The Creation Care Alliance of WNC (CCA), MountainTrue, and other local renewable energy advocates are pushing for a stronger decarbonization plan to help North Carolina meet the renewable energy goals laid out in HB 951, the “Energy Solutions for North Carolina” bill passed by the NC General Assembly in October 2021.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) is hosting a series of hearings in the coming months to receive public feedback on Duke Energy’s draft Carbon Plan. CCA, MountainTrue, NC Interfaith Power and Light (NCIPL), the NC Sierra Club, and other local groups are encouraging the public to show their support for a stronger decarbonization plan at NCUC’s hearing in Asheville on July 27.
What: NCUC Hearing on Duke Energy’s Proposed Carbon Plan
When: Wednesday, July 27, 2022, at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Buncombe County Courthouse, Courtroom 1-A, 60 Court Plaza, Asheville, NC 28801
MountainTrue, CCA, and NCIPL hosted a free webinar about Duke Energy’s draft Carbon Plan on Wednesday, July 13. The webinar featured MountainTrue Central Regional Director Gray Jernigan and NCIPL Director Susannah Tuttle, M.Div, as guest speakers. Webinar attendees learned about the implications and shortcomings of Duke Energy’s Carbon Plan and left with the information needed to take action in support of our state’s clean energy future at the upcoming NCUC hearing on July 27. Click here to watch the webinar recording on MountainTrue’s YouTube channel.
During the public hearings, NCUC asks that only one representative from a given organization speak. In addition to organizational representatives, independent individuals may offer testimony and those that do not wish to testify may observe the proceedings and/or gather and demonstrate outside of the hearing venue. Demonstrations are not allowed in the hearing room. A virtual statewide hearing is scheduled for August 23, 2022. More information on the process, schedule, and opportunities for public input can be found here.
Advocating for a just, equitable, and science-based carbon plan is central to MountainTrue and CCA’s green energy and climate change-focused work. “Everyone has the right to clean and affordable energy with the assurance of equitable energy production, transmission, and distribution. Our consumption of energy should not harm our health, the health of non-human creatures, or the climate,” says CCA Director Sarah Ogletree. “We invite all who are interested to attend this webinar and we look forward to working together to shape North Carolina’s clean energy future.”
The details of Duke’s draft Carbon Plan:
HB 951 charges NCUC with developing a Carbon Plan that takes reasonable steps toward achieving our state’s clean energy future and addresses the threats posed by climate change — click here to learn more about HB 951. The bill directs state regulators to cut carbon emissions from energy plants owned and/or operated by Duke Energy by 70% from 2005 levels by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Last November, NCUC ordered Duke Energy to file a draft Carbon Plan by May 16, 2022.
Duke Energy is proposing four different portfolios to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and they are requesting that NCUC approve all four options, essentially asking for blanket approval for whatever strategies and infrastructure the company wants to employ. Only one of the portfolios achieves HB 951’s interim goal of 70% carbon reduction by 2030, and that portfolio is the most costly of the four according to Duke’s analysis. All four portfolios achieve the 2050 carbon neutrality goal, though the means used to achieve said goal are starkly different from one another. Here are the highlights:
Portfolio 1: Achieves 70% CO2 emissions reductions by 2030 with 800 megawatts (one 800 megawatt block) of offshore wind to be placed in service by the end of 2029, new solar interconnections ramping up to 1,800 megawatts per year by the end of 2028, and the addition of nearly 1,800 megawatts of new battery energy storage capacity. The average annual bill impact estimated by Duke’s analysis is 2.5%.
Portfolio 2: Achieves 70% CO2 emissions reductions by 2032 with two 800 megawatt blocks of offshore wind, the first in 2029 and the second in 2031. The average annual bill impact estimated by Duke’s analysis is 2.4%.
Portfolio 3: Achieves 70% CO2 emissions reductions by 2034 with new nuclear and without any offshore wind. The average annual bill impact estimated by Duke’s analysis is 1.9%.
Portfolio 4: Achieves 70% CO2 emissions reductions by 2034 with both offshore wind and new nuclear. The average annual bill impact estimated by Duke’s analysis is 2.0%.
