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Infrastructure help on way for Chimney Rock, other mountain towns

Chimney Rock is getting nearly $11.9 million in aid for water and sewer infrastructure as it continues to recover from Hurricane Helene, Gov. Josh Stein’s office says. The awards — federal disaster relief money channeled through the state government — are part of a broader package totaling about $280 million....

By Ray Gronberg

December 12, 2025

No right to repair in defense bill

Multiple reports indicate that Congress has dropped the idea of adopting subjecting military contractors to a “right to repair” law via an upcoming defense-spending bill. Star & Stripes, the Federal News Network, Wired and The Intercept all reported that language implementing the concept got stripped from the National Defense Authorization...

By Ray Gronberg

December 12, 2025

Achievement gaps in the crosshairs

Wednesday’s House Oversight hearing also allowed legislators to sound off about a perennial issue within the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, namely the large “achievement gap” between white and black students. This is quickly summarized via Department of Public Instruction student-proficiency statistics. For 2025, these show that 70.3% of the Chapel...

By Ray Gronberg

December 12, 2025

House Oversight battles the Chapel Hill schools

Members of a House committee have warned the leaders of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to expect legislative retaliation over their defiance of the 2023 session’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” “You’re going to need state funds, aren’t you?” said Rep. Jeff McNeely, R-Iredell, alluding to the subsidies the General Assembly...

By Ray Gronberg

December 12, 2025

Fiscal Research sees a cloudy economic picture

Legislative staffers are expecting pretty much all the state’s key economic indicators to slow in fiscal 2026-27 — just in time for next year’s mid-term elections. Their reckoning, based on numbers obtained from Moody’s Analytics, is that the average unemployment rate in North Carolina for the upcoming fiscal year will increase...

By Ray Gronberg

December 10, 2025

Boom finds AI customer for its engine tech

The jet engines Boom Supersonic’s designing for the airliners it wants to build in Greensboro may wind up powering data centers first. Boom announced Tuesday that it’s gotten an order from San Francisco-based Crusoe Inc. for 29 “Superpower” turbines for use in AI data centers. Crusoe has projects in store...

By Ray Gronberg

December 10, 2025

Tillis: Highlight the business case for renewables

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, of course, was on hand for Monday’s Clean Energy Champions luncheon not so much to talk about his future but to discuss the uncertain times facing renewable energy technology. He counseled pragmatism and a strong, business-oriented focus. Doing the “right thing” in the sector, by itself,...

By Ray Gronberg

December 9, 2025

Lumbee recognition in pending defense bill

U.S. House members are going to try to pass the long-awaited Lumbee recognition bill by incorporating it into an omnibus defense-spending bill. The move is already drawing criticism from the leaders of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Their principal chief, Michell Hicks, said the bill is “not the appropriate...

By Ray Gronberg

December 9, 2025

Farmers, biz groups complete Clean Energy awards

Another of the Clean Energy Champions awards announced Monday went to Martin County farmers Ken and Johna Gurganus, in part for their efforts year to oppose House Bill 729. This was a proposal from state Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, and senior chairman of House Agriculture and Environment, that in its first...

By Ray Gronberg

December 9, 2025

Hall, Gable honored for power-transmission bill

State Reps. Kyle Hall and Wyatt Gable received two of the “Clean Energy Champions” awards handed out Monday by Conservatives for Clean Energy’s North Carolina chapter, largely for a bill that addresses power-grid planning. Their proposal, House Bill 814, didn’t make it out of committee during this year’s long session,...

By Ray Gronberg

December 9, 2025

Nuclear Energy Update

The Trump administration wants to rescind existing regulations that asked the would-be operators of new nuclear facilities to explain how their design protected them from deliberate airplane crashes. It says the existing rule, a reaction to the 9/11 attacks, is redundant and unnecessary. Regulators propose ending it in early 2027. Back in the...

By Ray Gronberg

December 8, 2025

DEQ OKs water-quality permit for MVP Southgate

The MVP Southgate gas pipeline project has cleared another regulatory hurdle, this time at the state level. N.C. Department of Environmental Quality officials have certified the project’s compliance with state water-quality standards, subject to conditions that include testing of any private wells within 150 feet of the construction site. MVP...

By Ray Gronberg

November 14, 2025

Charlotte lands Scout Motors HQ

Meanwhile, in Charlotte, officials announced that Scout Motors, an upstart electric vehicle company that plans a $2 billion assembly plant in South Carolina, is putting its headquarters in the city’s Plaza-Midwood neighborhood. A $207 million investment is projected, along with as many as 1,200 jobs, at an average salary of $172,878,...

By Ray Gronberg

November 13, 2025

A big day for North Carolina’s car industry

Toyota executives say their company’s new, $13.9 billion battery factory near Liberty is flexible enough that it can respond to whatever the market or the government’s regulation of the car industry throws at it. The plant started shipping batteries in late May or early June, to assembly plants in Alabama...

By Ray Gronberg

November 13, 2025

Duke and private credit

Duke Energy CFO Brian Savoy made waves this week when he told a reporter from Bloomberg that the utility is exploring the idea of using “private credit” to finance a portion of its construction plans. The publication quoted him as saying that non-bank lending could be the “icing on the cake”...

By Ray Gronberg

November 12, 2025