Clean Energy/Other Changes.

"Clean Energy" is one of those phrases that sounds good no matter who you are. Who's against clean energy? The trick is in what the bill defines as "clean."

SB 678 renames the state's "Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard" to the "Clean Energy Portfolio Standard" and redefines "clean energy" to include nuclear power. That's a policy choice you can debate on the merits. But the practical effect is that utilities can now count nuclear toward their clean energy requirements instead of investing in solar, wind, and other renewables. The NC Black Alliance noted this would fast-track nuclear energy into the state.

The "Other Changes" part of the title covers... extending deadlines for closing coal ash surface impoundments, exempting the Utilities Commission and its Public Staff from state HR classification and compensation rules, and making certain non-disclosure agreements between utilities and regulators exempt from public records laws. The title mentions none of this. Governor Cooper vetoed it, saying NC was on a "bipartisan path" to reducing carbon and this bill undermined it. The override passed on straight party lines.

The bill started as "Promote Clean Energy." At least that title was honest about the intent. By the time it passed, it had picked up enough unrelated provisions to earn the vague "Other Changes" suffix... which is legislative shorthand for "stuff we'd rather not list in the title."