Many people believe buying a home requires a large down payment and years of saving, but that's not always the case. Across the country, there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers take the next step toward home ownership.
Some of these programs offer down payment assistance or grant funding that may help cover part of the upfront cost of purchasing a home. Grants are especially helpful because they generally do not have to be repaid. There are also organizations that provide homebuyer education, financial counseling, and guidance to help individuals understand the home buying process before they begin. The goal is simple: to help more families become informed and prepared for home ownership. If owning a home is something you've been thinking about, start by visiting ToolsForHomeownership.com.
This message is brought to you by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling's Paving the Way Forward initiative. It's 505 and welcome in to a Tuesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, a pretty big decision from the United States Supreme Court on Friday is being welcomed here in North Carolina as it relates to voter citizenship checks. The United States Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the go-ahead on Friday and a 6-3 vote to use a revised federal database to verify voter citizenship ahead of the November election. The court paused a federal Washington, D.C. judge's ruling that blocked the use of a modified systematic alien verification for entitlements or save system. It is important to note that the save system and the save act are not related in any way.
That safe system is administered by the Department of Homeland Security and is already used by federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local government agencies across the United States and here in North Carolina to verify the immigration status and U.S. citizenship status of applicants seeking benefits like Medicaid or licenses. It was the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center that sued the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, and other federal defendants alleging that the modifications violated the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act, and the Administrative Protection Act. We go back to June the 22nd. That is when a U.
S. District Court judge agreed with the challenges and barred the government from using it and going forward with the system. According to Scotusblog.org, United States Solicitor the U.S.
Solicitor General went to the Supreme Court on September the 8th and asked the justices to freeze that U.S. District Court ruling while the litigation continues. Lawyers for the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center on September the 15th asked the justices to leave the ruling in place. The lawyer representing the challengers argued that, quote, the government has recklessly created an error-laden master citizenship database that endangers millions of Americans' privacy and voting rights. We then fast forward to an unsigned September the 25th opinion in which the majority said that the lower court's action inhibits the federal government's efforts to assist states and local agencies in the proper administration of the midterm elections.
The majority also said that the federal government was, quote, likely to suffer irreparable harm absent the stay. Under federal immigration law, the federal government has an obligation to respond to requests from states and local election officials seeking to verify citizenship of voters. The order below prevents the federal government from using the programs it believes is best suited to the task, wrote the justices in the majority. In a dissenting opinion, Justices Katanji Brown Jackson, along with Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Elaine Kagan, called the decision a, quote, questionable interim ruling. about two statutory provisions that the Supreme Court has never before interpreted.
Those three dissenting justices said that the majority focused only on the harms that the government will purportedly suffer absent a stay, disregarding the harms that the use of the modified database has caused and will likely continue to cause to lawful voters. Bringing it back home to North Carolina, the North Carolina State Board of Elections and its executive director, Sam Hayes, was pleased with the Supreme Court's decision in a press release on Friday. He he Said in part, the State Board welcomes today's decision by the United States Supreme Court. Both the United States Constitution and the North Carolina Constitution are clear. You must be a citizen of the United States to register and vote in our elections.
Noting that the save database is one of the few tools we can access to make sure that non-citizens are not on our voter rolls. It also helps us identify over 35,000 deceased residents on our voter list following a recent search of the system, Road Haze. The executive director went on to say that as the state's chief election officer, he has a statutory duty to maintain the voter list and intends to use every legal means that are at his disposal to fulfill that duty. He continued in part by saying, we wish to reiterate that no voters will be automatically removed as a result of any voter list maintenance we do utilizing the database. We go back to last year in November, the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2 in favor of using the system to help identify non-citizens on the state's voter rolls.
Republican members, including Chairman Francis DeLuca, Secretary Stacey Foragers, and Robert Rucho voted in favor, while Democrat members Siobhan Millen and Jeff Carmen voted no. That was a 3-2 vote, which has become pretty common within the North Carolina State Board of Elections in recent years. Adam Steele, the associate general counsel for the board, stated that the Department of Homeland Security invited North Carolina to participate in the pilot program in early 2025, in which states would upload a list of voters containing their names, date of birth, and the last four digits of their social security number. Board Member and Secretary Stacey Forager said that part of their obligation and responsibility is to determine that eligible voters can vote and that non-eligible voters cannot, noting that the save database is the only tool available to them for conducting any verification on this topic. He also said that other states have used it and have implemented it without any problems.
