When Laura Kellogg’s three children couldn’t breathe well in her home state of Massachusetts because their asthma was out of control, she took drastic measures and moved her entire family to where the air was cleaner, the North Carolina coast. “I knew we had to do something for the quality of all our lives,” Kellogg, a Wilmington, N.C. resident, said. “Now, their pulmonolgists at Duke are impressed with how much their lungs have improved.”
But, the clean air in which Kellogg’s family moved to N.C. for may be threatened if a bill making it’s way through the N.C. General Assembly passes.
In 2007, the General Assembly passed the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS) mandating that 6 percent of energy generated by power companies must come from renewable sources. That renewable energy standard for the power companies is set to increase to 10 percent of their power in 2018 and 12.5 percent in 2021. This law also requires the state’s large monopoly electricity providers to reimburse small solar farms at a specified rate to ensure that they are financially viable. This has contributed to N.C. being one of the nation’s largest growing solar energy producers.
The N.C. House passed House Bill 332 recently, a bill that drastically reduces the amount of energy power companies are required to obtain from renewable sources. The Senate will now take up the measure as S628. Take action now.
According to the American Lung Association’s 2015 State of the Air Report, North Carolina’s air quality has made slight improvements because of provisions like REPS. But we still have a long way to go to ensure everyone, especially children can breathe easier. The 825,134 people who suffer from asthma in our state deserve to breathe clean air everyday.
This current bill would freeze these standards at 6 percent and change the rate rules for the solar farms thwarting the growth of the solar industry and putting clean air at risk.
Click here to contact your state senator today and ask him or her to vote against S628.
