North Carolina is a verdant state with long, sandy beaches. Its humid summers make air conditioning desirable: in fact, its 10 million people use more electricity than Indonesia's 237 million.
"North Carolina is unique of all the states," says Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy, "of having potential natural gas but having prohibited it". Onshore shale gas exploration is banned, and drilling off North Carolina's shores has been forbidden since 1990. Last year, the governor vetoed an offshore drilling law.
North Carolina is thus a microcosm of a long-standing inconsistency in the United States' approach to energy: voracious consumption combined with restrictions on production. The assumption is that others, less squeamish about the environment, will make up the difference.
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