This is going back to late last year when this discussion was taking place. Egers said during the meeting, quote, I'd also note that apparently for many years, this has been used by agencies that administer federal benefits on the county level in all 100 counties in all 50 states. Be it any sort of federal benefits from Social Security to food stamps to WIC to unemployment insurance. All of those items fall within the category of this save database. We, referring to North Carolina, presently use it for our jury excuse process as staff has indicated.
So the fact that we're moving forward with this would not necessarily be a shocking thing. In fact, the shocking thing is that the thing should be why haven't we done this before? Eggers stated that there is a challenge process and due process for anyone who wishes to dispute the information that comes from this federal system, but the fact that the system has been used for more than two decades without any reports of issues of anyone being denied benefits due to errors in their citizenship status means that it has a track record of working. Eggers went on to say if we have a legitimate list of voters who are citizens who are eligible to vote, they should all vote. I would encourage anyone eligible to vote.
But the other side of that is if you allow those who are ineligible to vote, you have diluted and taken away the vote of those who are legitimate voters. A federal law, the National Voter Registration Act, prohibits the removal of voters within 90 days of the election. We are obviously well within that period right now, 35 days until Election Day. Early voting kicks off here in North Carolina in just a couple of weeks. Absentee by mail started earlier this month.
Nevertheless, We are going to likely watch this process play out. We did get that commentary there from North Carolina State Board of Election Executive Director Sam Hayes. Pleased with that decision.
So we will continue to follow this in the days and weeks leading up to the 2026 midterm elections. We have continuing coverage of this decision from the nation's high court and the North Carolina reaction. You can read all those quotes that I read through, those details over on our website this morning. CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the headline: NC Welcomes Supreme Court ruling on voter citizenship checks.
Many people believe buying a home requires a large down payment and years of saving, but that's not always the case. Across the country, there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers take the next step toward home ownership.
Some of these programs offer down payment assistance or grant funding that may help cover part of the upfront cost of purchasing a home. Grants are especially helpful because they generally do not have to be repaid. There are also organizations that provide homebuyer education, financial counseling, and guidance to help individuals understand the home buying process before they begin. The goal is simple: to help more families become informed and prepared for home ownership. If owning a home is something you've been thinking about, start by visiting ToolsForHomeownership.com.
This message is brought to you by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling's Paving the Way Forward initiative. This is Rick Burgess from the Rick Burgess Show. I want to talk to you for a second about something most of us put on autopilot: car insurance. If you're just letting your policy auto-renew year after year without shopping around, I'm telling you, you are probably throwing money away. Rates change all the time, and staying loyal to one company can end up costing you big time.
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Okay. Yeah. It's 521. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT. Don't forget if you miss any portion of our program to check out the Carolina Journal News Hour in your favorite podcast app.
You can also watch the show live and on demand on our Carolina Journal YouTube channel. Turning our attention to some of the North Carolina General Assembly, while lawmakers are not expected to conduct any actions between now and Election Day, House Majority Leader Brendan Jones, the Republican from Columbus County, is promising an immediate legislative response after the Wake County public school system stopped accepting challenges seeking the removal of library books that are not being used from classroom instruction. The Wake County Board of Education approved the changes to its process for challenging school materials on September the 15th at the districts as the district implements new requirements passed by the North Carolina General Assembly over the summer. Under the district's interpretation of the law, parents may prevent their children from checking out specific library books, but books simply available on library shelves cannot be challenged for removal through the district's new review process. A library book can still be challenged if a teacher uses it in a classroom instruction according to the district.
That distinction has drawn pushback from Representative Jones, who chairs the House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform, and has repeatedly scrutinized and criticized school districts across the state of North Carolina over library materials and in things that are not in compliance with the state's parents' Bill of Rights. In comments provided to Carolina Journal, Jones said that the Wake County interpretation does not reflect what lawmakers intended when they passed the new requirement. He said in part in the statement, Wake County Public Schools interpretation of the law is not correct. The legislative intent was clear to ensure that parents have a voice in what is allowed in their children's school libraries. By eliminating a parent's right to file challenges to inappropriate books, Wake County schools are not only violating parents' rights, but are also directly and intentionally removing those on the front lines who protect our children.
