ICN Sunday Morning: The Terrible Combined With the Good

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and North Carolina reporter Lisa Sorg as they explain how a new N.C. ratepayer bill would put the brakes on data centers while incentivizing the use of fossil fuels.The Ratepayer Protection Act, making its way through the North Carolina legislature, conjoins two opposing ideas. On one side, the bill would rein in data centers and their ravenous power consumption, and shield North Carolinians from paying higher electric bills as a result of data centers’ operations. On the other, the measure would liberate Duke Energy from limits on fossil fuel, upending key aspects of state energy policy and, in some respects, reversing nearly 20 years of painstaking work on climate change. “It’s the terrible combined with the good,” a local advocate explained. “They should be two separate bills.” Lisa, who has been following this legislation, explains how these two ideas got put together in the first place, where the opposing ideas fit in the state’s political landscape, and what’s at stake for North Carolina if the bill passes.