NC govwatch

← All meetings

Climate Change Advisory Committee Meeting

Chatham County · Climate Change Advisory Committee
Thursday, March 26, 2026 at 7:00 pm · Virtual Meeting, Virtual Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312

Advisory board meeting Environment and sustainabilityAppointments and personnelData centers and large loadsIntergovernmental agreements

Agenda document Minutes Meeting page Watch Meeting recap

What was decided

  1. Approved 4ERAC proposal: joint working group on data center impacts Approved unanimously

Read from the agenda's recorded outcomes. Where the board published minutes, those are the record — this is a pointer to them.

What's on this agenda

Chatham County's Climate Change Advisory Committee met by video on 26 March. It took feedback from the commissioners' meeting two days earlier and a proposal from the Environmental Review Advisory Committee for a joint working group with the planning department to research the impacts of data centers.

New business was a discussion of available energy sources.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

Eleven members joined after some trouble with the video link. The committee voted unanimously to take part in a joint data center working group with the environmental review committee and the planning board, with one member representing it.

The report from the commissioners' meeting two days earlier carried three results. A joint letter to the Utilities Commission on Duke Energy's integrated resource plan was approved. So was a request for proposals for a climate action plan consultant. And the committee's own alternative to the NC WARN resolution passed 3-2, with two commissioners preferring the NC WARN version, which failed. Three incumbent reappointments also passed 3-2.

A member presented on where North Carolina's power comes from: natural gas leads at about 40 percent, nuclear at 32 percent and renewables at 13 percent, with coal well down on environmental and economic grounds. Combined cycle gas plants run at about 60 percent efficiency, but methane leakage above 1.5 to 2 percent cancels most of that advantage. The chair said members need to understand small modular reactors, given the part they may play in Duke Energy's plans and in powering data centers, and undertook to propose how.

The committee decided not to answer a Chatham Journal editorial. One member had drafted a point-by-point response, and the argument against publishing it was that a reply elevates the piece and invites a back-and-forth.

How the votes went

Joining the data center working group was approved unanimously. At the commissioners' meeting two days earlier, the committee's alternative resolution passed 3-2 and three reappointments passed 3-2.

From the published minutes.

Speaking at this meeting

Chatham County's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (6)

Staff or committee report · 2Discussion item · 2Procedural · 1Minutes approval · 1
  1. 1 Certification of Quorum
    Procedural
  2. 2 Approval of Minutes, February 26, 2026
    Minutes approval
  3. 3 Feedback from the Commissioners meeting, March 24
    Staff or committee report Appointments and personnelEnvironment and sustainabilityIntergovernmental agreements
    The commissioners approved a joint letter to the Utilities Commission on Duke Energy's integrated resource plan and a request for proposals for a climate action plan consultant. The committee's alternative to the NC WARN resolution passed 3-2, and three reappointments passed 3-2.
  4. 4 ERAC proposal: joint working group on data center impacts
    Discussion item Data centers and large loadsEnvironment and sustainability
    A joint working group on data center impacts with the environmental review committee and the planning board, with one member representing this committee.
    Approved unanimously
  5. 5 Discussion: available energy sources
    Discussion item Environment and sustainability
    Where North Carolina's power comes from: natural gas about 40 percent, nuclear 32 percent, renewables 13 percent, coal well down. Combined cycle gas runs at about 60 percent efficiency, but methane leakage above 1.5 to 2 percent cancels most of that. The committee took up small modular reactors, solar farms in the county, and nuclear waste.
  6. 6 Report from the Director of Chatham County Environmental Quality
    Staff or committee report Environment and sustainability

Other recent meetings of this board