Electric utilities in North Carolina have asked state regulators to delay a law that requires them to generate energy from pig or chicken waste.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Tuesday that Progress Energy, Duke Energy and other providers are asking the North Carolina Utilities Commission for a one-year delay. The 2007 law requires utilities to begin getting some energy from pig and chicken manure by 2012.
The utilities also want the commission cut the minimum energy requirement from poultry waste starting in 2014 by a third.
Disposing of the waste created by the pork and poultry industries is a major environmental challenge in North Carolina. Legislative leaders thought that it was a good idea to turn some of that waste into electricity.
Advertisements