Tell Gov Stein to rein in Duke Energy!
Take ActionDuke Energy and others in the energy industry consistently use deceptive public relations – and millions of customer dollars – to distort the debate over important decisions. Duke’s control over NC state government is significant. We must face this “inconvenient truth” in order to make the shift to clean, safe energy. This corporate influence has, in the words of Dr. James Hansen, wounded our democracy.
Particularly egregious are efforts by Duke, the Koch brothers and other industry powers to slow the growth of solar energy and, in North Carolina, to prevent competition from third-party providers of no-upfront-cost solar deals that put solar energy within reach of many more homeowners and businesses. Another good example of corporate power is the passage in some states of Construction Work in Progress laws that allow utilities to charge customers in advance for building expensive new plants that aren’t even needed.
In 2015, Duke Energy, the Koch Brothers and others successfully kept the Energy Freedom bill bottled up in committee at the NC legislature. The bill would have opened up NC to third-party solar deals. Read about our 2015 Duke Hates Solar campaign in support of the bill.
Read about our Solar Freedom project at Faith Community Church in Greensboro — a test case in the state’s ban on third-party sales of electricity.
Direct Appeals for Dialogue with Duke Energy
NC WARN has repeatedly reached out to Duke Energy executives, seeking to collaborate with them on moving away from obstructionism and toward a clean energy future. A few examples are listed here.
This N&O editorial is consistent with NC WARN’s view: that Duke Energy is not doing enough to promote solar power.
There’s good news for alternative energy and northeastern North Carolina in the announcement that Duke Energy Renewables will build a massive solar energy project in Pasquotank County. But this sunny story also casts a shadow.
NC WARN has filed expert testimony in a state regulatory proceeding where Duke Energy is seeking to reduce the amount paid to large-scale providers of solar electricity. We are urging the NC Utilities Commission to open a separate docket in which all stakeholders can benefit from ongoing “value of solar” cases currently in play around the U.S.
Op-Ed by Jim Warren and Jon Sanders. What would inspire a prominent free-market nonprofit and an assertive environmental nonprofit to join forces in a very public way? Mutual concern over policies that keep the cost of a basic household necessity higher than it ought to be – not a luxury good, but something no family should be without.
Wouldn’t North Carolina be better off, and have lower electricity rates, if we allowed competition in the market and stopped protecting Duke’s monopoly? NC WARN and the John Locke Foundation, two groups vastly different in their political philosophies, have been asking that question of each other, each believing the answer to be yes.
In a state where economic, energy and environmental concerns grow more intensely intertwined, the assertive environmental nonprofit group NC WARN is working with the conservative nonprofit John Locke Foundation to sponsor two public forums calling for increased competition in the electricity market.
