Letter to the Editor from NC WARN Executive Director Jim Warren
The author of “Cooper should crack down on Duke Energy’s hazards” (Nov. 29) was courageous in calling out Duke Energy’s hazardous practices and stranglehold on our democracy. The third leg of Duke’s business model – along with building unneeded power plants and raising rates – is spending tens of millions annually to distort and suppress debate.
Why? To avoid attention to its massive expansion of natural gas power plants and pipelines, and the venting of methane that makes “natural” gas even worse than coal in driving global climate disruption. Prodigious advertising paints Duke green, even though renewables are well under 2 percent of its Carolinas generation and will creep to only 6 percent by 2031. Solar-with-batteries for homes and businesses is beginning to surge globally because it’s becoming cheaper than grid power.
A Duke Energy official was recently quoted by Forbes admitting that battery storage will “blanket the U.S.” within five years. But Duke execs are still fighting to limit solar growth so they can build 20 gas power plants. How long will state civic and political leaders allow Duke Energy to suppress open discussion about these critical decisions? Every news outlet should be scrutinizing Duke’s role in making the climate crisis worse and explore the solar-battery approach that could economically replace coal and natural gas within a few years. NC WARN joins Appalachian Voices in calling for Gov. Roy Cooper to stand up to Duke’s “corporate charlatans,” block the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and move forward with cheaper, reliable clean energy solutions.
Read on the N&O website, along with Duke Energy’s response and a letter from former NC WARN board chair Alice Loyd.
