As posted previously on this blog, a North Carolina bill that would repeal the state’s renewable energy mandate had passed it’s first legislative hurdle, and is now scheduled to be heard next week in the Environment committee.

While a lot of North Carolina lawmakers have already come out supportive of repealing the mandate, there are still quite a few Republicans who have been  squishy on the issue, despite many of them having campaigned as being staunch fiscal conservatives.

In the letter below, representatives from several leading state and national policy organizations tell members of the North Carolina General Assembly that if they care about being fiscal conservative, or in ideas like social equity, then they must stop picking winners and losers in the energy arena.

 

Senator/Representative _________,

 

The North Carolina General Assembly is considering a proposal to cap and end the current renewable portfolio standards (RPS) mandate in North Carolina. As you are aware, in 2007 the General Assembly adopted Senate Bill 3, which had an RPS mandate requiring utilities to provide customers 7.5 percent of their electricity through renewable sources of energy, such as wind, solar, or biomass. These sources are all significantly more expensive than conventional sources of power, which North Carolina’s utilities voluntarily choose when they are left free to pursue truly efficient and affordable energy for North Carolina state citizens.

North Carolina’s RPS mandate forces electric utilities — and therefore their customers, who are given no choice in electricity providers in the state — to purchase arbitrary amounts of electricity generated from wind and solar plants that is significantly more expensive than electricity generated from traditional sources. According to the Energy Information Administration, electricity from new wind installations is more than 30 percent more expensive than electricity from natural gas, and electricity from solar is 120 percent more expensive. But natural gas, coal, and nuclear are also more valuable than wind and solar because these traditional sources are reliable — after all, the wind does not always blow nor does the sun always shine. These higher costs affect North Carolina families, businesses, industries, and taxpayers who pay the bills for state and local governments.

These higher electricity costs are also hurting the state’s economy. According to the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, North Carolina’s renewable energy mandate will cost North Carolina ratepayers $1.8 billion by 2021. Because higher electricity costs increase the cost of doing business in North Carolina, they estimated that the mandate will lead to losses of 3,600 jobs, $43 million in investment,  and $140 million in GDP in the state. It will also reduce North Carolinians’ disposable income by $57 million.

Electricity is a basic household necessity, not a luxury item. Hiking electricity rates works as a highly regressive tax on poor households. Electricity costs have been eating increasingly larger portions of their budgets. For ratepayers earning $30,000 a year or less, electricity constitutes from one-tenth to as much as one-third of their after-tax income.

North Carolina leaders have a moral obligation to promote least-cost, reliable and efficient energy sources, letting competition and free enterprise work to refine, pursue, and discover better ways to produce energy through conventional and renewable sources. State subsidies and edicts stop those free-market innovations from happening and keep electricity rates artificially high.

The signed coalition of public policy research and grassroots organizations are opposed to the North Carolina government picking winners and losers in electricity generation and forcing its citizens to bear the higher costs. For the good of its citizens and economy, North Carolina policy should support least-cost, reliable, and efficient energy sources.

 

Phil Kerpen, President

American Commitment

 

Thomas Pyle, President

American Energy Alliance

 

Todd Wynn, Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Director

American Legislative Exchange Council

 

Craig Rucker, Executive Director

Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow

 

Myron Ebell, Director

Freedom Action

 

Sabrina Schaeffer, Executive Director

Independent Women’s Forum

 

Francis X. De Luca, President

John W. Pope Civitas Institute

 

Brandon Arnold, Vice President of Government Affairs

National Taxpayers Union

 

Larry Hart, Director of Government Relations

American Conservative Union

 

James Valvo, Director of Policy

Americans For Prosperity

 

Grover Norquist, President

Americans For Tax Reform

 

Thomas Tanton, Director of Science and Technology Assessment

American Tradition Institute

 

William Yeatman, Center for Energy and Environment Assistant Director

Competitive Enterprise Institute

 

Joseph Bast, President

The Heartland Institute

 

Jon Sanders, Director of Regulatory Studies

John Locke Foundation

 

David Ridenour, President

National Center for Public Policy Research