Jones argued that the district's policy cuts parents out of the process that lawmakers created specifically for reviewing disputed materials, adding in his statement, Democrat school boards will always look for loopholes to push their radical agendas and expose children to this filth. While they do that, our caucus will continue fighting to protect children and the rights of parents. We look forward to re-expressing the legislative intent of this law, and the Wake County school system can expect an immediate legislative response when the North Carolina General Assembly returns. We are expecting that return sometime in mid-November. The dispute stems from an an educational provision included in the Parents' Bill of Rights.
The law requires local school boards to establish what are called community media advisory committees to review challenges to instructional material and supplemental material. Challenges can be filed on the grounds that the material is obscene, inappropriate for the age, maturity or grade level of students, or with an exception for library books not aligned with the state's standard course of study. Those local committees must hold a hearing within two weeks of receiving a challenge and make a recommendation to the local school board. It is at the end of the day the school board that ultimately decides whether the material stays or is removed and its decision is not appealable under the statute. Wake County officials say that the challenge process applies to materials being used for instruction rather than books that are merely available for independent reading in the school library.
The Wake School Board Attorney told the district's policy committee in August, quote, each parent controls their own child's access to library books. The attorney said that the new process does not allow a parent or community member to challenge books simply because they are on library shelves. Wake's position relies in part on the distinction that the state law makes between library books and material used for classroom instruction. State law defines a library book as a resource kept in a school or classroom library for students' independent use outside of the standard course of study. It defines supplementary materials as materials used for classroom instruction outside of the primary instruction material.
But the wording has also fueled disagreements over Wake's interpretation. The same definition of supplementary materials specifically lists library books among the materials that can fall within that category. The challenge statute also says materials can be challenged for not being aligned with the standard course of study except for library books. Language that critics of Wake's policy say indicates that lawmakers contemplated library books being subject to the challenge process on the other two grounds. The disagreement continues a broader dispute between Jones and school districts over the role of library books under North Carolina's Parents' Bill of Rights.
You'll remember earlier this year, we covered it in great detail here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. The House Oversight Committee called the Chapel Hill Carborough City School District and its officials before lawmakers over 155 books that Republican lawmakers said conflicted with the Parents' Bill of Rights. Jones later proposed legislation that would allow the state to withhold certain administrative funding from school districts found to be in violation of the law. the General Assembly as it stands right now, and it is important to note That there could be some changes between now and then, but the General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene on November the 16th for its first session after the November the 3rd election. It is not immediately clear whether lawmakers will have or hold another one of these hearings going back to April of this year.
That's when the House Oversight Committee called the Chapel Hill Carborough City School District and its leaders to testify as part of the legislature's ongoing review of materials that were available in public school libraries. That hearing went on for hours. There were a couple of very viral clips, including Representative Jones reading portions of the book and reading some of the language in those books and then throwing them behind him as he went one by one in books that were available within the Chapel Hill-Carborough City School District. The Parents' Bill of Rights now has been enshrined in law for a couple of years. Here in North Carolina, as we continue to watch this debate and this battle between local school boards and the North Carolina General Assembly, we will be keeping an eye on this as we get past the November the 3rd election and see if there will be another one of these very tense hearings between lawmakers and local school officials.
We'll keep you up to date with the details. You can read more coverage of this over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the headline: Wake School Library Policy Draws Warning from NC House Leader. For many people, renting is a convenient option. It offers flexibility and may require less responsibility for maintenance.
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If you're just letting your policy auto-renew year after year without shopping around, I'm telling you, you are probably throwing money away. Rates change all the time, and staying loyal to one company can end up costing you big time. That's why you need to go check out Insurify. I went to insurify.com to test it out myself, and I was blown away by how easy it is. In about two minutes, totally free, you can compare actual real-time quotes from over a hundred top insurance companies all side by side in one place.
No endless phone calls, no pushy sales pitches. Here's what I really love: Insurify doesn't just help you once and walk away, they actually keep monitoring your rates in the background and alert you whenever prices drop so you never miss out on a better deal down the road. Millions of drivers have already used Insurify to stop overpaying, and there's no reason you shouldn't too. Do yourself and your wallet a favor. Go see what you could save right now at insurify.com.
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It's 5.36. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good Tuesday morning to you. Tying together a couple of big stories that we've been following for the past couple of months here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. One, elections.
