Excellent news: Duke Energy will not pursue offshore wind energy generation off the coast of North Carolina!
Good evening,
Excellent news: Duke Energy will not pursue offshore wind energy generation off the coast of North Carolina!
The decision was made following an independent evaluation demonstrating that offshore wind is not cost-effective, which was presented to the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC).
This is what we at the John Locke Foundation have long argued for.
For several years, our Center for Food, Power, and Life’s regular research briefs examined the costs, reliability, environmental impacts, and legal complications of different sources of energy. The Center’s Director, Jon Sanders, has arduously beat the drum about the unique costs of offshore wind.
One of the Center’s key points has been that offshore wind is neither reliable enough nor cost-effective enough to meet both North Carolina’s growing energy demand and the statutory requirements to reduce carbon emissions.
And now the NCUC agrees too, finding that new natural gas and nuclear power plants are more cost-effective and reliable.
Beyond cost and reliability, Duke’s decision to back away from offshore wind energy is a welcome outcome.
Offshore wind would worsen energy poverty, severely impact North Carolina’s coastal fishing and beach tourism industries, and overall harm economic growth.
On the environmental front, offshore wind turbines threaten irreparable devastation to critically endangered or threatened marine animals or birds, such as the North Atlantic Right Whale. It’s also foolhardy to place them in North Carolina’s uniquely hurricane-prone waters.
Ultimately, whether it's economic or environmental, Duke Energy’s decision to drop offshore wind is very good news for North Carolina.
You can read more about energy from Locke here, here, and here.
Esse quam videri,
Donald Bryson
CEO
John Locke Foundation
Watch our latest video here!
Write about the American Revolution, and you could win thousands $$$
The House in the Horseshoe State Historic Site recently held a reenactment of a July 1781 battle between a Patriot militia and Loyalist Tory forces
The reenactment demonstrated that the Revolutionary War in North Carolina was characterized by small-scale guerrilla warfare between local Patriots and Loyalists
The battle at the House in the Horseshoe involved Loyalist Colonel David Fanning and his men surrounding and attacking the house of Patriot Colonel Philip Alston
The three-hour fight ended when Fanning's men attempted to set fire to the house, and Alston's wife, Temperance, surrendered to Fanning to save her family and home
It was an excellent example of the kind of backwoods raiding and marauding that went on in our state during the war, pitting neighbor against neighbor and family against family in surprisingly hateful attacks on each other
The event will not be held in 2026 due to site renovations
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has identified several issues with North Carolina’s voter rolls, affecting tens of thousands of registrations
PILF’s analysis found over 29,400 duplicate registrations across multiple states, with 17,817 matches between North Carolina and Florida alone
Over 12,700 duplicate or triplicate registrations were found at the same address, often due to minor variations in name spelling or nicknames
PILF’s study revealed 230 duplicate registrations within North Carolina, a problem that occurs when a voter's old registration isn’t canceled after they move to a new county
At least 613 registrations have placeholder or fictitious dates of birth, such as “1/1/1900,” which can hinder efforts to maintain a voter list and identify deceased voters
The State Board of Elections (SBE) needs to address these problems by improving its data-matching systems, investigating lists from citizen groups, or streamlining the citizen-initiated challenge process
Governor Josh Stein vetoed HB 87, a bill that would allow North Carolina to participate in a federal tax credit scholarship program
He stated that Congress and the Administration should strengthen public schools, rather than “hollow them out”
Stein believes that choice should be limited to families who have students in the public schools, choosing from traditional public schools, charter schools, and magnet schools
This view ignores the needs of families whose children attend low-performing public schools or whose local public options are not a good fit
His stance is also out of line with public sentiment, as a January 2025 Carolina Journal poll found that 72% of respondents believe parents are best suited to determine where a child should attend school
Also, the claim that public schools are being “hollowed out” is not supported by the numbers
Funding for K-12 public schools has increased for 14 consecutive years
North Carolina’s public schools received an extra $6.2 billion in federal funding to address pandemic-related issues
Support per student in North Carolina public schools has risen from $8,477 in 2013-14 to $13,222 in 2023-24
Anyone who thinks the public schools are being hollowed out is simply misinformed
Gov. Stein’s veto of the federal tax credit scholarship program is petty and small-minded — the governor has every right to defend his veto, but the people of North Carolina deserve a more compelling case
