Press Release: Under The Pretense of Protection, Senate Bill 730 Shifts Financial Risks to North Carolinians - NCEJN
Pretense, Not Protection: Senate Bill 730 sidesteps needed AI data center development regulations and 2050 carbon reduction goals in favor of nuclear buildout and Duke Energy profits, sticking ratepayers with the bill
Endorsed by: Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), NC Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN), Clean Water for North Carolina (CWFNC), 350 Triangle, Third Act NC (TANC), Edgecombe Neighbors for Data Center Accountability (ENDCA), Democracy Out Loud (DOL), Community Land and Power (CLP), and the Liles Project in Stokes County
- Sophie Loeb, CPR, sloeb@progressivereform.org
- Rania Masri, NCEJN, rania@ncejn.org
- Kevin Wilson, ENDCA, st.annes.oakgrove@gmail.com
Under the pretense of protection, Senate Bill 730 shifts financial risks to North Carolinians while providing Duke Energy with regulatory loopholes and guaranteed profit opportunities –all while undermining environmental protections and community input. This bill protects Duke Energy and AI data center developers, not ratepayers.
What’s wrong with this bill?
- Communities aren’t being heard. NC communities all over the state are saying no to AI data centers, including 23 jurisdictions who have implemented moratoria and bans, but this bill doesn’t acknowledge their voices. Drought plagues our state, but SB730 doesn’t strengthen any enforceable water resource protections or accountability mechanisms, leaving communities without control over their own water.
- Ratepayers bear even more energy infrastructure costs. Ratepayers are already on the hook for fuel and infrastructure costs for new data centers. SB730 foists even more costs onto ratepayers: funding expensive and historically cost-prohibitive nuclear infrastructure, even if the facilities never come online, and long-term costs from 15-year contract provisions and potential stranded assets. Until there is an actual mechanism for ensuring residential customers are not subsidizing these rates at all, the public will be on the hook for fuel and infrastructure costs associated with data centers on top of usual Commission sanctioned rate-hikes.
- Duke Energy gets easy loopholes out of accountability. SB730 gives Duke Energy a hall pass out of the state’s 2050 carbon reduction goals deadline for “adequacy” and “reliability” purposes, as well as mandates nuclear plant approval before fossil fuel plants can be retired, prolonging Duke’s fossil fuel operations and diverting funds from more affordable solutions.
What should be in SB730 instead:
- A 32-month moratorium on new AI data center development.
- A repeal of the sales and usage state tax incentives for data centers.
- Actual ratepayer protections that prevent utility monopolies like Duke Energy from passing off data center infrastructure costs to ordinary people.
- Enforceable accountability mechanisms for overconsumption of water resources, such as clearly defined “de minimis” withdrawal/discharge standards.
Language we would like to see in a revision:
“No data center shall be approved unless the applicant demonstrates, through independently verified hydrologic analysis, that the facility will not impair existing or reasonably anticipated residential, agricultural, ecological, municipal, or industrial water uses, including water resources necessary to support planned future growth, under normal, drought, or projected climate conditions.”
Bottom line: North Carolina should be the first state to reject subsidizing Big Tech for an inequitable deal. Without a strong floor of protection at the state level, communities will experience health harms, economic devastation, and will subsidize the costs from these centers. The tide is turning against Big Tech and their expensive, polluting infrastructure all across the US. Will North Carolina lead the way with a moratorium, or settle for half-baked protections?
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