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Uncertainty for wind power

President Trump’s first-day executive order on offshore wind projects appears to bar the issuance of new leasing rights, but it holds out the prospect of eventually revoking the leases the federal government has already issued. That means fresh uncertainty for Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, along...

By Ray Gronberg

January 22, 2025

McDowell sponsoring Panama Canal bill

First-term U.S. Rep. Addison McDowell, R-6th, signed on as one of 26 sponsors of a bill that would formally authorize President Trump to open negotiations to reacquire the Panama Canal. H.R. 283 would also demand a six-month progress report identifying “potential challenges” and “anticipated outcomes.” McDowell and several other sponsors...

By Ray Gronberg

January 22, 2025

The Chamber and the ACC

The NC Chamber has filed a friend-of-the-court brief siding with the Atlantic Coast Conference in its battle to make North Carolina’s courts the main battleground in its fight with Florida State and Clemson. The issue, the Chamber’s Legal Institute says, goes well beyond the reality that college sports is big...

By Ray Gronberg

January 21, 2025

Duke joins TVA-led small-reactor consortium

Also on Friday, Duke Energy announced that it’s joined forces with other utilities and nuclear companies to apply for an $800 million U.S. Department of Energy grant it hopes will push small modular reactor technology forward. The Tennessee Valley Authority is leading the effort to secure the grant, as it...

By Ray Gronberg

January 20, 2025

Insurance rate rise for homeowners on the way

In keeping with the idea that you release bad news on a Friday, Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey this past Friday announced that he’s agreed to allow homeowners insurance rates to rise by a statewide average of 15% over two years. This is pretty far from the 42.2% the N.C. Rate...

By Ray Gronberg

January 20, 2025

Charlotte water

There’s a water-rights battle shaping up in the Catawba River basin that may generate a push for legislative intervention during this year’s long session of the General Assembly. Charlotte’s water system is preparing to ask the state Environmental Management Commission to nearly double the maximum amount of water it can...

By Welcome

January 17, 2025

New Congress, new Lumbee bill

The late-hours attempt to push federal recognition of the Lumbee through the 118th Congress in December having come up short, it’s try, try again for North Carolina’s delegation in the 119th Congress. U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd and eight House members from North Carolina are again introducing the...

By Ray Gronberg

January 17, 2025

Raleigh tops Milken city rankings

Continuing the housing theme, Raleigh’s relative affordability was a big factor in its jump to the No. 1 spot on the Milken Institute’s rankings of the country’s best-performing cities. Raleigh had been knocking at the door of the top spot for a few years, but made it this year in...

By Ray Gronberg

January 16, 2025

The Realtors’ agenda

This brings us to the NC Realtors, which led off Tuesday’s NC Chamber economic forecast forum with a presentation about our state’s housing market and its wish list for addressing its problems. The group will has a fuller report coming out next month, but Realtors legislative chair Brooke Cashion said...

By Ray Gronberg

January 16, 2025

NC Chamber economic forecast

The Federal Reserve needs to clamp down on inflation now even if the cost is pushing the U.S. economy into a recession, UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton says. Speaking at the NC Chamber’s annual economic forecast, Connaughton said that without counting energy and food costs, the underlying inflation rate is...

By Ray Gronberg

January 15, 2025

Easley Jr. named to Golden LEAF board

Among former Gov. Roy Cooper’s last moves was to appoint Michael Easley Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, to the Golden LEAF Foundation board. Two of Cooper’s five appointments to the 15-member board were up on Nov. 30. Darryl Moss, former mayor of Creedmoor, is leaving the board...

By Ray Gronberg

January 15, 2025

California and disaster aid

Speaking of California, it’s probably a good time to note that every member of that state’s congressional delegation who voted on it supported the federal hurricane relief bill that cleared Congress just before Christmas. All but six of California’s 52-member U.S. House delegation and one of its two U.S. senators...

By Ray Gronberg

January 14, 2025

Causey and California

The main lesson of the ongoing fires in California is that it’s counterproductive to “artificially hold down the true cost of insurance,” N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey says. As they have with Florida, insurers have pulled out of the California market for homeowners insurance because they can’t recoup the costs...

By Ray Gronberg

January 14, 2025

NCInnovation picks Wells to manage endowment

The board of NCInnovation has hired Wells Fargo to serve as the nonprofit’s investment adviser. The move came last week, and complied with a state-law requirement that NCInnovation use an outside firm to “manage and invest” the endowment legislators seeded with $500 million in taxpayer money. Wells was one of...

By Ray Gronberg

January 14, 2025

N.C. League of Municipalities and downzoning

To a complete lack of surprise in some quarters I’m sure, the folks at the N.C. League of Municipalities wants to see Senate Bill 382’s restrictions on downzoning rescinded. “We’re hoping they strike the provision and recognize that whatever was attempting to be accomplished here, this was not the way...

By Ray Gronberg

January 14, 2025