With the delusional politics we experienced over the last decade or so, we saw the retirement of coal-burning plants for electrical generation in the state of North Carolina. We saw huge amounts of farmland converted for solar panel installations– defiling the landscape and harming the environment. We saw very limited wind energy attempts.
While natural gas is cleaner than coal, we see at Carolina Journal that natural gas has faced certain hurdles:
- Former Governor Cooper used the permitting process for natural gas pipelines to extract benefits for his favored constituencies, and to otherwise drag out and delay these projects; and
- The Republican General Assembly passed a Carbon Plan into law that would face out carbon-based fuels in the long run for electrical generation.
In addition, natural gas pipelines have faced barriers with the federal government, environmental organizations, the courts, land owners and local communities.
It is very desirable for us to increase regional supplies of natural gas and to use more of this resource. It is desirable for environmental reasons, electricity costs and reliability.
The Carolina Journal article references attempts at the state level to overcome some of the hurdles. Trump is initiating efforts at the federal level also.
We cannot be so stupid that we reject such an obvious solution.
Many of our Navy vessels have been successfully using nuclear energy for years. The fact that we do not adopt this technology for domestic use continues to baffle me.
You’re right, John. It seems we will likely see some new nuclear plants over the next 5-10 years. Some of them might be smaller plants. But nuclear definitely needs to be part of the mix.
A separate report by Jon Sanuders of the Locke Foundation
offers the following recommendations to help buttress and
improve the laws for the benefit of North Carolina’s energy consumers:
• Repeal the Carbon Plan — or at least its interim goal
• Pass an “Only Pay for What You Get” Act
• Forbid overly vague permitting criteria
• Maintain vigilance over successful reforms
He concludes by saying…..Urge Congress to Pass Permitting Reforms
Many of the problems facing pipeline construction are on the federal
side of the ledger. State policymakers should urge North Carolina’s congressional delegation to support legislation streamlining the 401 WQC
process to avoid it being weaponized against critical domestic energy
infrastructure. State lawmakers should also urge Congress to reform federal permitting policies that slow down or prevent new domestic energy
infrastructure and make the provision of energy unnecessarily expensive.
Great summary, Fred. Much can be done at the state level and with executive action at the federal level.
However, it is nearly impossible to pass good legislation in Washington. I wish that were not the case, but unfortunately, it is.
Amen. Natural gas is really pretty clean and easily the cheapest too.
Yes, J. Sobran, it is an obvious solution that the political class had been stacking the deck against.