ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Nearly two years after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on western North Carolina’s largest city, many Asheville residents are still rebuilding — and determined to be better prepared for the next weather disaster. In Emma, a diverse, mostly immigrant neighborhood just northwest of downtown, solar…

A sweeping federal housing bill that became law last Saturday contains some big benefits for Americans poised to buy or rent new manufactured homes — the same families who often struggle to make ends meet and can least afford the rising cost of heating fuel and electricity. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act — a…

In the rugged mountains of Ashe County, North Carolina, woodstoves and propane heat are common — and money tends to be tight. That’s especially true for families still recovering from Hurricane Helene nearly two years later. Wood is cheap and easy enough to come by in the forested region. But propane has to be…

For months, clean energy and consumer advocates in North Carolina have pressed Duke Energy to follow the national trend and create special rules and prices for data centers. The state’s predominant utility insisted such rules were unnecessary, rejecting claims that the power-hungry facilities could overwhelm the grid…

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and her fellow state Democrats romped to a governing trifecta last year, pledging to curtail rising electric bills and ensure power-hungry data centers pay their fair share without undermining the state’s clean energy transition. But the party now looks poised to fall short on those…

Data centers are set to proliferate, and Duke Energy electric rates are poised to soar — and North Carolinians are mad about both. They’re packing public hearings to complain about their utility bills and passing moratoriums in their communities to stop construction of the ginormous, computer-crammed warehouses. The…

North Carolina’s Republican-led House of Representatives passed a sweeping energy bill last week called the Ratepayer Protection Act, with backers saying it would reduce energy costs for families across the state. But Democrats and other critics of the legislation, Senate Bill 730 , are skeptical of that claim, for…

In July 2022, a fierce summer storm rocked Wake Electric , a North Carolina cooperative serving nearly 60,000 households and other customers from the dense suburbs of Raleigh, the state capital, to rural areas along the Virginia border and in the coastal plain. Wind downed lines and knocked out power for thousands…

When Steve Ault got an offer about six years ago to lease a bit of his 100-acre family farm in Prince Edward County, Virginia, for solar panels, he let the letter sit on the kitchen table for a few days. Then he showed it to his wife, Chris. “Well, shoot,” she recalled telling her husband. “Let’s give them a call…