Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
The state adopted a renewable energy portfolio standard, or REPS, a <br />decade ago, calling for utilities to obtain a growing percentage of their <br />power from renewable sources, topping out at 12.5 percent by 2021. Since then, North Carolina's solar energy <br />industry has flourished, and wind farms are starting to open in eastern parts of the state. <br />Rep. Chris Millis, R- Pender, said Wednesday, however, that the state has given $1.6 billion in tax credits to <br />...... ............................... <br />renewable energy producers since 2010, which is hundreds of times what was forecast when REPS was put in <br />place. Consumers also have been forced to pay more, he said, as utilities added riders to monthly bills to make <br />up for the cost of buying renewable energy. <br />Under House BIII 745, the REPS standard would be frozen at the current 6 percent level, but all existing <br />contracts for renewable energy would be honored. The proposal also would repeal tax breaks for solar energy <br />production. <br />"This will transition us back to affordable energy," Millis said, noting that the bill also calls for the North Carolina <br />Utilities Commission to finish a study in the next year the costs and benefits of "distributed generation." <br />"The form of energy production is not the issue," he said. "It's the subsidies and the mandate." <br />Similar efforts to roll back REPS have been introduced in each of the last two sessions, but they ran into <br />opposition and died. <br />Donald Bryson, state president of Americans for Prosperity, said his group will exert pressure on lawmakers to <br />ensure House Bill 745 is passed. <br />"North Carolina families need reliable and affordable energy," Bryson said, adding that REPS will continue <br />driving up electric costs in North Carolina and hurt the state's economy. <br />Landon Stevens, policy director of Utah -based Strata Policy, said REPS has had a "precipitous drag" on the <br />state's economy already, costing about $3,500 per family by 2013. <br />The North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association disputes those findings, saying that REPS has saved <br />customers statewide $162 million so far and that more than $2.6 billion has been invested in renewable energy <br />projects in North Carolina, creating more than 26,000 jobs. <br />CREDITS <br />Web Editor Matthew Burns <br />Copyright 2017 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights <br />reserved. This material maM not be Dublished, broadcast, rewritten <br />