New North Carolina Law Targets Power Sector’s Greenhouse Gases

North Carolina’s power sector will have to slash climate-warming emissions by 70% in the next nine years under landmark legislation signed into law Wednesday.

The bill (H.B. 951) directs the North Carolina Utilities Commission to require the state’s public electric utilities to achieve the carbon emission reductions by 2030 compared with 2005 levels and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

It also authorizes the commission, which regulates the state’s major utility, Duke Energy Corp., and other utilities in North Carolina, to come up with a plan to meet the reduction targets by the end of 2022.

Republican state ...