URGENT: Ensure Ratepayer Protection Through Market-Driven Energy Policy in S730

As your constituent, I urge you to amend Senate Bill 730's "Ratepayer Protection Act" by replacing the mandate for nuclear power with language allowing the North Carolina Utilities Commission to employ a least-cost pathway approach to energy generation. The current language mandating nuclear energy will be extremely expensive for ratepayers and makes a farce of the bill's title. I support S730's data center regulations, which appropriately address noise impacts, water systems, and environmental safeguards. However, the bill's requirement that baseload power plants cannot be retired until replaced by nuclear facilities is unnecessarily restrictive and works against the act's stated purpose of protecting ratepayers. During House Commerce Committee testimony, Rep. Brandon Lofton raised a critical point: mandating nuclear construction could require waiting years for facilities that may never be built, whereas the NCUC could achieve grid reliability much faster and more affordably through flexible energy solutions. The current language prioritizes a specific technology over actual results. Reps. Matthew Winslow asserts that renewable energy is unreliable compared to nuclear power. This premise is outdated. Recent data shows that batteries have become so cost-effective that three-fourths of India's firm capacity additions are now solar plus battery systems. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, leading countries have met clean energy targets years ahead of schedule—China six years early—while maintaining grid stability and superior reliability. A 100-percent-solar microgrid powering modular data centers was successfully built in four months in the United States at lower cost than grid power. North Carolina's data centers require reliable baseload power, but the most economical and fastest path to that reliability involves competitive market solutions, not legislative mandates. The NCUC has the expertise to balance cost, reliability, and environmental concerns, especially if the NCUC chairman gets his head out of the last century and lifts his April 23 deferral order embargoing Duke Energy from solar/battery solutions. Empowering the commission to pursue a least-cost pathway would maintain grid security while protecting ratepayers from unnecessary expenses. I respectfully request that you revise S730 to replace the nuclear mandate with language authorizing the NCUC to achieve baseload capacity through the most cost-effective available technologies, including renewable energy plus battery storage.