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Page added on April 5, 2015
Walmart and Other Corporate Giants Call for Clean Energy Choices
Leading national companies in North Carolina want more choice and competition when it comes to energy, including where it comes from and who they buy it from. That’s the message recently delivered to the North Carolina legislature in a letter signed by 10 corporate giants in the state.
The list of companies calling for action is impressive, including:
- Some of the country’s largest retailers – Walmart, Lowes, Target, Family Dollar, and Macy’s
- Major manufacturers – Volvo, textile giant VF, Unilever, and New Belgium Brewing
- Agriculture commodities giant Cargill
North Carolina’s current law prohibits companies from contracting with energy providers other than utilities. It’s easy to understand how that law squashes consumer choice and competition.
The 10 companies want the ability to buy clean, renewable electricity directly from providers other than utilities like Duke Energy and Dominion. Greater choice in the North Carolina electricity market would provide a wide range of benefits. For example, companies and homeowners would be able to lease rooftop solar panels from clean energy providers at little to no upfront cost and lock in long-term, stable electricity rates.
The ability to choose a clean energy provider is commonly known as “third party sales,” and it’s not a new concept. In fact, North Carolina is one of only five states that prohibit companies from selecting where they buy their power.
Fortunately, that may change in the state’s 2015 legislative session. A bill called the “Energy Freedom Act” would nullify the state’s outdated prohibition on third party sales, allowing independent power producers to bypass Duke Energy and Dominion and sell clean energy directly to businesses and homes. As a win-win for the state’s economy and clean energy, the bill’s list of sponsors reflects bipartisan support for energy freedom.
In their letter to lawmakers, the companies said that “the availability of competitive renewable energy choices is also a key factor for many of us when we choose where to do business.”
North Carolina has failed to keep pace with other states on energy choice and competition, and businesses have taken note. Now lawmakers can help the state catch up.
8 Comments on "Walmart and Other Corporate Giants Call for Clean Energy Choices"
Davy on Sun, 5th Apr 2015 8:35 am
Great, when the descent idles Walmart’s warehouse on wheels we will have huge spaces with AltE on the roof where we can have cottage industries. Maybe people can live there too. I am all for it.
Kenz300 on Sun, 5th Apr 2015 9:10 am
The Renewable Electricity Grid: The Future Is Now
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2015/03/the-renewable-electricity-grid-the-future-is-now
——————————
U.S. Solar Energy Industry Achieves Record-Shattering Year
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2015/03/u-s-solar-energy-industry-achieves-record-shattering-year
ghung on Sun, 5th Apr 2015 9:21 am
“North Carolina has failed to keep pace with other states on energy choice and competition…”
I suppose it’s a matter of how one views things. North Carolina is second only to California in installed solar (through 2014); about three times that of Texas (sorry Rock), and more than the rest of the southeast states combined. The state currently gives a 35% tax credit to several types of solar installs along with the 30% Federal credit. Indeed, we just took our first tax credits this year (after nearly two decades of living on solar) for the installation of our new solar hot water system. With the credits, payback can be two years or less for many people.
That said, the Republican near-sweep of the State’s General Assembly will likely mean the curtailment of solar incentives, so I applaud big business pushing this issue forward. I’m sure that those in the legislature will listen carefully to their corporate masters.
baha on Sun, 5th Apr 2015 9:44 am
Job Security!!
rockman on Sun, 5th Apr 2015 9:49 am
ghung – No problamo: Texas has more then 12X the alt energy production as N Carolina. And all do to the support of our state’s politicians. A political system dominated by the Republican party.
Not only is it not personal it isn’t political…it’s just good business.
sunweb on Sun, 5th Apr 2015 1:12 pm
The hype hides the true material and energy history of solar energy collecting devices which are not clean, are not sustainable without fossil fuels and are not renewable without the global industrial infrastructure. We are creating false hopes while continuing the destructive business as usual to satisfy a small number of the population of the planet.
Here an “Inner Mongolia’s coal-powered rare earth mine – ‘Stretching into the distance lies an artificial lake filled with a black, barely-liquid, toxic
sludge’ ”
<http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2015/04/inner-mongolias-coal-powered-rare-earth.html
And here is what it takes to make low iron glass and the economies of scale. http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2015/03/making-glass_8.html
Go Speed Racer. on Sun, 5th Apr 2015 1:35 pm
Those are some cool links. Read them both
oldfarmermac on Sun, 5th Apr 2015 9:41 pm
Hi Ghung and Rockman ,
It ‘s good to know you guys are still around. I believe the future of renewable energy competition is bright in North Carolina although there may be some temporary setbacks.
When it comes to business the Tarheels are pragmatists of the good sort and will support anything that looks good for the state over the long run.Long term thinking comes naturally to them.
Putting aside politics when it comes to business is easier in North Carolina than just about any place else. Most republicans in other states seem to be locked into rejecting renewable energy simply because at the national level renewables are associated with democrats and environmentalists.
The future has to be renewables and down to earth people such as NC republicans don’t have a lot of trouble recognizing this fact.
It is hard to pretend in the NC political environment that you don’t understand that fossil fuels come out of holes in the ground and that they don’t grow back.
Unfortunately here in Virginia next door our politicians are not nearly so forth coming in admitting they understand reality.