We'll be seeing those come as early voting begins on October the 15th, Election Day, November the 3rd. And then flock cameras. This has been a very interesting one to watch. Our coverage over at our website, CarolinaJournal.com, has covered local municipalities across the state of North Carolina that have scrapped those contracts as it relates to security and privacy concerns from elected officials and the community. Marrying those both together this morning, it's my pleasure to welcome Andrew Pomerance, CarolinaJournal.com to our airwaves.
Andrew, we've got a race in Wake County for the North Carolina General Assembly, where a Democrat candidate, Hopeful, made some interesting comments at a gala dinner a couple of weeks ago as it relates to access to flock cameras. What's the latest that you're following? Yeah, really interesting comments made by that candidate, House Democratic candidate Yvonne Hopkins, during the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce candidate forum just last week here. And, you know, she is an attorney. She's a family law specialist.
She owns the Raleigh Law Center in Wake County. And so she, when asked about the question of whether she would support flock cameras, went on record with, I think, an interesting remark that caught most of the attention of the room there. And she said, and I quote, I've literally caught people cheating on their spouses by accessing the data. That's how readily available the information about you is. And so throw up a lot of red flags immediately for folks across the aisle here.
How did she get access to this data? What is she talking about? Having access to police flock data, as some might assume that those systems are kind of what she had access to. And threw up a lot of red flags in terms of privacy here. And then also, is this just the expansion of flock camera data?
Can we really use it for something? Like people cheating on their spouses here, and is that an inappropriate use of it? And so, a really interesting remark that caught the attention, like I said, of both people, people on both sides of the political aisle here last week in the state of North Carolina.
Well, and Andrew, I think this kind of lays very well into the hands of those that have been making these arguments now, not only here in North Carolina, but across the rest of the country for months now. Who exactly has access to this data? If we were talking about, oh, you know, there's a double homicide in Raleigh or in and around Wake County that we were talking about, and those comments were made, it might make a little bit more sense. But we're talking about things, and again, we're not sitting here and passing judgment or making commentary on whether it's appropriate or not to cheat on your spouse. But we're not talking about a situation where you've got people being murdered and a serious law enforcement investigation going on.
We're talking about a private family law attorney having access to this data. It remains unclear whether this was a Wake County sheriff's or Raleigh Police Department or these private cameras that we've seen set up across the state as well. I think it lays right into the hands of those that say, who exactly has access to this data? Yes, I think you're exactly right. I think it's important to mention, right, she did not specify during that forum and we reached out to comment.
We've not heard back from her how she accessed this data, whether it came from a law enforcement Enforcement agencies system, or is just a privately operated flock camera, right? And so I think when we hear flock cameras, we think immediately to those that law enforcement use to track down, you know, for a very specific few number of violations, including stolen cars or abductions of people or something like that, right? Where law enforcement has clear guidelines to what they can use that flock data camera for. Private flock cameras are, you know, nothing more than a ring doorbell or an ADT system, maybe going back a little bit further, right? There are these security systems that HOAs, neighborhoods, different apartment complexes or business parks can actually buy from Flock and have installed into their complexes there, right?
And that data is largely subpoenaable. You know, you can have that data subpoenaed in a criminal case if something happens on those grounds. And we assume that is where she accesses data because if not, it would have been a misdemeanor for her to access that information, right? And the question is, how did she in the first place? And so a really interesting debate here about having these kind of private cameras surveys.
Systems in these types of neighborhoods or business parks or things where people may not even realize they're being recorded and can be used for a number of different cases rather than just those specified in legislation here in North Carolina, which, like I mentioned, include just a fine number of different instances where law enforcement can access those cameras. Yeah, and I don't want to make any crazy broad generalizations, but again, doing research on this over the last couple of months, Andrew, these private ones in these business parks are very interesting. You've got these private companies that go to these big box stores. We're talking about grocery stores and hardware stores, these other large business facilities. They come in, they say, hey, we'll pay you to put these fly cameras on your property with the commentary there being, you know, if there's any sort of shoplifting or issues that are going on in this area, you'll be able to access that data.
It's very, become a very lucrative business model for these third parties to install these little ALPR systems literally all across the country.
