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Cooper calls for NC to slash greenhouse gas emissions

Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order Monday calling on North Carolina to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent in the next seven years.

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By
Matthew Burns
, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor, & Laura Leslie, WRAL Capitol Bureau chief
CARY, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order Monday calling on North Carolina to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent in the next seven years.

Standing amid arrays of solar panels on SAS Institute's 12-acre solar farm in Cary, Cooper said such reductions are needed to lessen the impact of climate change, which he linked to the catastrophic flooding seen in eastern North Carolina from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence last month.

"Floodwaters will come again, and we must take steps to lessen their impact," he said. "Greenhouse gases intensify climate change. This means sea-level rise, stronger storms and erratic weather, from droughts to floods"

The executive order calls for getting at least 80,000 zero-emission vehicles on the road, improving the efficiency of state buildings so they cut their energy use by 40 percent and working to expand North Carolina's clean energy industries. The order also creates the North Carolina Climate Change Interagency Council, which will be headed by Secretary of Environmental Quality Michael Regan and will focus on strategies to reduce emissions.

"Environmental protection and economic growth are not mutually exclusive," Regan said, adding that some of the communities hit hardest by the two hurricanes might stand to gain the greatest benefit from the state's push toward renewable energy.

The 40 percent target is based on the state's 2005 emission levels, and Tim Profeta, director of Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, called it an ambitious goal, noting that it's more than any other state in the Southeast.

Environmental groups were quick to praise the move, but Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said pushing renewable energy won't work if it's not cost-effective.

"While arbitrary platitudes might satisfy far-left donors, our state’s energy policies have to account for the real costs they impose on the public," Berger said in a statement. "I support an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes renewables, but I don’t support programs that have minimal positive impact and can only sustain themselves with taxpayer and ratepayer money from those who can least afford it. The key is to find solutions that actually work in the private market, and I’m open to any and all ideas that help get us there."

Cooper said North Carolina already is home to thousands of clean-energy jobs, and pushing the state in that direction could boost the economy.

"Challenges as great as climate change can feel daunting, overwhelming, even immovable," he said. "We cannot let that paralyze us. With historic storms lashing our state, we must confront climate change."

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