North Carolina needs a quicker and more predictable approval process for power-generation and grid upgrades, no matter the technology a project’s backers are pursuing, a report from the NC Chamber Foundation says.
“If North Carolina is to meet its energy goals while supporting rapid economic growth, the regulatory environment must be more efficient, transparent and predictable,” the report says. “Across every focus group and survey, businesses identified permitting delays, jurisdictional fragmentation and unclear timelines as major barriers to investment.”
What the state needs is a centralized, one-stop permitting shop for major energy infrastructure, with “clear statutory timelines” for each type of permit and transparent tracking of progress.
State leaders need to be sure regulatory agencies are staffed well enough to efficiently handle permit reviews, and perhaps should consider “categorial exclusions” or “fast lanes” for “non-controversial zero-emission energy projects that comply with local land-use plans and environmental standards.”
Above all, businesses need predictability and an end to getting whipsawed between political extremes.
“Business leaders emphasize that they make capital decisions on 20- to 30-year horizons and need long-term alignment from policymakers,” the report says. “Regulatory ‘whiplash’ from frequent shifts in direction due to changes in leadership or agency policy deters investment and makes project financing more difficult.
“As one utility executive noted, ‘It’s very hard to invest in 30-year assets when administrations change every four years and have a different approach on energy.’”
When it comes to power generation, the report, titled North Carolina’s Business-Driven Energy Vision, sees a need for a broadly diversified mix of power-generation technologies.
Natural gas, nuclear, solar and wind energy all have major roles to play, not least as a mix that “hedges against fuel-price swings,” the report says.
It stopped short of directly calling out the forces opposed to the further use of those technologies and those who are using the regulatory process and the courts to impose roadblock after roadblock.
Advocates from the group Appalachian Voices, for example, are trying to stop the proposed MVP Southgate gas pipeline, which extends into Rockingham County. NC WARN has long opposed Duke Energy’s nuclear program. Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin and the senior chair of House Agriculture, spearheaded an attempt in this spring’s legislative session to curb solar development Down East. President Donald Trump’s visceral opposition to wind energy is well-documented.
By contrast, the Chamber Foundation report — the result of surveys and focus groups with business executives earlier this year — sees solar and wind as benefits to eastern North Carolina, provided there’s also battery storage to smooth out supply.
North Carolina’s decades-old power-transmission network was designed mostly for a bygone economy, the report suggests. “Solar growth in the state has outpaced the grid’s ability to connect projects, leading to interconnection backlogs,” the report says.
Grid and supply issues are especially critical in rural areas, to the point many of the state’s business-recruitment targets refuse to consider locating in them because they doubt the reliability of electrical service, the report says.
It speaks favorably of Duke’s plans to use gas turbines to meet short-term peak loads, and of the utility’s interest in deploying small modular nuclear reactors at places like the Belews Creek power plant.
The report implicitly rejected the “Green New Scam” rhetoric cited in opposition to carbon reduction, sustainability and renewable energy initiatives.
“North Carolina’s business community made clear that sustainability is no longer optional — it is a strategic requirement,” it says. “Global customers, investors, and regulators increasingly demand low-carbon products and operations.”
It adds, “contrary to old assumptions, cutting emissions often saves money and drives innovation.”