Well, and right, I mean I go back towards, like I mentioned earlier, ADT systems, or you know, historically we've always had, you know, smile you are on camera inside when you walk into retail stores. And you know, this is just the next wave of kind of, I think, security for a lot of these folks, right? Instead of an HOA having to hire a security guard, now they hire a or have it flock cameras installed. And right, in flock cameras, that name, I think, gets a bad reputation, but it Kind of refers to this whole system, a couple of different companies who do this automated camera systems. And so, you know, I think it'll be interesting to see how North Carolina, the General Assembly, addresses this when they come back.
So, in the state budget this year, they passed legislation allowing law enforcement to take what was originally a pilot program-wide scale and install flock cameras across the state for those law enforcement purposes and legalize that. And so, it'll be interesting to see in terms of this kind of private side of Flock cameras, what regulations are put in place. And, like you mentioned, who can access this data, right? Can Home Depot access this data to stop a shoplifter? But then, on the back end, can Flock take that data and utilize it in ways that consumers are not agreeing to just by walking in, or are they agreeing to by just walking in the Home Depot, right?
Can they sell that data for different advertisement purposes? Can they access it to see where consumers are and potentially sell that data? Can they pull phone records from that? And so, a really interesting system here in Flock cameras. And as they expand nationally, right?
I assume we'll continue to see cases like this where private lawyers will subpoena those records to find things out like was a spouse in a different neighborhood at the time he said he was at home visiting someone else, right? And so I think as we continue to expand, I think this will become a really slippery slope in terms of legal court cases. And we could see this really becoming a staple in a lot of these cases. As I mentioned at the open, kind of taking two relatively hot topics, the Flock hammers and, of course, the midterm elections coming up here. Andrew, this candidate is running in what is seen by many as a very competitive district in Wake County, especially for House Republicans who are looking to remain their numbers close to where they are right now to either have or get close to that veto-proof supermajority on the flip side.
Democrats would love to take majorities in the North Carolina House for the first time in 16 years. I would imagine with all of the outrage over flock, these comments being made, there's a pretty big political element to this as well. What is her opponent saying? Yeah, we actually reached out to our opponent here for comment and he sent us over and said, you know, no comment at this time. And I think that really does go back to the fact that we are still waiting to hear from where she accessed this data, right?
If she accessed this data from a private security camera and said that I had a subpoena, it was for a trial. Technically, she'd not break any laws here. She did not do anything wrong in terms of just legally, right? And so I think his position here is he doesn't want to incriminate himself or her in manner of commenting. But I think it's important you note, you know, this House, District 35, if Democrats want to win back the House this year, this is a district they have to win.
This is something that, you know, is a R plus zero, according to the Civitas Partisan Index, right?
So this is a district that Republicans won in 2024 by 3.2 percent. percentage points, just under 2,000 votes. And so it's a district that, you know, they have had their eyes on always since 2024 and in this blue wave election year, which a lot of people are predicting, right? This is a district that once It's kind of the tell, right? If this district goes and Representative Mike Sheet Soul, who's widely popular, young representative out of Wake County, you know, attorney himself in the area, he loses this election in an R plus year, I think you start to see some momentum potentially for those R plus three seats, those R plus five seats on the outskirts of Mecklenburg County and Wake County here.
And so. Really interesting comments from someone who probably did not want some turmoil at this point in her election as we, you know, rear ahead on just now 30 days up until election season. And so it'll be interesting to watch how this continues to unfold. If she does come out and make a comment about it, the only comment we have from her team or from the Democratic caucus is a statement from the North Carolina House Democratic Caucus, which she said, you know, flock and they kind of echoed that statement that flock cameras are not all owned by the police. And so it'll be interesting to see what else develops here.
But in a district where there's not a lot of room for error on either side, an interesting step in a hole here potentially for her. Yeah, and I'm glad you made that point. Again, this has become such a hot-button issue, similar to data centers, which we've talked about in great detail as well. Both sides of the political aisle, we've seen unified on an issue, which we don't practically see and practically see often here where folks get together on a lot of issues from the political right and the political left. And that we have seen that on this flock issue.
We have continuing coverage of this story, plus a lot of other discussions and stories as it relates to the midterm elections and the North Carolina General Assembly. Those details available this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Andrew Pomerantz joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Many people believe buying a home requires a large down payment and years of saving, but that's not always the case.
Across the country, there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers take the next step toward home ownership.
