It's 502 and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, news stock 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, the North Carolina legislature gaveled in for a brief session on Tuesday.
However, we learned that lawmakers will not be holding any votes either today or Thursday, as they still have yet to reach an agreement on a budget and have not been able to convince any Democrats, at least in the House, to come across the aisle and support any additional veto overrides. Both the House and Senate chambers, for the most part, were pretty much empty yesterday, what is also known as a skeleton session, because most legislators and lawmakers were told that they did not need to make the trip to Raleigh as there would not be any votes this week. That means that lawmakers will likely not take any further additional action until late September at the earliest. That is the next time that they've got any sessions scheduled up at the General Assembly.
So with that, after adjourning in their July session, the legislature did schedule a couple of brief monthly sessions through the remainder of the year.
However, as we learned yesterday, seeing the picture and video of the House chamber, just a handful, like three or four members of the General Assembly in Raleigh yesterday in the House, a couple in the Senate as well. Still dealing again with the budget, some other veto overrides. As it stands right now, folks are going to have to wait until at least September for some of those actions to be taken. We'll continue to track the details behind the scenes. If we learn anything more about the budget or potentially some of those veto overrides, we'll pass those details over to you on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and of course, right here on the Carolina Journal NewsHour.
Turning our attention to some other statewide news this morning, in a recent letter to the North Carolina Utilities Commission, Duke Energy shared a report containing research supporting the idea that offshore wind energy production is not currently the most reliable, cost-effective energy source. And with that, the company would not be issuing requests for proposals or RFPs to pursue these projects moving forward. Duke was acting in compliance with the Utilities Commission directives to complete an acquisition request for information, which gathered detailed market data from three wind energy area leaseholders off the North Carolina coast. Those companies are known as Avana Grid Power LLC, Synergy Corp, and Total Energies Carolina Long Bay LLC, who together submitted eight offshore wind development project proposals over the last few years. The report identifies several new factors adding to uncertainty over the future of offshore wind development.
They include President Donald Trump's January the 20th executive memorandum halting new offshore wind leasing and requiring a review of federal permitting for existing projects. Provisions also in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that restrict federal tax credit eligibility for both wind and solar facilities, as well as Trump's July 7th executive order directing the Treasury Secretary to revoke those tax credits as well as broader risks such as geopolitical tensions, trade tariffs affecting critical supply chains, and other movements from the federal government. John Sanders, who is the director of the Center for Food, Power and Life at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal in a statement dealing with this: Duke's filing rather reinforces what we have shown for years. Offshore wind is a very expensive source of electricity, even with the Carolina Carbon Plan. It is prohibitively expensive.
Telling the Carolina Journal: Now that the legislature has passed the Power Bill Reduction Act, getting rid of the carbon plan's interim goal of 70% reduction of CO two emissions by 2030, our power grid can rely more on reliability on-demand natural gas power plants to complete the transition to zero-emission nuclear rather than being forced to get power from expensive, unreliable, weather-dependent sources like wind and solar.
So here's some of the background on it. Back in twenty twenty one, the House Bill nine hundred fifty one was signed into law as a bipartisan energy bill with regulatory guardrails prioritizing reliability and least cost to energy generation. while pursuing then, at the time, former Governor Roy Cooper's carbon reduction goals. The twenty twenty three Carolina Resource Plan, which was Duke Energy's long term strategy to meet future energy needs, evaluated offshore wind as one potential option in a growingly diverse energy portfolio to support Carolina's growth. Following a July 2024 settlement with stakeholders and a directive from the North Carolina Utilities Commission on November 1st of last year, Duke Energy issued an acquisition request for information to those three entities holding federal offshore wind leases off the North Carolina coast.
The companies, again, Amvigrid, which was dealing with some development up in the Kitty Hawk area, as well as Total Energies and Synergy, which are both non-Duke-related subsidiaries for the Carolina Long Bay Track off the coast of southeastern North Carolina in Wilmington and Brunswick County. The AFRI, that request for information released on january twenty ninth of this year, sought information for up to 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Including confidential pricing details to assess whether offshore wind could be a least cost reliable source. The process, which was overseen by an independent evaluator, a power adviser, to ensure fairness, transparency and confidentiality was nonbinding and spanned several months. Results were filed with regulators back on august eleventh and confirmed that offshore wind is not currently economically viable as a least cost option.
