Watchdog group tells NC Governor to walk his talk, stop a leading climate polluter from expanding fossil fuels and suppressing renewables
The North Carolina state motto is “To be, rather than to seem.” But Governor Roy Cooper continues to support a years-long pretense that Duke Energy is transitioning to a climate-protective future.
As NC WARN told Cooper in an open letter today, while he boasts that North Carolina is on the right track, he keeps siding with Duke Energy’s pro-carbon, deceptive efforts that are making the climate crisis worse by expanding fossil fuels while suppressing clean energy solutions.
Key elements of the letter challenging the corporate-government greenwashing:
- Cooper must side with the solar companies, climate scientists and thousands of North Carolinians pressing for true action – instead of Duke Energy’s leaders.
- His action could provide hope to people devastated by climate disasters and fearing worse to come. Thousands of North Carolinians are still out of their homes due to past hurricanes.
- Duke’s latest Pro-Carbon Plan forecasts dozens of new, fracked gas-fired power units and suppression of cheaper, quick, genuine solutions such as local solar-plus-storage.
- The governor’s utilities commission has long helped Duke prevent even a fair discussion over its years-long suppression of alternatives and competition to its monopoly-driven practices.
- Duke leaders are heading into years of controversy by targeting low-income communities for $10 billion in unneeded high-voltage power lines and corridors.
As we told Cooper, “NC WARN would very much prefer to hail your actions.” But the climate crisis is a hyper-emergency that requires truth-telling and actions that actually can help avert climate-social-economic chaos. The letter lists a number of specific actions Cooper could take.
… “Meanwhile, we are redoubling our call for all North Carolinians to press for your genuine leadership at this most urgent time.”
… “This challenge comes at a pivotal juncture: Will North Carolina ever actually shift toward climate protection, or remain under the spell of Duke Energy greenwashing, which the Governor continues to support despite Duke’s massive expansion of fossil fuels?”
The world is starving for genuine climate leadership. We urge the news media to report on the disconnect between the governor’s talk and his walk.
