The North Carolina General Assembly's Public Utilities and Energy Committee on Wednesday voted down H.B.298, legislation that would have repealed the state's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS).
H.B.298, introduced by State Rep. Mike Hager in March, passed in a state House committee earlier this month before being moved to the Public Utilities and Energy Committee for a vote.
The REPS requires North Carolina's investor-owned utilities to procure 12.5% of their generation from renewable energy by 2021, while electric cooperatives and municipal utilities are required to procure 10% by 2018.
‘This vote to defeat the REPS repeal bill was not just a good outcome, it was the right outcome,’ Ivan Urlaub, executive director of the NC Sustainable Energy Association, said in a statement. ‘North Carolina businesses, ratepayers, workers and state and local economies all had a stake in this outcome, and they all won a victory today.’
