Study fuels a debate over renewable energy sources.

• Position: ECONOMIC OUTLOOK - Interview

Singer Willie Nelson peddles automobile fuel made from vegetable oil and animal fats. Raleigh-based Progress Energy, the state's second-largest electricity provider, experiments with poultry bedding and waste. Maybe the tide is turning against coal, petroleum and other nonrenewable energy sources. The state legislature is considering rules that force power companies to generate a percentage of their output from renewable sources. James Y. Kerr II, a member of the state Utilities Commission, oversaw a study of the issue by La Capra Associates, a Boston-based consultant.

BNC: What exactly is renewable energy?

Kerr: One of the issues much disagreed about is how you ought to define it. Some folks would like to define nuclear generation as renewable. As a general proposition, a renewable source is solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, ocean currents, wave-energy resources, agricultural waste, animal waste, wood waste, energy crops, landfill methane and hydrogen made from renewable sources. For example, we will continue to do livestock agribusiness, and folks will emit waste. Unless we quit raising cattle and pigs and whatnot, it is an infinitely renewing source of energy.

Who would oppose turning waste to fuel?

Some are concerned about the impact of hog operations, primarily hog-waste lagoons. This led in 1997 to the General Assembly's adoption of a moratorium on certain new or expanded hog operations. There might be some opposition to measures that could result in lifting this moratorium.

Why did the state need its own study?

It's one of those policy areas that doesn't lend itself well to looking at what other states have done. States have different geography, different renewable resources, different costs for electricity. The more expensive your average cost of power is, the easier it is to justify doing things that might also be expensive. In our state, where power costs are below the national average, renewables are generally more expensive, so it's harder to cost-justify a renewable approach.

Would mandatory goals lead to higher electricity rates?

All of the scenarios studied--except for one--forecast an increase in the electricity rate. The exception allowed energy-efficiency measures to count toward the goals.

How else is North Carolina different from other states?

You're seeing a lot of wind power being generated in the Midwest. North Carolina has the potential for wind resources in the mountains and off the coast, and wind can be pretty...