The Power Bill Reduction Act.

"The Power Bill Reduction Act." Three guesses what it does to your power bill. If you guessed "reduces it"... NC State researchers found it could cost ratepayers up to $23 billion in added fuel expenses through 2050. The NC Utilities Commission's own Public Staff estimated it shifts at least $24.8 million a year in costs from industrial customers onto residential customers. You pay more so Duke Energy's biggest corporate clients pay less.

The bill eliminates the state's 2030 carbon reduction target, lets Duke charge you for building new power plants before they even generate electricity, and if those plants go over budget or never get finished... you're still on the hook. This exact scenario already happened in South Carolina and Florida, where ratepayers are paying for plants that were never completed.

SB 266 didn't start as an energy bill, by the way. It originally dealt with rebuilding homes in floodplains after Hurricane Helene. House lawmakers gutted that language and replaced it with the Duke Energy provisions. Some legislators had 12 hours to review the new version before voting. It was publicly available for 10 minutes before the committee hearing.

The bill's primary sponsor, Senator Paul Newton, was president of Duke Energy North Carolina until 2015. Duke Energy's PAC was a regular top contributor to his campaigns. Newton resigned from the Senate two weeks after his bill's final draft was filed. Governor Stein vetoed it. The supermajority overrode the veto with help from two Charlotte Democrats who had also received thousands in Duke Energy PAC donations. Both of those Democrats lost their primaries this month.