“Duke Energy’s draft Carbon Plan makes significant advances in the development of solar and wind energy resources and battery storage. However,” explains MountainTrue’s Gray Jernigan, “Duke’s draft plan falls short because it relies too heavily on unproven technologies like small modular nuclear reactors, perpetuates the use of gas-burning facilities, and fails to use cost assumptions that reflect market realities of the affordability of renewable energy generation when compared to gas, among other concerns.” Click here to review Duke Energy’s entire draft Carbon Plan and its summaries.
HB 951 places the responsibility of developing our state’s final Carbon Plan on NCUC rather than Duke Energy, requiring NCUC to incorporate public input into the planning process. NCUC should carry out its public input process in a way that meaningfully involves and seeks input from historically marginalized communities, including communities of color.
NCUC has the ultimate authority to adopt the best Carbon Plan for the state — not necessarily one of the portfolios proposed by Duke Energy. We believe that NCUC should develop a carbon plan that centers the wellbeing of NC communities, prioritizes a climate justice-based legislative approach and reduces our state’s dependency on fossil fuels to mitigate the effects of climate change. Therefore, MountainTrue is encouraging NCUC to exercise its authority to the fullest extent to achieve the goals of HB 951 and protect the people and environment of North Carolina.
MountainTrue and CCA urge NCUC to consider the following points to improve the Carbon Plan:
“While we understand these are the costliest options to meet decarbonization goals, the additional investment in green renewable energy sources rather than unproven small nuclear energy sources and the faster timeline justify the increased cost when we are racing against the clock to mitigate the impacts of global climate change. Additionally, we will be joining others in advocating for rate structures that protect the most vulnerable populations and low to moderate income households who bear disproportionate impacts from environmental and financial standpoints.” -Gray Jernigan, MountainTrue Central Regional Director
*New generation: refers to Duke Energy-owned versus third party-owned energy generation such as wind, solar, etc.
8. Securitization. The Carbon Plan must clarify that Duke Energy will use securitization in a timely fashion to retire coal facilities and to lower costs for customers. The sooner coal plants are retired the more customers will benefit from savings from securitization.
9. The Carbon Plan should increase the resiliency of the state’s energy system. Energy systems are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and resource availability, and the Carbon Plan that is ultimately approved should increase the system’s resilience in the face of these threats.
10. Alternative Plans Achieve the Carbon Plan Goals Without Reliance on New Gas and Should be Accorded Equal Weight with Duke Energy’s Draft Plan. Through the process, alternative plans may be submitted, and those should be given equal consideration by the NCUC.
On Saturday, July 30th, we will offer a day retreat at Lake Logan Retreat Center in partnership with covenant partner congregations Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains of Waynesville, and First United Methodist Church of Waynesville. Titled “Restoration in Creation: Earth, Body, Mind, & Spirit,” this retreat will focus on the spiritual necessity of land, water, and time spent with one another.
Famed conservationist Aldo Leopold said “[o]ne of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” Too often, this feels like the case. But even amidst the pain of climate crisis and environmental injustice, we are not alone. So many of us care. So many of us are striving to love each other, and this world, and all creatures great and small. By coming together and remembering our collective work, we can once again find community. And by being in the world, surrounded by all that God made and called good, we can find healing.
Our day together will provide time to slow down and fill our cups. It will also offer both facilitated and unstructured space to consider our callings and the following questions:
How are we led? How are we fed? How does the Spirit reveal the beauty of Creation to us and sustain us? How are we nourished? How does our care of creation include our own health and wellbeing? What does it mean to love this place, and each other, and ourselves well?
The cost of this retreat, which includes access to kayaks and lunch, is $20. If you need a scholarship, please email CCA Director, Sarah Ogletree, at sarah@creationcarealliance.org with “Retreat Scholarship” in the email subject line.
In order to receive lunch at Lake Logan, you must register by June 30th. Register here. Below you will see a brief outline of our day together.
Retreat Day Outline:
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This sermon, preached at First Congregational Church of Hendersonville on May 8th, 2022, was adapted from a sermon preached in October of 2021. The text referenced is Psalm 104: 1-9 from the NRSV. The original sermon was titled “Remembering Who We Are, Becoming Ourselves.”
