The N.C. Utilities Commission has approved Duke Energy’s $4.9 billion purchase of Piedmont Natural Gas, clearing the way for the deal to close early next week. The commission ruled Thursday “the known and potential benefits of the merger are sufficient to offset the potential costs and risks.”
Duke Energy & State Regulators
NC WARN regularly challenges Duke Energy to make a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and energy efficiency. We intervene at the NC Utilities Commission in cases involving Duke’s rate increases and 15-year Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs). And we have repeatedly reached out directly to the corporation’s executives, seeking to collaborate with them on finding ways to avert climate catastrophe. A few examples are listed here.
Related:
- Check out the new coalition: Energy Justice NC: End the Duke Monopoly
- Duke Energy page on Energy & Policy Institute website
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Enormous Stakes — The News & Observer
Letter to the Editor by Jim Warren. We’re asking the NC Court of Appeals to require an open, careful debate over Duke’s project. If Duke Energy is so uncertain about its case for the plant, its shareholders should bear any risks of proceeding with construction. And we’ll continue speaking out when state officials favor Duke Energy instead of the public interest.
Exposing Duke Energy’s Fiction: Actual Growth Rate is Three Times Lower than Estimates Used to Argue for New Plants over the Years — News Release from NC WARN
Don’t Buy Duke Energy Deception on Emissions — News Release from NC WARN
Duke Energy is telling the news media it is already on track to meet carbon reduction targets in the new EPA Clean Power Plan, which calls for 32 percent lower emissions from electric power plants by 2030. This is countered by available data and appears to be a dangerous fiction – more greenwashing of the corporate image.
Regulatory Contortion allows Duke, others to gouge customers — News Release from NC WARN
Despite huge amounts of excess power generation capacity on hand now and for decades to come – and dozens of large power plants sitting idle most of the year – protected monopoly utilities across the southeast keep building more plants instead of buying power from each other as federal regulators have urged.
Long-Range Plan Talking Points — NC WARN
A Responsible Energy Future Update – Report from NC WARN
If the [NC Utilities] Commission approves Duke’s latest 15-year plan, filed last October, it approves a status quo threatening to bankrupt North Carolina’s economy and continue polluting our air and water.
NC WARN proposes an alternative, responsible energy plan that would phase out all existing coal-burning power plants and eliminate the need for new power plants, replacing them with energy efficiency, solar energy, combined heat and power (CHP), and other forms of distributed generation, along with strategic purchases from other utilities in the Southeast.
View entire report here
Duke Energy, NC WARN Trade Legal Blows in Federal Complaint Over Southeast Power Glut — News Release from NC WARN
Duke Energy’s response to NC WARN’s December complaint about a regional over-supply of electricity capacity has inadvertently enhanced our call for an investigation to determine how many billions of dollars are being wasted across the Southeast. Duke grossly distorted NC WARN’s position in several ways but, in doing so, emphasized the lack of publicly available data needed to understand how much money could be saved through regional sharing of electricity.
N.C. Supreme Court upholds Duke Energy’s 5.1% rate hike — Charlotte Business Journal
The N.C. Supreme Court has upheld the most recent Duke Energy Carolinas rate increase, ruling in the last of a spate of challenges to Duke utility rate cases filed by the N.C. Attorney General’s office and advocacy groups….NC WARN Executive Director Jim Warren responded that the decision amounts to the court allowing Duke “to continue rigging electricity rates against small customers.”