Making electricity is dirty and expensive. And in North Carolina, it's worse than in most places.

“The Southeast is the most energy inefficient region in the United States. And the Southeast emits more greenhouse gases per person than any other region in the United States,” said Ivan Urlaub, executive director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association.

Urlaub said the state is both high-growth and high-carbon and is years behind in addressing the challenges this creates.

“For a long time, coal was cheap and we didn’t fully understand the negative costs of using so much coal. Now, we do,” he said.

Duke Energy and Progress Energy, both highly-regulated for-profit utility companies, serve the majority of North Carolina. Central to their business is the challenge of figuring out how much power will be needed in the future and how much it will cost to meet that need.

Many factors contribute to this debate, from the projected state population growth to the average temperature at which residents keep their homes in the summer.

Lloyd Yates, CEO of Progress Energy Carolinas, said consumer behavior is especially hard to pin down. Though household appliances are 20 to 30-percent more efficient than ever, the average customer uses 60-percent more energy than he did 30 years ago.

“So why is that? That’s a lifestyle issue,” Yates said, adding that over the past 30 years people have moved to larger homes that are usually air-conditioned.

“They have iPods, computers, cell phones, flat screen televisions, microwaves, washer and dryers, and on and on and on. So, we have to think about those things because they drive behavior,” he said.

Utility companies have to file an annual report, called an Integrated Resource Plan, that details their projects for energy needs in 10 or 20 years. And every march, mid-level managers gather in the basement of a nondescript state government building in Raleigh to address the state’s utilities commission.

Attorneys from environmental and consumer groups cross-examine the utility companies on what they see as an over-reliance on coal and an unwillingness to invest enough in renewable energy sources, like biomass, solar, and wind.

Urlaub said the problem is the way the state regulates the utility companies.

“Right now our utilities can minimize their financial risk, maximize profit and make the most expedient decisions by relying heavily on both nuclear and coal. In the other states, the regulatory environments don’t encourage that. They encourage something different,” he said.

Urlaub mentioned California and Colorado, where more emphasis is placed on efficiency and renewable energy.

This is just one example of the diverse opinions around energy issues, many of which are counter-intuitive.

Duke Energy’s CEO Jim Rogers has stated publicly his support for government regulation of greenhouse gases at the same time his company is building a massive coal plant at Cliffside in Rutherford County.

Some environmentalists embrace nuclear power because it does not produce carbon.

And something everyone agrees on is the fast approaching crossroads – a point of no return when energy decisions will have long-lasting health and economic consequences.

“This next five-to-this industry,” Yates said. “I think it’s a significant, I’ll call it an inflection point, of whether or not renewable become a significant contributor to the energy portfolio in the U.S.”

They may argue over every detail, but ironically, all sides, utility companies, environmentalists, regulators and consumers, eventually want the same thing – cheap electricity, provided in a safe manner.

But they have very different ideas on how to get there.