Consistent with the North Carolina Utilities Commission November 2024 order, Duke Energy will not produce any of the three sites at this time. A conclusion also was that similar conclusion was also supported by an independent evaluator. Nevertheless, the data gathered through the AFRI will inform Duke Energy's twenty twenty five Carolinas Resource Plan, which is scheduled for filing a little bit later on this year, coming up on october first, and will guide future long term planning considerations for the utility. Bill Norton, who is a spokesperson for Duke Energy, told the Carolina Journal, the AFRI process determined that offshore wind is not cost competitive at this time, so no request for proposal or RFP will be issued. This decision is supported by the independent evaluator that oversaw the proceedings.
Nonetheless, the evaluation process provided valuable project, cost and schedule data that will inform long term planning assumptions for the Carolina Resource Plan, which is set to be filed later this year. the Power Advisory collaborated with the Utilities Commission staff to establish a reference price, which was used as a benchmark for determining whether offshore wind generation is currently cost effective compared to other available sources, things like natural gas. The development of the reference price is crucial as it determines the cost benchmark used to evaluate offshore wind, according to a report from the John Locke Foundation. The context is crucial because the AFRI report occurred before the July 29th passage of the Power Bill Reduction Act, also known as Senate Bill 266. That legislation, which removed the carbon plant's interim targets of reducing CO two emissions from electricity by seventy percent by twenty thirty.
The targeted disproportionality shaped of shaped the Utilities Commission resource modeling and, if left in place, would have imposed an additional thirteen billion dollar burden on state ratepayers. Jon Sanders of the John Locke Foundation noted, not having to worry about wind facilities being built off the shore of North Carolina is good news for reasons other than cost to electrical consumers. It removes a serious threat to the coast's two biggest industries, fishing and tourism, and a deadly one to critically endangered whales, sea turtles, and other marine creatures alongside birds. It means military training exercises won't be compromised and marine and mariners won't be endangered by marine vessel radar interference. Finally, remember the ecological damage brought about by just one broken windmill turbine braid from the vineyard wind facility.
It means that there won't be 876 turbine blades sitting in North Carolina's uniquely hurricane waters, talking about recent hurricanes like Erin, Florence, Helene, and others, which were up there with Florida as coastal waters most frequently visited by hurricanes. Jon Sanders recently had a report called The Big Blow. That report looked at offshore wind development and did raise some serious concerns about the potential impacts beyond cost and reliability. In his research, he found that the projects have not demonstrated clear economic or environmental benefits for the state and may prevent significant challenges moving forward. According to the report, high construction and operating costs could increase energy burdens for residents already facing energy poverty.
with him estimating that he that the cost of building eight gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in North Carolina would range between a whopping fifty five and seventy one billion dollars. It also cautions that offshore wind development could affect coastal industries, including commercial fishing and beach tourism. The report states that turbine arrays and lightning may alter the natural landscape, with the planned structures becoming the tallest artificial features along the North Carolina coast. Environmental concerns are also highlighted. The report points to the risks for endangered species, such as the North Atlantic right whale.
With looking at that, there was a record number of those deaths of the right whale in 2024 near offshore wind developments in areas of Virginia, New Jersey, and North Carolina. It also raises questions about national security, maritime safety risks, and the long-term disposal of turbine blades, which, as we know, can be very difficult to recycle. It also suggests that this could create lasting waste management challenges. There is a lot of moving pieces in this, some new directives from the administration, changes to North Carolina state law, as well as mandates from the North Carolina Utility Commission. We've got links to all of those sources, including that recent report from John Sanders on offshore wind.
All of that is linked up on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. You can head on over there, the headline story, Duke Nix's offshore wind energy. You can read those details again on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. It's 5:22. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT.
Continuing our discussion of energy this morning, yesterday on Tuesday, Governor Josh Stein. Announced the creation of the North Carolina Energy Policy Task Force. He did that through an executive order, with the governor saying it will aim at strengthening the electrical infrastructure and energy affordability in the state of North Carolina while pushing for renewable energy sources like solar. In a press release, the governor said, quote, North Carolina is a leader in the clean energy economy and is home to more than 100,000 clean energy jobs. I am grateful for this task force helping to determine how our state can be.
Can build on this economic momentum, meet growing energy demands, and ensure electricity is affordable for North Carolinians. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reed Wilson, as well as State Representative Kyle Hall, the Republican out of Stokes County, will co-chair the 26-member task force. Stein, a Democrat, noted that North Carolina is the third fastest growing state in the country with a rapidly growing manufacturing base. He told folks yesterday that since he took office, $4.9 billion in new investments and more than 15,000 new jobs have been announced from clean energy and clean technology companies, including JetZero, which plans to manufacture high-efficiency, low-emission aircraft, as well as another company known as Boivit Solar, which is building a facility up in Greenville, North Carolina. In addition, Stein mentioned that in January he launched Energy Saver NC, an initiative to promote energy efficiency that provides rebates to households that install in energy efficient appliances, approve home insulation, or upgrade their electrical systems.
