklenburg County Republican state representative. Kemerait is a Raleigh lawyer whose practice involved energy, water, wastewater and land-use matters. She is a registered Democrat.
Four other members left this year: former chair Charlotte Mitchell, Kimberly Duffley, Jeffrey Hughes and Steve Levitas.
Representatives of N.C. environmental groups have long been critical of van der Vaart, a chemical engineer who worked in Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration. He has cited his opposition to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan as a major career achievement.
The Utilities Commission is ultimately beholden to the law as written by the General Assembly, says former state Rep. John Szoka, a Cumberland County Republican who now heads the Michigan-based Conservative Energy Network. That means balancing a decrease in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions with keeping electricity prices as low as possible.
“All five of them, and I think they’ve shown it so far, are administering the law as regulators are required to by the law, and they’re going to do that to the best of their ability,” Szoka says.
The commission’s regulatory process is “quasi-judicial,” meaning that it demands evidence-based argumentation from Duke Energy, its critics and other interest groups.
It’s “more important than ever that anybody who comes before the board really has their stuff together when they present whatever position they are representing,” he adds. “It’s not feelings; it’s facts, because these cases are decided on facts.”
The commission’s main job in 2026 is reviewing Duke’s revised Carolinas Resource Plan, which envisions pumping the brakes on solar development in favor of using more gas combustion turbines and operating the utility’s coal-fired power plants longer than previous projections.
The revision follows the General Assembly’s passage this year of Senate Bill 266, which retains the ultimate goal of making power production carbon-neutral by 2050. But the state is no longer asking Duke to get 70% of the way there by 2030.
While about half of Duke’s total generation capacity comes from nuclear, the utility is cautious about building new reactors. Its filing says the company will undertake planning work, but is noncommittal about following through. But Duke needs to start placing orders for reactor vessels and other equipment by 2028 to build more of the gigawatt-size facilities it now operates.
The slowdown on solar, meanwhile, partly stems from the Trump administration’s adamant opposition to tax credits and other incentives for renewables. That is forcing adjustments in long-term planning as some existing solar deals may fall though, Duke’s filing noted. ■
