How to break Duke Energy’s stranglehold on North Carolina’s power industry— and maybe save our coasts in the process
week ago, writing about Gov. McCrory’s push for offshore drilling, I looked to my crystal ball. The oil and gas industry financed a study which (predictably) predicts fabulous economic results if the Atlantic is opened to fossil-fuel exploration. By 2035, North Carolina could have 55,000 industry-related jobs, it said.
Really?
Anything’s possible, I guess, but what scares me is that the industry may be right in the short run but dead wrong after that. If so, the North Carolina coast could be subjected to a furious buildup for 20 years only to see the markets for oil and gas collapse after we’re all-in.