The governor also said that as the use of the energy-intensive data centers, a lot of that being used for AI or artificial intelligence and other highly intensive computing purposes increase, the need for electrical power will place an additional demand on the state's energy grid, noting that that in turn may lead to higher utility bills for families. One of those is a new $10 billion Amazon AI center that is planned for Richmond County. Customers, consumer advocates like Clark Howard, have said that consumers in states with monopoly power providers will likely see the burden of high prices due to the increased demand from data centers, not industrial users. The state's regulatory bodies, Howard said, are shifting the cost burden directly to the consumers, which means higher bills, even if some use the same amount of power they have in previous years. A paper from Harvard Electrical Law Initiative concurs with Clark Howard's statements.
Stein was critical in his press release of President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he said repealed key components of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, ending access to many energy and manufacturing tax credits for North Carolina businesses. The governor noted that former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act led to more than $24 billion in clean energy investments across the state. According to the governor, the combination of the Big Beautiful bill and the General Assembly's Senate Bill 266, also known as the Power Bill Reduction Act, will mean higher costs for families and threaten up to 50,000 future jobs. Senate Bill 266 was vetoed by Democrat Governor Josh Stein. Fortunately, the Republican-led legislature overrode that veto, which is projected to save consumers across North Carolina some $15 billion by eliminating costly compliance measures.
John Sanders, who is the director of the Center for Food, Power and Life at the John Locke Foundation, said that he would welcome the governor joining the John Locke Foundation's push to keep North Carolina's electrical grid reliable while also keeping prices for electricity low. He said, however, that the governor is going about it all wrong. Quote: First, you don't keep costs down by shifting them from electrical bills to tax bills. Second, as we've learned from the Soviet Union, you don't put the economy under the direction of an executive government committee and expect growth. And third, even if the governor worries about fuel costs, he should know that there are many costs to electricity generating facilities other than fuel.
including capital costs, procurement, operations, maintenance, and utility portfolios. Sanders continued by saying that new facilities are more expensive to electrical consumers than pre-existing ones and advocates for utilities to overbuild high-cost, unreliable, weather-dependent, zero-fuel-cost solar and wind facilities, which would in fact spike electrical costs and cripple electrical reliability. Sanders told the Carolina Journal, Stein wants to preserve what he calls the clean energy economy, but that name gives away the game. It's not good for the state's economy as a whole. It's only good for one particular segment of the state's economy, and he's packing this committee with its advocates.
According to Other commentary from that, quote, shamefully Stein confuses weather with climate and even attempts to blame Hurricane Helene on climate change, as if North Carolina was responsible for the hurricane by not having his preferred portfolio of power generation sources. As Dr. Stephen Koonin, President Barack Obama's Undersecretary for Science in the U.S. Department of Energy put it, quote, Pointing to hurricanes as examples of the ravage of human-cause climate change is at best unconvincing and at worst plainly dishonest. End quote there from John Sanders.
The task force will submit an annual report to the governor, the General Assembly, and the North Carolina Utilities Commission, as well as the North Carolina Rural Electrification Authority, and it will also be made available to the public. There are a lot of discussions going on, not only here in North Carolina, but really across the country, as there was a significant push over the last couple of years to really harp on solar and wind energy as major forms of electrical generation. The studies have come out, the data is in showing that wind and solar are incredibly unreliable and very expensive sources of electricity. Here in North Carolina, the General Assembly making some changes to state law, predominantly passing and overriding Senate Bill 266, repealing some interim carbon reduction goals that were set to take place in 2030, which, as I noted, is projected. To save consumers some $15 billion over the next decade or two.
You can read additional details on this new task force being set up by Governor Josh Stein over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That story's headline: Stein Creates Energy Task Force with Focus on Lower Rates, however, renewable energy. That's over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Lowe's knows that no matter your paint project, saving is at the top of your list. That's why when you shop today, you can buy one, get one free, select Valspar and HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams One Coat Coverage Interior Paints via rebate.
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See Sales Associate for details. Offer valid 821 through 93. It's 537. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. News Talk 1110-99.3 WBT, the North Carolina General Assembly, briefly convened in Raleigh yesterday.
