By Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson

Governor Cooper’s latest executive order (number 218), requiring North Carolina to develop massive wind farms off our shores, is another example of his administration’s failure to recognize that our state needs energy. affordable, reliable and clean to develop our economy and our quality. of life. Instead, Governor Cooper yesterday [June 9] again joins the Democratic governors of New York and New Jersey in pushing forward the Biden administration and environmental activists’ ‘new green deal’ agenda while ignoring what experts have called our ‘number one vulnerability’. energy infrastructure. Just weeks after Cooper’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) denied a necessary permit for a critical gas pipeline, and after his own DEQ official failed to receive Senate confirmation, the governor continues on the wrong track for North Carolina’s energy policy by executive order. North Carolina has a mechanism established by state law to study energy issues facing the state and advise the General Assembly: the Biparty Energy Policy Council, of which I am the chair. However, Governor Cooper decided that he would set North Carolina’s energy policies on his own with this executive order, which established yet another “task force” made up only of people appointed by him, but failed to even mention the Council. energy policy.

With this executive order, Governor Cooper is attempting to commit North Carolina to a future dependent on unreliable, outrageously expensive, environmentally suspect and socially irresponsible offshore wind energy. This idea is not the economic gold mine that the Cooper administration would have us believe. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), offshore wind is 2.6 times more expensive than onshore wind and 3.4 times more expensive than electricity produced by a combined cycle natural gas plant. In its most recent report, the EIA estimated that electricity produced by offshore wind installations commissioned in 2025 will have an average cost of $ 122.25 per megawatt hour, while electricity produced by gas installations natural will have an average cost of just $ 38.07. per megawatt hour. The citizens and businesses of North Carolina will bear the cost of Cooper’s environmental activism and premium electricity each month on their utility bills. In addition to skyrocketing the cost of electricity, the Cooper Decree on Offshore Wind Turbines ignores the economic cost that giant wind turbines off our coasts will have on the tourism industry, upon which many of our coastal communities depend. , as well as the impact on our fishing industry, military bases and the environment.

Governor Cooper talks about “clean energy” and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by mandating offshore wind turbines, but ignores the real negative effects such a mandate will have on the environment. The Daily News even reported: “For example, Vineyard Wind, an 800 MW project to be built from Martha’s Vineyard, previously withdrew its application after a draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) revealed that the project would adversely affect fishing habitat and endangered species. “In addition, many components of wind turbines, including the huge magnets and massive batteries required, depend on rare earth metals. These metals are mined under non-existent and horrific environmental working conditions, including child labor. The supply is controlled primarily by China. Wind turbines have an effective lifespan of about twenty years, and Cooper’s plan is silent on what will happen to these monstrous and toxic coastal horrors when they are no longer needed – or Who will pay to suppress them Worse yet, what will become of them the first time they encounter an Atlantic hurricane, the destructive power of which North Carolinians know too well?

A recent report from the Manhattan Institute think tank sums it up well: “The combination of lower electricity costs, new manufacturing industries and thousands of new jobs, along with reduced greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. , makes offshore wind a dream. It’s a dream: in reality, offshore wind will lead to higher electricity costs, lower economic growth and significant negative environmental impacts. Governor Cooper should stop following the marching orders of the Biden administration and left-wing environmental activists, and instead follow his own advice and “follow the science.”

Mark Robinson is the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina.

FOR MORE COLUMNS AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, SEE OUR NOTICE SECTION HERE.