NC Republicans Now Going After Renewable Energy Mandates, EIS Rules For Developers
RALEIGH – A 44-year-old requirement that North Carolina study potential environmental impacts before launching building projects and another mandate that utilities rely more on alternative energy sources stand to weaken if trends in the General Assembly continue. The House on April 30 passed a bill limiting the environmental study requirement to apply only to projects costing more than $10 million.
Then on Wednesday, the state representatives set aside for now a 2007 mandate that electric utilities keep increasing the share of their power sales made up by renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
To members of the Republican majority, the votes are part of a long-term effort to allow businesses to generate income and jobs and remove restrictions that don't make sense.
Democrats had run the state practically without interruption for more than a century, said Rep. Mike Hager, R-Rutherford, a critic of the state renewable energy mandate. It's only natural that Republicans would take excessive regulation off the books when they get in power, he said. "We feel like the pendulum had swung too far one way. We're trying to center the pendulum," he said.
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http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/11/republicans-may-weaken-nc-environmental-rules/27146021/