However, lawmakers took no votes and the reports are they remain deadlocked on the state budget. Both the House and Senate chambers, which gaveled in shortly after noon yesterday, were largely empty after legislators were told that they did not need to travel to Raleigh this week for votes. With that, it means likely no further action is expected until late September, the next calendar dates for votes out of the GA. Since adjourning in July, the legislature has scheduled monthly sessions throughout the rest of the year.
However, it is not it does not immediately remain clear this morning whether those dates will be skeleton sessions like we saw yesterday where there was just a handful of lawmakers in each of the chambers or whether all of the lawmakers will make it back and actually vote. This week, lawmakers are also not attempting to override vetoes of Governor Josh Stein's various bills that he did veto throughout the last month or so and remain deadlocked on an agreement for a budget for the fiscal year, which began back on July the 1st. The stalemate is something that we continue to track and details that we continue to follow here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Important to note, neither Senate leader Phil Berger nor House Speaker Destin Hall were leading either of the chambers this week, and they lawmakers are expected. At least a few of them are going to be back on Thursday.
Once again, likely to be a same thing, a skeleton session. No votes scheduled for that. We will keep our eye on those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. In some other news this morning, as many public school districts kick off the traditional calendar year this week, new research from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is showing the importance of physical activity in producing better academic achievement. Researchers from UNCG found that a burst of physical activity in the classroom may be enough to boost children's performance on standardized tests.
Specifically, the report found that giving students roughly nine minutes of high-intensity interval exercise immediately before testing did produce measurable gains on standardized measures of verbal comprehension. The study published in the Journal of Psychology of Sport and Exercise involved 25 children between the ages of 9 and 12 and compared three conditions: a nine-minute interval exercise routine that can be done in place. modern intensity cycling and seated rest. According to the lead author, an assistant professor at UNCG, Professor Eric Dortell, quote, in the classroom you have teachers that say, We know that that's a case that anecdotically has happened in classrooms, but we hadn't put any science to it. To replicate what teachers might have might realistically do during a lesson, researchers designed a short sequence of activities that require no special equipment.
high knees, jumping jacks, lunges and air squats. Students performed each exercise for thirty seconds, followed by thirty seconds of rest for a total of about nine minutes. After the exercise session and after the comparison sessions of cycling or seated rest on separate days, students completed a cognitive test that measured verbal comprehension. When the same child engaged in high-intensity interval exercises immediately prior to the testing, the scores on the verbal comprehension measure were significantly higher than they were had they been seated beforehand, according to the study. Other folks within the study co-authors also said that the findings prove evidence that even in a short single bout of movement can have a meaningful benefit for cognitive performance.
In the release from UNCG, it reads, This research provides us with valuable insight into the potential for single short periods of exercise to benefit children's cognitive performance. These findings may have important implications for teachers who are incorporating movement breaks into their classrooms and who might then see a benefit of their students' academic performance. The study also looked beyond test scores to see what was happening in students' brains. Those conducting the study used a variety of research to measure neurological signals known as error-related negatives, which appear when people make mistakes. According to the researchers, higher ERN amplitudes are associated with increased fixation on making an error or making a mistake, which can distract from the overall's task performance.
The UNCG team observed a decrease in the ERN after the interval exercise condition, suggesting that the short workout made errors less distracting and may have helped students respond more effectively when, in fact, they did make mistakes. It's a very interesting study. We've got it over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. That story's headline, brief classroom exercises before tests improve scores. UNCG study finds.
You can read those details again over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. It's now 5.43. You're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. A little over a month ago, the North Carolina State Board of Elections officially kicked off a project to fix the registration for more than 100,000 voters across the state of North Carolina. That project known as the Registration Repair Project.
To get an update about a month or so after that launched, Teresa Opaika, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Teresa, some pretty big numbers. We've been tracking this for quite some time here on the program. What are we learning this morning from the state board? Sure.
Good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me.
So, yep, the kickoff was a little over a month ago, and they have made some significant progress at the State Board of Elections.
So, more than 20,000 voter registration records for people in North Carolina have been fixed under their registration repair project. But now, elections officials are still milling out the remaining 82,540 individuals who records still need updating.
So, as you mentioned, the State Election Board on July 17th started that major initiative with the project to collect the missing ID numbers from roughly a little over 103,000 registered voters who records lacked either the Social Security number or a driver's license number. Actually, the last four. Of the social.
So the project was to bring the state's voter rolls into compliance with both federal and state laws, also recent court rulings and an ongoing lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice. And the board unanimously approved a three-part plan at their June 24th meeting.
So that's all this came into fruition.
