Progress Energy, one of the two major investor-owned utilities here in North Carolina, is lowering electricity rates for their customers. But it’s not as low as they could go if they didn’t have to adhere to forcibly-imposed environmentalist schemes. The News & Observer of Raleigh reports:

The rate drop is offset somewhat by the Raleigh power company’s increasing cost to provide energy efficiency programs to its customers. Progress is offering financial incentives to customers who buy energy efficient appliances and for installing rooftop solar panels.

Without the efficiency program costs, dropping fuel costs would have resulted in a rate decrease of nearly 6 percent.

At least we’ve got all the associated “Green jobs” to thank for such policies!