Some of these programs offer down payment assistance or grant funding that may help cover part of the upfront cost of purchasing a home. Grants are especially helpful because they generally do not have to be repaid. There are also organizations that provide homebuyer education, financial counseling, and guidance to help individuals understand the home buying process before they begin. The goal is simple: to help more families become informed and prepared for home ownership. If owning a home is something you've been thinking about, start by visiting toolsforhomeownership.com.
This message is brought to you by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling's Paving the Way Forward initiative. This is Rick Burgess from the Rick Burgess Show. I want to talk to you for a second about something most of us put on autopilot: car insurance. If you're just letting your policy auto-renew year after year without shopping around, I'm telling you, you are probably throwing money away. Rates change all the time, and staying loyal to one company can end up costing you big time.
That's why you need to go check out Insurify. I went to insurify.com to test it out myself, and I was blown away by how easy it is. In about two minutes, totally free, you can compare actual real-time quotes from over a hundred top insurance companies all side by side in one place. No endless phone calls, no pushy sales pitches. Here's what I really love: Insurify doesn't just help you once and walk away, they actually keep monitoring your rates in the background and alert you whenever prices drop so you never miss out on a better deal down the road.
Millions of drivers have already used Insurify to stop overpaying, and there's no reason you should. Do yourself and your wallet a favor. Go see what you could say right now at insurify.com. That's insurify.com.
Good morning again. It's 552. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT tracking some other news across North Carolina this morning. Duke Energy has been selected to receive up to $50 million in federal funding to upgrade portions of its power grid in western North and South Carolina as utility workers work to keep pace with growing electrical demand. The United States Department of Energy announced the selection on September the 24th as part of a broader federal effort to increase transmission capabilities and improve grid reliability.
In North Carolina, the proposed project would include transmission improvements in both Henderson and Polk counties. The federal award is not yet final, I'll note, and Duke Energy must complete negotiations with the Department of Energy before receiving the funding with final awards under the program expected between October 2026 and January of 2027. Duke Energy plans to contribute approximately $151 million of its own resources to the project, bringing the total project to more than $200 million in grid improvements across the Carolinas. The company said that the federal funding would offset some of the costs that otherwise could be burdened by consumers and ratepayers. A main focus of the project is increasing the amount of electricity that can flow through existing transmission infrastructure rather than relying solely on constructing new transmission lines.
Duke Energy plans to use technology including advanced conductors and dynamic line ratings, which can allow utilities to carry more electricity over existing transmission corridors and better determine how much power individual lines can safely handle under changing conditions. According to Scott Batson, who is Duke Energy's executive vice president and chief power grid officer, he says strengthening the grid requires targeted investments that improve reliability and help ensure that our system is ready to meet customers' evolving energy needs in a cost-effective manner. Batson also thanked the Trump administration and the Department of Energy for selecting the company, saying by making smarter use of existing infrastructure, we're able to bring customers' benefits to our communities faster, including improving outage response, a more flexible electrical grid, and greater readiness to meet the region's growing energy needs. U.S. Senator Ted Budd here in North Carolina highlighted the investment in a social media post citing the importance of electrical reliability in western North Carolina, saying in part, the Department of Energy is helping Duke Energy strengthen reliability.
A $50 million investment will fund targeted transmission system upgrades at facilities in Henderson and Paul counties, delivering more power to homes and businesses across the region. That is what Senator Budd posted on his ex-account. The funding comes through the Department of Energy's Speed to Power through the Accelerated Reconstruction and other programs within the Department of Energy. The department announced 31 selected grid projects across 26 states under the program. Altogether, the projects represent approximately $5.25 billion in investment, including $1.9 billion in federal funding and $3.35 billion in funding.
billion in funding contributed by recipients. The Department of Energy estimates that the projects will rebuild or replace conductors on more than 1,500 miles of transition lines and deploy grid enhancing technologies across nearly 21,000 miles of line. The agency says that the projects collectively could make more than 23 gigawatts of additional electricity capacity available. The project is funded through the Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and is part of a broader grid resilience and innovative partnership program, which Congress authorized and provided up to $10.5 billion worth of funding over a five-year period of time. The $50 million selection is the latest federal funding that Duke Energy has pursued for its Carolina system.
Earlier this year, the company was selected for around $96 million in Department of Energy grants for reliability and other projects at coal-fired power plants in both North Carolina and Kentucky. More coverage of this over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Tuesday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT.
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