So it seems like they've been making some really good progress, but they still have a little ways to go. Yeah, and Teresa, you kind of mentioned there some of the backstory. There are a lot of different moving parts, this ongoing lawsuit, random voter complaints across the state of North Carolina. There's been some relatively high levels of scrutiny on the state board of elections, specifically dealing with this issue over the last couple of years, as you're reporting this morning.
Some good work in getting more than 20,000 voter registration records dealt with, but still over 82,000 remaining. What does this process look like for those that might have this issue? Again, no fault of their own. This is due to some faulty forms from the State Board of Elections. What do some of these processes look like to get this information corrected?
Sure. So, what they're encouraging them to do is either respond by mail online or in person. And they also said the election officials also noted if a voter receives a letter but they already have their registration repaired, they don't need to take any additional action. But in future elections, as you mentioned, in-person voters who still have not provided that required information to update their registration, they're going to have to vote with a provisional ballot and provide information, either the driver's license number or the last four numbers of their social security number when they vote. And what the state board's doing is creating a flag to appear on these voters' records in the electronic or paper poll books used at voting sites.
That's to alert poll workers that these voters must vote provisionally and provide that missing information in order for their ballots to count. And of course, county boards of elections will train poll workers accordingly.
So they all ha they have everything set up, so everything should be Hopefully foolproof. Yeah, and you talk about those three different ways in which that identification information, whether it's a full driver's license number or the last four of your social security number, can be provided. Teresa, I would imagine the way that most folks have dealt with this so far is actually through a portal that many people already use, which is actually the Department of Motor Vehicle, the DOT and DMV's service that they use to pay their yearly property taxes on their vehicles. That information can be updated for free right there. Correct.
Yeah.
So anybody who's got a North Carolina driver's license or DMV ID card, in case you don't drive, they still have the ID cards for you. They could submit an updated voter registration form through the DMV's website. They can go to payments.ncdot.gov, and there is no fee for this service, as you mentioned, and they can just click yes when asked to update their voter information.
So very simple and an easy way to update that information.
Some folks might be wondering this morning, maybe their name is on this list of over 82,000 voters. Teresa, we've got a link over on our website where they can actually go punch in their name and see if they're one of these affected voters. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. If you go to the article, it does have the registration repair search tool.
So you can click on that that's highlighted in the article. That link will take you directly to that list to see if you are on that list, and that list is updated daily. Absolutely. You can do that by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com. The headline story, State Election Board corrects over 20,000 records, seeks more ID numbers.
We appreciate the information, the update and the time this morning. From Teresa Opeca, you're listening to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Coming up next week, it's time for the sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive. That's heading your way Thursday, September the 4th. WBT and the One Blood Big Red Bus will be at the Dog House in Uptown Charlotte from 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m. We'll be broadcasting live and encouraging you to make a life-saving blood donation. It's the sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive next Thursday, September the 4th at the Dog House in Uptown Charlotte. It's 555. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110, 993 WBT.
Recapping one of our big stories this morning, Duke Energy, the state's largest utility provider, has told the North Carolina Utilities Commission that offshore wind is not currently a reliable or least cost energy option, and no requests for proposal will be issued. The findings follow an acquisition request for information ordered by state regulators, which reviewed eight proposals from three different companies holding federal leases for potentially building offshore wind here on the North Carolina coast. The report cites new uncertainties, including the Trump administration's executive actions restricting leasing and tax credits, along with supply chain risks. Independent evaluators will confirm that offshore wind is not economically viable at this time. Critics argue that the projects would raise energy costs, threaten coastal industries like fishing and tourism, as well as endanger marine life.
The findings align with recent Power Bill Reduction Act that's Senate Bill 266. which scrapped interim carbon reduction mandates and reaffirmed the state's focus on least cost, reliable generation, such as things like natural gas and nuclear. John Sanders, who is the director for the Center for Food, Power, and Life at the John Locke Foundation, said, quote, Duke's filing reinforces what we have shown for years. Offshore wind is very expensive and a very expensive source of electricity. even with the carbon plan, it's prohibitively expensive.
Now that the legislature has passed the Power Bill Reduction Act getting rid of the carbon plan's interim goal of seventy percent reduction of CO two emissions by twenty thirty, Our power grid can rely on more reliable, on-demand natural gas power plants to continue the transition to zero emissions and nuclear, rather than being forced to get power from expensive, unreliable, weather-dependent sources like wind and solar. You can read more details on that story this morning by visiting our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Wednesday edition. WBT News is Next. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5-6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3, WBT.
