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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

NC Continues to Lead Southeast in Solar Energy Usage

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Monday, June 29, 2020   

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Duke Energy remains the region's leader in installed solar capacity, but can no longer claim to have half of all the solar in the Southeast, according to a new report by Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Bryan Jacob, the group's solar program director, co-authored the research. He says utilities in neighboring states have begun to close the gap when it comes to how many watts of solar power are sourced to customers.

However, North Carolina continues to have the second most installed capacity of solar in the country. It's second only to California.

"North Carolina's leadership has historically been legislative," Jacob states. "North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast that has a renewable portfolio standard, where the state legislature required utilities to meet certain renewable targets by certain dates."

Jacob says North Carolina also has incentivized utility solar development and has enacted a rebate program for rooftop solar.

However, a study from BW Research Partnership found the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic led to the loss of more than 26,000 renewable energy jobs across the state this past spring.

Jacob says states such as Florida are catching up quickly when it comes to solar capacity and investment.

"So we're now projecting that Florida will overtake North Carolina in 2021," he states.

Some experts say with more people choosing to stay home amid COVID-19, state lawmakers and regulators should be implementing measures to make it easier for residents to make their homes more energy efficient.

Reporting by North Carolina News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the Park Foundation.



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