Less than 24 hours after the N.C. General Assembly ratified legislation that should help lower electric rates for many eastern North Carolina residents, Gov. Pat McCrory signed the legislation into law.

McCrory signed the legislation Thursday morning in Wilson, one of the 32 N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency members that will benefit from the sales agreement the legislation concerns. The agreement allows Washington, Belhaven and other eastern North Carolina cities and towns to proceed with a sales agreement that should reduce electricity rates and spur economic development and job growth across the region.

“This purchase provides a private sector, market-driven solution to a major economic development obstacle we faced in eastern North Carolina,” McCrory said. “The lower electric rates this purchase should produce will save consumers money and make the region more attractive to job creators who want to take advantage of the region’s talented workforce and special quality of life.”

The $1.2 billion agreement would allow Duke Energy Progress to buy stakes in power-generation facilities now owned, in part, by the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency, which includes 32 cities and towns in eastern North Carolina. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved the agreement, however, approval by the General Assembly is needed for the agreement to take effect. The commission approved the agreement in December 2014. The N.C. Utilities Commission and federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will need to approve the agreement.

The 32 NCEMPA members and the Greenville Utilities Commission will need to vote in favor of the sale, within 90 days after legislation is passed.

The new law allows NCEMPA members to issue bonds to refinance approximately $480 million of debt after this purchase is complete. It also allows NCEMPA power agencies to enter into purchase power agreements to replace the electricity previously provided by the generation assets they are selling.

If all NCEMPA members approve the agreement and it is implemented, electric rates for the members’ power customers are expected to decline, up to 20 percent in some cases. Doug Mercer, a Washington City Council member who regularly attends NCEMPA meetings, said earlier this week he hopes the agreement will result in Washington’s power customers seeing their electric rates decrease by about 10 percent.

For many years, NCEMPA customers have paid as much as 35 percent more than power customers in other parts of the state for electricity, a result of the power agency carrying nearly $2 billion in debt for around 33 years. In 2010, the movement to do something about that debt took on new life when several NCEMPA members explored withdrawing from NCEMPA. They faced several contractual and fiscal challenges if they did so.

In Washington’s case, about 70 percent of the city’s wholesale electric bill goes toward retiring the city’s share of that debt, according to city officials.