Psalm 104 tells of the relationship between Creator and Creation. In this passage, fire is named as God’s minister. The water serves the Lord. The wind is God’s messenger. All creatures, all beings, all aspects of Creation are intimately known by God. Even God’s body, imagined here by the Psalmist, is covered by light and wrapped in water. To me, this passage is moving because the relationship between God and Creation is right. The water listens to God’s voice, the wind carries God’s words, the sunrise plays off of God’s form… Creator and Creation are in harmony.
I’m moved by this imagery. I’m also convicted. Because, while the water is listening, I know that often, I am not. We are not. People are not.
As members of Creation, creatures ourselves, we have too often forgotten our role in the world. Our role declared in Genesis as stewards of this garden. Our role declared in the gospels as lovers of God and our neighbor. We have forgotten our charge of caretaking, and in our apathy and amnesia, we have caused great harm. Our reckless consumption of oil and gas has caused even the water to flee the boundaries drawn by God in today’s psalm, flooding communities at rates beyond anything we have ever known.
We act as though we are in control—as though our role is that of boundary-setter instead of boundary-keeper. As though we can fix this all on our own. As though we can make things right again by ourselves. But we are mistaken. We are not in control. We cannot “ride on the wings of the wind” like God in Psalm 104. We cannot control Creation, we can only exist within it. We can only be creatures in the world, of the world, formed by God and called to right relationship. We can only be beautifully and wonderfully human.
Friends, what would it mean to be human again? To stop acting as if we are in control and instead listen to God and God’s calling of care? What would it mean to honor our calling as creatures? To value love above expediency and personal comfort?
Christian theologian Walter Bruggemann says that we cannot become what we cannot imagine. And so, with the help of teachers listening deeply to Creator and Creation, I want to imagine with you today.
Let’s start now.
Sherri Mitchell, Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset, of the Penawhapskek Nation is one of our teachers. Through her words and her works, she offers incredible lessons for our journey of remembering who we are and walking in our purpose. In her essay “Indigenous Prophecy and Mother Earth,” she acknowledges that “[h]uman beings have fallen out of alignment with life… [and] as a result, have forgotten how to live in relationship with the rest of creation…” But all is not lost.
Indigenous ways of knowing continue to steward the land and protect the water. Though indigenous peoples make up only 5% of the global population, land managed by indigenous people holds approximately 80% of the world’s biodiversity and 40-50% of the remaining protected places in the world. Our indigenous siblings have proven that the presence of people does not inherently lead to destruction. Instead, people can exist as valued parts of a healthy and thriving ecosystem. People can live within their means and their place. By honoring our relationship with one another, we can contribute to, and be a part of, the beauty of the world.
Beloved, this is good news.
With generosity, Sherri invites us to learn from her community—to consider the groundings of her culture and how these firm foundations have prevented her own amnesia and apathy in relation to her identity and the world. She speaks of “kincentric awareness,” the knowledge that every aspect of Creation is connected through kinship networks—that our ancestors include the trees, and the rivers, and the 2.3 million species that share fragments of our DNA.
She speaks to the concept of enough within her traditional language, explaining that while one word, “mamabaezu,” refers to individual needs meaning that “he or she has enough,” another word, “alabezu,” means “everyone has enough”—including all beings in the natural world.
In stark contrast to the values of western culture, Sherri declares that in order for there to be enough, there must be both mamabaezu and alabezu. Enough for the entire Earth community, for the fullness of Creation, for all of our relations, for me, and for you.
She presents a definition of wellbeing that is communal—in which the health of one depends on the health of all. A definition in which the relationship between all beings and their Creator is both honored and acknowledged. A definition that seeds our imagination with possibilities of how the world could be—how the world has been! How our forests can be seen for more than timber, palm oil, or as potential land to graze cattle.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine a world defined by enough instead of excess or scarcity? Can you imagine living like our health, and the health of the Ash tree, and mother, and monarch are connected?
In order to build the kin-dom of God, we must be able to envision a world that is different. We must be able to imagine who we could be, who we’re called to be—and remember that it is possible for us, once again, to become who we are.
This isn’t anything new.
