An 8 year-old girl rants against fracked gas and for clean energy as Forbes, Wall Street Journal, others tell of surging U.S. market for home and commercial battery storage
Statement by Director Jim Warren:
Durham, NC – “What is this – the 20th Century?!” That’s a key line in a major statewide campaign using a 30-second TV ad to promote climate protection through a feasible and rapid shift to clean energy.
The ad, produced for NC WARN, began today during TV newscasts in all major markets, and a version appears on news websites statewide. It’s part of a new campaign promoting a statewide strategy – NC Clean Path 2025 – to rapidly replace coal and natural gas with local solar power and battery storage.
The 8 year-old star of the ad is a Duke Energy stockholder “infuriated” by the corporation’s massive expansion of burning fracked natural gas even as solar-with-batteries for home and business use are beginning to surge across the U.S. That surge is the subject of new reports by the Wall Street Journal and Forbes Magazine. Business Insider details ten major battery manufacturers moving into the marketplace.
Saturday’s Forbes article quotes a Duke Energy executive saying batteries will blanket the U.S. in five years, which will dramatically challenge Duke’s own business model. His statement runs counter to the utility’s 15-year Carolinas plan to minimize solar power and batteries while spending tens of billions building 20 gas-fired plants, a massive, controversial pipeline and grid expansions.
That old corporate thinking worries the 8 year-old, whose grandfather gave her some Duke Energy stock.
NC WARN raised private donations to go straight to the public to show that solar and battery storage are surging, while Duke Energy is stuck in the past by expanding natural gas and continuing a heavy reliance on coal – at the very time climate scientists warn vigorously that we must quickly shift away from fossil fuels.
The NC Clean Path 2025 strategy – crafted by San Diego engineer Bill Powers – shows how local solar power (generated near its use) combined with battery storage can replace coal and gas-fired power statewide – quickly, cheaply and reliably. NC WARN is already working in various counties to put the plan into action and to persuade Duke Energy to help slow climate change – and protect its own stockholders.
Of Duke Energy, the little girl closes: “They’re wrecking the climate – and my portfolio!”