Flickr Creative Commons State House Republicans have introduced wide-ranging energy legislation. One of the proposals in the "Modernize Energy Generation" measure is to transition five Duke Energy coal plants in North Carolina to mostly natural gas by 2030. The bill says switching the coal plants to either natural gas or solar power could lead to a 60% reduction in carbon emissions in the state by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. This compares to the 70% reduction sought by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in his Clean Energy Plan. The state currently has eight operational coal-fired power plants, according to the United States Energy Information Administration's latest 2020 North Carolina report. With no local coal production, the combustible is transported in by rail primarily from West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, the EIA reports.