We have been connected to Earth from our beginning. The Hebrew word for human, adam, comes from the Hebrew word for soil, adamah. In the second chapter of Genesis we learn that God forms us from soil. We are adam from adamah—quite literally “soil people.” We are creatures of Earth—connected to God, land, and all beings. Our joy tugs at the joy of others, our sorrow is communal. We are connected. Deeply. Our breath, and the breath of the bear, and the dragonfly, and the corn stalk, and the oak tree all intermingle in this space. And God’s breath, Ruach, the Holy Spirit, is among us too.
This is who we are–soil people charged with the care of one another, and the many creatures God delights in, and ultimately, this place. This place that is inherently good and that provides the food, and water, and oxygen with which we are able to meet each other’s needs.
We have unlearning to do. As we walk this path, we must unlearn ways that place profit before the lives of all our relations—human and non-human. We must unlearn ways of relating, speaking, and decision-making that are not rooted in relationship. We must unlearn language that tells us that the Earth is a thing and not a being emanating God’s love for us. Because God is here now, in this place, in this time, amidst soil and star stuff and all that has been called “good.” God’s breath continues to be felt over the waters. And God is still speaking.
Friends, we have everything we need to live into our callings. Like the water in Psalm 104, we must only learn to listen…
And once we remember who we are, we get to be who we are. Perhaps slowly at first, muscle memory takes time… But we get to live fully—from love, for love, with love, by love. We get to stand with all of Creation, as a part of Creation, and join in its groaning. We get to be a part of the awakening of God’s people.
And we are waking up.
Those of us who have lost our way are beginning to find ourselves again. Some through gardening and that sacred act of reaching our hands deep into the soil. Some through learning the names of our siblings–Pilliated woodpecker, Carolina Wren, Eastern Screech Owl. Some through drafting and supporting policies that offer the rights of personhood to rivers, forests, and other sacred spaces.
The list goes on and on.
In my work with the Creation Care Alliance, I strive to help congregations as they take these steps to faithfully love the fullness of Creation. And I am continuously inspired.
There are faith communities here in our region learning about native species and planting those species along the eroded banks of streams and creeks in their watershed as a means of fostering climate resilience, better water quality, and healthier waterways. There are faith communities hosting silent meditation and prayer hours for the health of all of God’s Creation on a weekly basis. There are faith communities that teach and preach on these issues, and then, organize “Souls to the Polls” events to encourage voting with these values in our hearts. There are faith communities that have installed solar panels and are now in the process of divesting their financial resources to ensure they don’t further fuel the climate crisis. There are faith communities partnering with wildlife conservation organizations to bring back the most endangered of our non-human kindred. There are faith communities planning children’s camps and activities to ensure that, for the youngest among us, it will be harder to forget our purpose of love…
In each of these communities, I have noticed something in common. They are all listening. They are striving, like the water in today’s psalm, to hear God’s voice and respond… Even when it feels uncomfortable. Even when it is hard. Step by step, they are walking the path… We are walking together.
Beloved, now is the time to remember who we are. Now is the time to become who we are. Now is the time to step into the Gospel truth that, like our indigenous siblings, proclaims authentic, trust-filled, relationship as the way forward… Now is the time to come together in community with Creation, within Creation, for the good of Creation.
May there be enough for you, and for me, and for the trees, and the rivers, and the salamanders, and our grandchildren, and all of us. And may we listen well.
Amen.
Join us for our Earth Day Vigil
Posted on by CCA Admin
Please join us on Sunday April 24th from 4 – 5 pm at the First Baptist Church Asheville labyrinth and sacred garden as we gather for a time of prayer, music, lament, celebration, storytelling, and community.
Speakers and performers will include: CCAWNC Director Sarah Ogletree; French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson; Ministerio de Música Hispana of the St. Eugene Catholic Church of Asheville; Sacred Paths Counseling, Connie Burns; Bring Your Own Bag Haywood Organizers Kathy Odvody and Lori Stephens; Plastic Free WNC Equity Volunteer Jane Laping; Co-Pastor at Way in the Wilderness in Black Mountain, Rev. Kevin Bates; Old-time musician and fiddler William Ritter; Trinity Presbyterian Hendersonville Creation Care Team Leader Enrique Sanchez; and more!
We hope you will gather with us. This event is open to people of all faiths and spiritual traditions. Learn more and register today.
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